The convicted founder of hydrogen and electric-powered truck maker Nikola begged for leniency at his chaotic sentencing hearing Monday — only to get handed four years in prison for swindling investors out of $600 million.
Trevor Milton, 41, went on a bizarre rant in a Manhattan courtroom to convince the judge to grant him probation, claiming to be a quarter Cherokee and that he had his arm cut off while living in poverty in Brazil.
“My mother told me how beautiful Heaven is, she’d visited,” said Milton, whose company famously ran a commercial showing a Nikola truck with a defective motor rolling down a hill while pretending it was “fully operational.”
“My mother said there are colors in heaven that don’t exist on Earth.”
He told the US District Judge Edgar Ramos that “the process of repentance can take thousands of years on the other side.”
“It is called Hell,” he said in comments first reported by independent journalist Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press..
Milton also compared himself to boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, who spent nearly 20 years in prison for a murder that he did not commit.
Prosecutors had sought an 11-year prison sentence for Milton, which would have been on par with the punishment meted out to disgraced Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes.
Milton was accused of misleading investors by stating that Nikola had built a pickup from the “ground up,” that it had developed its own batteries even though he knew it was buying them, and that it had early success creating a “Nikola One” semi-truck that he knew did not work.
Ramos was not swayed in dishing out the four-year sentence, blaming Milton for making statements about the company that he knew were false.
“As difficult as it may be for you or your family to hear, I believe the jury got it right,” Ramos said.
The judge allowed Milton to remain free on bail while he appeals his conviction.
Milton’s lawyers had said he should get probation, arguing that any misstatements resulted from his “deeply-held optimism” in his Phoenix-based company, and that Holmes’ case was different because her lies put people at medical risk.
Milton spoke at length before he was sentenced, quoting Bible verses and talking about his family and rural upbringing.
He told Ramos a sentence of probation would allow him to spend time with his wife as she recovers from illness.
“I did not intend to harm anyone and I did not commit those crimes levied against me,” Milton said.
The judge agreed that Holmes’ case was different from Milton’s because Theranos marketed faulty technology that affected people’s health.
But Ramos did not accept Milton’s explanation that he spoke with enthusiasm and did not intend to harm investors.
“The law does not grant a pass for good intentions,” he said.
Milton was convicted in October 2022 on one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud, and acquitted on an additional securities fraud count.
Nikola in 2021 agreed to pay $125 million to settle civil charges brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company’s shares now trade for less than $1, down from a peak of higher than $60 in June 2020.
With Post wires
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