By Michael Elkins
A federal prosecutor urged jurors to convict Nikola Corp (NASDAQ:NKLA) founder Trevor Milton of fraud during closing arguments on Thursday, calling him a "con man" who lied about the low-emission vehicle company to defraud ordinary investors.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jordan Estes said Milton deceived investors about the electric truck maker's technology starting in November 2019. Milton left the company in September 2020 after a report by short seller Hindenburg Research called the company a "fraud."
"Trevor Milton is a con man," Estes said. "His lies may have been on social media, but his was an old-fashioned fraud."
Defense attorney Marc Mukasey told the jury that prosecutors had twisted Milton's statements about Nikola's plans to shake up the automotive industry.
"It's a distortion to say that Trevor Milton intended to commit fraud when the statements he made were about the Nikola business model," Mukasey said.
Though Milton sometimes "fell into the wrong grammatical tense," other executives did, too, Mukasey added.
Milton is charged with two counts of securities fraud as well as two counts of wire fraud. If convicted, he faces years in prison.
Shares of NKLA are up 1.0% near end of day trading on Thursday.