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Trevor Milton , the disgraced founder and former CEO of electrical hand truck startup Nikola , was sentenced Monday to four years in prison house for securities sham . The sentence , by Judge Edgardo Ramos in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan , crest a multi - yr saga that at one compass point sent Nikola stock soar 83 % only to issue forth crashing down months after overaccusations of fraudand canceled contract .
The sentencing hearing comes after four separate postponement , during which Milton has stay on destitute under a $ 100 million bail bond .
In his ruling , Ramos aver he would visit a sentence of 48 month on each counting , served concurrently , and a mulct of $ 1 million . Milton is expected to appeal the judgment of conviction , which Ramos acknowledged .
Milton sobbed as he pled with Judge Ramos for lenience in a recollective and often perplexing statement ahead of the sentencing . At one point , Milton said he stepped down from the CEO place at Nikola not because of fraud allegations , but to support his wife .
“ I step down because my wife was suffering alive peril malady , ” he saidin his statement , which newsperson Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press apportion on societal media postal service X. She suffered aesculapian malpractice , someone else ’s plasma . So I stepped down for that – not because I was a fraud . The truth count . I chose my married woman over money or power . ”
Milton , 41 , was convicted by a jury in October 2022 of one reckoning ofsecurities fraudand two counts of conducting wire fraud after he was institute guilty oflying to investorsabout the growth of Nikola ’s electric truck to billow the company ’s breed price .
During the sentencing hearing , defense attorneys say that Milton was n’t trying to diddle investors or intending to harm anyone . or else , they argued he simply wanted to be love and praised like Elon Musk . prosecuting officer pushed back and said he lied repeatedly and targeted retail investors .
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Federal public prosecutor recommended an 11 - class time , but Milton face a maximum terminal figure of 60 years in prison . The government also sought a $ 5 million amercement , forfeit of a ranch in Utah and an undecided amount of restitution to investors . indemnity will be determined after Monday ’s sentencing hearing .
Prosecutors in the grammatical case have accused Milton of deceive investors since 2019 by get improper statements , let in that Nikola had built a truck from the “ ground up ” and developed electric battery that were actually purchase elsewhere . There ’s alsothe ill-famed Nikola marketing videothat shows a truck appearing to drive on its own office . In realness , it was roll down a hill .
That video sparked investigating from third parties , and after a report by Hindenburg Research called the caller a fraud , Milton stepped down in September 2020 . The troupe at long last pay a$125 million penaltyin a liquidation with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission . Nikola ’s gunstock collapsed , resulting in serious red for investor , as well as the company .
Nikola ended up seeking reimbursement for the SEC liquidation and fine , and in October an arbitration panel in New York orderedMilton to pay the company $ 165 million .
Milton plead not guilty after his bill of indictment , and his lawyers have take a firm stand that there ’s no evidence that the former CEO intended to victimize investors . Any misstatement were the final result of optimism and belief in the company , they said . Last calendar month , Milton ’s lawyers saidhe should get probation , in part to care for his pain married woman .
Milton ’s sentencing is one of a pocket-size handful of eminent - profile cases require tech founder . Elizabeth Holmes , founder of Theranos , isserving an 11 - year prison house termafter she was incur guilty of victimize investors in her pedigree - examination inauguration . Sam Bankman - Fried , founder of crypto exchange FTX and crypto trading firm Alameda Research , wasfound guiltyin November on seven counts of imposter and money laundering .
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