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Investing.com-- Trevor Milton, who founded the now bankrupt Nikola Corp (OTC:NKLAQ) and was convicted of fraud for misleading investors, claimed on Thursday that he was granted a full pardon by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Milton said in a social media post and a press release that Trump had called him personally and granted him a “full and unconditional pardon.”
Investing.com could not immediately confirm Milton’s claims. The pardon was not mentioned in the White House website, or a Department of Justice catalog of presidential pardons.
Milton was sentenced to four years in prison in late-2023, after he was found guilty of misleading investors over the hydrogen technology used in Nikola’s vehicles.
Milton was also found guilty of misleading to investors over claims that he had built a pickup from the ground-up and had developed his own batteries- when he was actually buying them.
The allegations of fraud were first raised by short-seller Hindenburg, which then resulted in a DOJ investigation into Nikola. Milton had also left Nikola in 2020, shortly after the Hindenburg report.
The company declared bankruptcy just earlier this year.