• Source: Trevor Milton

Trevor Robert Milton (born April 6, 1982) is an American entrepreneur, founder, and former executive chairman of Nikola Corporation, a company focused on developing hydrogen and electric-powered commercial vehicles.
In September 2020, Milton resigned as executive chairman following investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) into allegations of securities fraud. In 2022, he was found guilty charges of securities and wire fraud and was sentenced to four years in prison along with a $1 million fine.




Early life and education


Milton was born in Layton, Utah to William "Bill" L. Milton, a manager with Union Pacific Railroad, and Sallie Gwyn Hunt Milton, a realtor. He has a brother and three sisters. The family moved to Las Vegas when Milton was a toddler and moved again to Kanab, Utah when he was eight. When he was 15 years old, his mother died from cancer.
Milton is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). After graduating high school, Milton went on a LDS mission to Brazil, where he learned to speak fluent Portuguese. However, ill health cut his mission short after 18 months. He says he dropped out of college after one semester at Utah Valley University to pursue a career in sales and marketing, although federal prosecutors say, in reality, he was expelled for "hiring others to complete his work for him."




Career


Milton started an alarm sales company called St. George Security and Alarm after leaving college and eventually exited the business for a stated $300,000, though his former business partner claims he was led to believe the exit payment was "much smaller." Milton then launched an online classified ads website selling used cars, which eventually failed.
Afterwards, Milton founded an alternative energy vehicle company called dHybrid, Inc. which retrofitted commercial trucks with engines that could run on natural gas instead of diesel. After entering into a deal with an investor for a large stake in dHybrid, Milton claimed that "the investor was taking [their] intellectual property", resulting in dHybrid Inc suing the investor and Milton closing the company. Milton then started dHybrid Systems, which was similar to the previous company except with a greater focus on building natural gas and hydrogen storage systems. According to Milton, dHybrid was purchased by Worthington Industries.
In 2015, Milton founded Nikola Motor Company with an initial investment of $2 million from Worthington. Trevor was the CEO in Nikola's early years. In June 2020, as part of a reverse merger with VectoIQ in order to have Nikola go public, Milton became executive chairman of the board and turned over the CEO role to President Mark Russell.




Allegations and trial


On September 10, 2020, two days after Nikola established ties with General Motors, short seller Hindenburg Research released a report accusing Milton of making false statements and calling the company "an intricate fraud." Following the report, Nikola’s stock price fell, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) launched investigations into securities fraud allegations involving Milton.
On September 20, 2020, Milton resigned from his position as executive chairman of Nikola Corporation. As part of his exit package, he remained an unpaid consultant to Nikola until December 2020 and was restricted from publicly commenting on Nikola without prior approval. Milton retained 91.6 million shares of Nikola, valued at approximately roughly $3.1 billion in late September 2020.
In September 2020, allegations of sexual misconduct against Milton were reported by media outlets, including CNBC and The Wall Street Journal. These claims, spanning incidents from 1999 and 2004, did not result in legal charges due to the statute of limitations. Milton has denied all allegations, describing them as unfounded and defamatory. The accusations coincided with ongoing scrutiny surrounding his tenure at Nikola Corporation.
In July 2021, a United States federal grand jury returned an indictment against Trevor Milton that included three counts of securities fraud and wire fraud. He also faced civil securities fraud charges from the SEC. Milton pleaded not guilty to the charges and was freed on $100 million bail. In June 2022, Milton was charged with an additional wire fraud charge. In October 2022, he was found guilty on one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud and sentenced to four years in prison and a $1 million fine. It is expected Milton will, after credits earned through the First Step Act and other Bureau of Prisons programming, only serve approximately one year in federal prison.




Personal life


Milton lives in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife, Chelsey Bergmann, whom he married in 2017. In November 2019, the Los Angeles Times reported that Milton had bought a 2,000-acre Utah ranch with a 16,800 square foot riverside mansion for $32.5 million. The purchase price set a new record for a home in the state. He is friends with Dave "Heavy D" Sparks.
In September 2020, Forbes assessed Milton's net worth to be at at least $3.1 billion, as he owned about 25% of Nikola, which was valued at about $12.4 billion at the time. By June 2023, the total market capitalization of Nikola had dropped to under $400 million.




References






External links


CNBC Interview: Nikola executive chairman Trevor Milton on the company's public debut
Q&A podcast with Trevor Milton, focusing on Nikola's financials and technology

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