All language subtitles for American Greed s15e08 Chasing Tesla

You're watching CNBC On Demand.

In this episode of American Greed, the
promise of green energy gone bad.

Welcome to Nikola in Phoenix, Arizona.

The founder of Nikola Motors, Trevor
Milton, is front and center with flashy

promotions that put him in the
crosshairs of prosecutors.

And when he unveils his all -electric
truck.

Oh, that thing is so awesome.

Milton says it will change the world.
His message was, we are the future.

targeting the second largest polluting
industry in the world, the trucking

industry.

American greed goes inside what
prosecutors allege is a crime that

plain sight.

Tesla's just really just following in
our footsteps.

Trevor Milton targets young, naive
investors who are looking for the next

energy guru.

Your stock price is moving really fast.

I mean, the idea is that, you know, I
don't really, that's why I didn't even

know the number. I don't even really
watch the stock price that much. He

like the next Elon Musk at an earlier
stage where I could jump in at an early

stage. But does Milton have the goods?

You're going to see that this is a real
truck. This is not a pusher. You're

going to see the real badger. It's real.

American greed pulls back the curtain on
clean energy technology that the feds

say is full of hot air.

Milton brazenly and repeatedly made
false and misleading claims.

about the status of nuclear technology.

We're under $4 right now a kilogram for
hydrogen. An order yesterday was over

$30 million to produce over 40 ,000
kilograms of hydrogen.

I mean, I hear hydrogen and I think of,
of course, the old Hindenburg, and I get

a little bit scared.

It's a prophetic statement, because
later, a lawyer representing

together with a financial research
company named after the Hindenburg

will take aim at Milton's high -flying,
hydrogen -powered dream.

54 miles southwest of Salt Lake City,
this lost highway becomes the perfect

place to stage a key scene in an alleged
multi -billion dollar fraud.

With no witnesses, at least no human
witnesses, Trevor Milton creates

a film, according to prosecutors, that
helps put him on the map as the next

Musk. a billionaire pioneer in electric
vehicles and renewable energy.

And you're basically the next Elon Musk.
Do you like that?

I like to think about the fact that I'm
Trevor.

From the deserts of Utah, an epic about
a man, a dream, and people all too

willing to believe a mirage.

The star of the drama, Trevor Milton,
grows up in Kanab, Utah, a little

in a box canyon.

Kanab is a super unique place, a western
classic, and a lot of films made here,

a lot of movies.

Its red rocks are the perfect backdrop
for stars from John Wayne to Ronald

Reagan to Clint Eastwood.

Though Trevor Milton will one day make
his name, too, There's little to

future success, according to Tim
Clarkson, who grows up next door to

I specifically remember times where, you
know, he was kind of down, like people

teasing him or picking on him a little
bit.

In a Friday night light kind of town,
Milton is a quiet, nerdy tinkerer

on computers, according to Clarkson.
Going out for the wrestling team doesn't

help.

Definitely, that was not a strong suit.

In wrestling, obviously, you can win,
lose, get pinned, and I remember he got

pinned a lot.

Eventually, the Miltons leave Kanab, and
Tim Clarkson doesn't think much about

Trevor again until years later when he
learns Milton is a billionaire.

And I thought, wow, that's, it was
fascinating because I thought, who would

known?

After just one semester of college,
Trevor Milton drops out and moves to St.

George, Utah.

A building boom is in full swing, and
the 19 -year -old sees opportunities

selling home alarm systems.

Milton found St. George security and
alarms and hustles.

The quiet kid from Kanab is now a high
-energy entrepreneur.

He was very charismatic. He was
definitely a salesperson.

After a couple of years of building the
company, Milton is ready to sell it and

pursue bigger dreams.

Tammy and Glenn Pills agree to buy the
company for just under $800 ,000 with

$300 ,000 down.

And we're not crazy rich people, so this
was pretty much everything.

The parties agree on a sale price based
in part on the alarm company's accounts

receivable, money owed from customers.

But as soon as they're handed the keys,
Glenn and Tammy say they have trouble

collecting.

That's because Milton has told some
customers to make their checks payable

him, not the company.

So what his bookkeeper has marked as
accounts receivable have already been

to Trevor Milton.

And Glenn and Tammy have bought a pile
of worthless IOUs.

And as you start seeing more and more of
these, you're thinking, these aren't

mistakes.

Trevor kind of became unavailable.

He was very hard to get a hold of.

Milton declined American Greed's request
for comment.

Not long after the discovery, the
housing bubble bursts, ushering in the

Recession.

Customers cancel their home security
systems to save money.

It definitely hit home some months. It
was like, how can we afford to pay this

and make our payroll this month? Or how
can we pay ourselves?

Ultimately, they have no choice but to
declare bankruptcy and walk away from

business.

Crazy stressful, obviously, so we didn't
have the money to make the house

payment, so we ended up moving out of
that house.

I mean, the home that we purchased in
St. George, because we bought this

business, we bought our dream home.

This was the house I wanted my grandkids
to come to.

And we...

Had to let it all go.

Trevor Milton, however, is moving on. He
starts a company called Upillar.

Upillar .com, is that? It just doesn't
make sense.

It's an online marketplace for
secondhand stuff.

Milton has bold ambitions. He buys
expensive ad time on the nationally

syndicated Glenn Beck Show.

Milton, seen here on the right, touts
the connection with Beck on Upiller's

Flickr page.

And when Doritos launches a competition
to create a Super Bowl ad, Milton is all

in. He himself appears in the bit.
That's him on the left, getting attacked

Sasquatch because he doesn't have
Doritos.

He wants a drink, big fella.

Despite his aspirations,

a former web designer for UPillar says
it has many technical failures and never

makes money. And that's when Milton
makes a big pivot.

Tyler Satterfield runs a company called
Epic Motorsports in St. George.

And one of his most enthusiastic
customers is Trevor Milton.

He rides dune buggies and dirt bikes.

and hires Satterfield to modify them to
go faster.

Hey, this just doesn't quite have enough
power. What can we do?

Hey, let's do intake. Let's do a pipe.

Let's throw nitrous at it.

Knowing Satterfield is handy with a
wrench, Milton taps him to do research

development on his latest idea, a
company he calls D -Hybrid.

which aims to convert trucks to run on
both diesel and natural gas, which is

less expensive.

You can bring your fuel costs in half,
and that was the idea, was to save

money on their fuel.

Another former employee tells American
Greed that dehybrid was a, quote, show.

Satterfield is more nuanced.

He says the young man with a need for
speed makes promises to customers that

production team cannot deliver.

I'm like, oh, you know, wait a minute.
Those are still in the paint booth. And

by the time that paint dries and we only
have a few, it wasn't realistic.

So unrealistic that D -Hybrid is plagued
by lawsuits.

Despite ongoing litigation, Milton finds
someone willing to give him $16 million

for the company.

Milton has made off like a bandit.

But Glenn and Tammy Pills say they are
still recovering from their dealings

him.

To make ends meet, Tammy has taken a job
as a cashier at a Walmart in St.

George.

where Milton still lives.

He had come through my line. I was
working.

At that point, I still had a lot of
anger.

I was still, do you know what you did to
me? Do you know what you did to my

family?

Tammy would like to go full Sasquatch.

I probably wanted to punch him, but
because I was working, I didn't.

I didn't punch him.

Milton leaves this awkward encounter and
the town of St. George $16 million

richer. He moves to Salt Lake City with
his biggest dream yet, by far.

A trucking startup that claims to be the
next Tesla.

A company that came out of a basement,
built the most advanced semi -truck the

world has ever seen.

Up next, Milton raises money from
friends.

who go all in. This was every dollar I
ever had. But I just saw that, you know,

transportation, energy, and technology
all in one, and so I wanted to be a part

of it.

And later, the shocking truth of
Milton's demonstration in the desert.

Trevor Milton moves to Salt Lake City,
flush with cash from his sale of D

-Hybrid.

No longer a picked -on kid, he's now the
big man, or at least plays the role by

taking 30 friends to Hawaii at his
expense.

For his birthday, we went 30 of us out
to Hawaii.

Jimmy Rex is a friend of Milton who will
later have him on his podcast.

It was like the beginning, we had a
little bit of a weird start, but then it

like one of the funnest weeks of my
entire life.

And that was when I think me and you
really, especially me and you, really

connected within Hawaii.

Jimmy, says Trevor, that's him in the
pink shorts leaning on the rock, barely

knows half the people on the trip, but
clearly has money to spend and wants to

expand his circle of friends.

And so he put us in charge of finding a
bunch of cute girls to go with.

And so, yeah, we all ended up going to
Hawaii for a week for his birthday.

Once in Maui, they go for a hike.

Halfway through the hike, and I'm like,
where's Trevor?

And we'd left him.

From his condo, Jimmy says, Milton sends
an angry group text.

So it's like, you know, screw you guys,
you just used me for this trip, I'm

going home, I don't even care what you
do, enjoy my house, enjoy my trip kind

thing.

Jimmy says he calls Trevor and explains
that he too was once abandoned by

friends. So he did call me, and I told
him my story, and we really had this

heart -to -heart connection talk.

I said, you got a choice, dude, you can
go home and be pissed, and you know

what, you have every right.

Or you can see this as a
misunderstanding, come back, enjoy the

some amazing friends going forward.

That's when I would say he and I really
became friends.

The trip is salvaged.

And then, a few months later, Jimmy
hears about Trevor's latest startup.

He calls it Nikola.

The name is inspired by the inventor
Nikola Tesla.

Coincidentally, of course.

What's that they say about great minds?

But unlike Tesla's battery -powered
cars, Milton says Nikola will make

fuel cell semi -trucks.

I recognized that it was technology,
transportation, and energy all in one.

And I was like, do you have to let me
invest? You know, and he said, well, you

know, the minimum would have to be a
half a million dollars to even make it

worth my while.

Jimmy is so gung -ho, he ignores the
time -honored advice against putting all

your eggs in one basket.

He scrounges for every dollar in his
accounts.

and comes up just a little bit shy.

I ended up borrowing the last 70 grand
from a buddy to be able to put in the

full 500 grand. This was every dollar I
ever had, plus 70 grand of my other

buddy's money.

With seed money from Jimmy, Milton, and
four other individuals, Milton toils to

get Nikola off the ground.

In a video he will later post on
YouTube, Milton portrays himself a bit

Steve Jobs starting Apple in a garage.

And I'm excited to show you where this
all began.

Nikola was founded truly in a basement,
a lot like some of the best companies in

the world that have been established.

If you would have been back in 2015 to
see this, we had computers through my

entire basement, through my kitchen, and
through my living room.

It's a good thing at that time I was not
married.

But if prosecutors are right, the best
analogy isn't Steve Jobs and Apple, but

Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. And just
like Holmes, Milton even calls this

quiet period stealth mode.

CNBC reporter Phil LeBeau says Milton
realizes there's a huge appetite for

-emission trucks.

Because diesels are major emitters of
greenhouse gases and other pollutants.

This was a very appealing story right
from the get -go. When you look at the

possibilities of semi -fleets cutting
their emissions and being more cost

-effective, there's a ton of companies
that would look at a truck hydrogen

-powered and say, we want a piece of
that.

And then, in December 2016, Milton and
Nikola proudly say, Goodbye,

stealth mode.

Hello, world.

It's a huge event. The unveiling of the
Nikola One, a truck that Milton says

changes everything.

Oh, that thing is so awesome.

Oh, we've been waiting so long to show
this to the world. We have no idea. It's

hard to even contain my emotion about
this.

In this video, which will later become
central to the case against him, Milton

says the Nikola One is fully functional.

I really want you to look at that truck.

The cab itself, like I said, you'll be
able to go inside. We have a little

on the front to keep people from hitting
the controls because they do work.

But you will be able to see all the
screens actually lit up and working,

is awesome.

And this truck will come to market. I
can promise you that. It's my pleasure

actually let you guys enjoy the night,
see the truck, know it's real, touch it,

feel how sturdy it is.

You're going to see that this is a real
truck. This is not a pusher. A pusher is

the type of vehicle that you would see
maybe at an auto show where they push it

onto a stage because it doesn't have a
fully functioning engine.

Not a pusher.

It's a clear, simple statement said
boldly before a live audience.

and will later come back to haunt him.

You're going to see that this is a real
truck. This is not a pusher.

Thank you so much, everyone. I
appreciate it. Thank you.

Up next, you're pulling a load.

He looked like the next Elon Musk at an
earlier stage where I could jump in at

an early stage.

Boy, if I could have bought Tesla at $5
a share, look how rich I'd be right now.

See what happens when Milton takes his
pitch to small investors.

In January 2018,

Trevor Milton logs on to Twitter and
shares a video.

The Nikola One in motion on the open
road. With the swelling music of an

movie, it's sold as a triumph, a game
changer.

They're having all these demonstrations
on YouTube and Twitter about how great

their technology is going to be. They
keep talking so highly of it.

And then you look at it and say, wow,
this company has it.

Danny Jimenez is an Army veteran with a
master's degree in public health.

Despite a six -figure income, he says he
can't afford a house where he lives in

Hawaii.

Like other millennials, Jimenez blames
an economic triple whammy.

The Great Recession, student debt, and
to top it all off, the pandemic.

The appreciation of housing keeps
skyrocketing. I just can't catch up.

So Jimenez uses online trading platforms
to swing for the fences.

Hopefully pick and choose and find the
right ones and go all in, as they say,

and then try to fly to the moon. So I'm
still hoping to get that one big hit so

I can finally achieve that American
dream.

A big hit like Tesla Motors.

Someone who invested $10 ,000 into Tesla
when it first went public would now be

a millionaire.

Value X Jeff Ubbin thinks he's found the
next Tesla with Nikola Motors.

What's up, guys?

I want to get in on the next Tesla.

I'm just saying, Nikola Motors. Nikola
is the leader in both electric and

hydrogen, but different than Tesla. And
you can tell by Trevor Milton in his

interview, he'd be saying.

We're Tesla's competitor or we're the
next Tesla or whatever. But Nikola is

pioneer in heavy -duty trucking, and
Tesla's just really just following in

footsteps. So he wanted the comparison
to be made.

And I think that's why people are
excited to invest, is because it's like

of getting in early on, or way early on,
on Tesla. His message was, we've got

the technology, it will work, you want
to be a part of Nikola.

And Danny Jimenez gets his shot at the
American dream in March 2020.

That's when Nikola announces plans to go
public through a SPAC, Special Purpose

Acquisition Company, also known as a
blank check company.

A traditional IPO strictly enforces a
quiet period, putting a muzzle on top

executives for several months.

But a SPAC has far fewer restrictions.

And according to securities lawyer
Jeffrey Block, who is suing Milton,

Milton has an open mic.

So for him, this was fantastic.

He had no quiet period. He can go out
and hype this stock, and he got

his cult, pumped up and ready to buy in.

And at the time, there was so much
frenzy around clean energy

that he sold the perfect message at the
perfect time, and investors gobbled it

up.

Oddly enough, the beginning of the
pandemic is the perfect time for Milton

make hay.

Many young tech savvy investors are
stuck at home, bored.

A stimulus check in one hand, Robin Hood
in the other.

If you're sitting at home during the
pandemic, you see a tweet from Trevor

Milton hyping something about the
company.

You go look and you see the stock prices
going up and you say, oh, I should get

in on that, too.

a couple of clicks on your phone, and
you've invested.

Jimenez is one of the millions who
clicks buy, and Nikola's stock

Trevor Milton has a lock -in period of
six months where he can't sell his

shares, but he's now a billionaire
several times over.

Milton enlists his friend, real estate
agent Jimmy Rex, to search for a dream

home.

What did you think of that last house?

I loved it, dude. It's amazing.

The two bros strike gold in the
mountains east of Park City.

I mean, it was a beautiful house right
up in the canyon.

The real value of the property was 2
,600 acres.

The house itself was, you know, probably
a... Five, six million dollar house, I

don't know. But it was right on the
river and included all the land with it.

ultimately he ended up closing on that.
The final number was thirty two and a

half million dollars, which at that time
was the most expensive home ever sold

on the MLS here in Utah.

The people who knew Milton back when are
stunned.

Wow. Billionaire. Crazy.

Wouldn't it surprise you if some guy
that you knew when he was 24 years old

all of a sudden.

He's worth $8 billion.

Well, if he's got billions, where's my
$300 back?

I was like, huh, that's cool.

There's proof that anybody can make it,
I guess.

Up next, Milton's purchase of that $32
million spread is a triggering event for

someone who decides now's the time to
drop a dime.

Clearly, he was very successful now, and
yet they had...

Kind of been screwed by him.

For most people, the summer of 2020 is
by turns scary, sad, and

slow. But for Nikola Motors, it's boom
time.

It seems like Trevor Milton is
everywhere.

In 2020, he tweeted well over 2 ,000
times. He says he's going

to put diesel out of business.

Investors are rewarding people out there
right now that are changing the world,

reducing emissions.

And I think Nikola...

Nikola is a unique company because we're
targeting the second largest polluting

industry in the world, the trucking
industry.

And I hope that's one area where we can
find common ground and we can say, you

know what, let's go after the diesel
community. Let's really shut this thing

down. But it's not just big rigs. Milton
says he's going to conquer the highly

lucrative consumer market of pickup
trucks when he unveils the Badger.

It's a zero emission pickup truck that
runs off batteries and fuel cells.

Nikola finally allows people to make
paid reservations for the Nikola Badger.

It's the coolest electric pickup truck
the world's ever seen.

Investors like what they hear.

The stock photos they had of the Badger
looked really cool, looked aggressive,

looked fun to drive.

And Jimmy Rex's half -million -dollar
bet on a company born in a basement has

paid off.

The day it skyrocketed, and every time I
looked at my phone, I'd made a million

bucks. That day, my valuation, just the
part that I still owned, was worth over

$30 million at one point.

It's a heady feeling, but unfortunately,
there's a chasm between market value

and reality.

My clients knew Trevor Milton.

They had dealt with him in various
capacities in the past.

Mark Pugsley is a lawyer specializing in
securities fraud.

Among his clients are former co -workers
of Trevor Milton, who are bothered by

his public statements.

Anheuser -Busch placed a large order,
$800 million order with Nikola.

We're about ready to announce some
orders many times bigger than that. And

produce hydrogen 24 hours a day with
over $30 million to produce over 40 ,000

kilograms of hydrogen.

And they knew that he was the guy that
would say or do anything to close the

deal.

For a long time, they've kept quiet.

But everyone has a breaking point.

One of the things that really had
angered them is that Trevor Milton had

purchased the most expensive ranch in
the history of our state.

So they called Pudley and filed for
whistleblower status.

The consistent theme that I heard from
my clients was that they just knew that

he didn't have the ability to execute on
the kind of promises that they saw that

he was making.

Welcome, Trevor, and thank you so much
for joining me today.

Take the claim that Nikola is really an
energy company.

We're not really a trucking
manufacturer.

We are. We build really cool stuff.

But we're actually an energy company is
what we truly are. He says its secret

sauce is its nationwide network of
hydrogen refueling stations.

Where do you see the biggest leverage?

It's all in the hydrogen. We're under $4
right now a kilogram for hydrogen. So

we've got the largest hydrogen station
in the Western world already operational

in Phoenix, Arizona.

Nikola, he says, has figured out a way
to slash the cost of producing hydrogen.

When we first started, hydrogen was $16
a kilogram.

We can now produce it for well under $4
a kilogram.

If this is true, it would be a major
scientific breakthrough.

Pugsley and his team, working with a New
York financial firm called Hindenburg

Research, are skeptical.

Hindenburg, which alludes to high
-flying disasters in the making, is a

seller that would profit if Nikola's
stock drops.

Their skepticism stems in part from the
people Milton has put in top positions.

Milton has touted his employees'
brilliance.

One of the things that's hard to do in
the world is recruit really good talent.

And at Nikola, we've been very lucky.
We've got some of the best talent in the

world.

But Pugsley and Hindenburg find Nikola
executives that they believe fly in the

face of that statement.

The most egregious, in their opinion, is
Trevor Milton's brother, Travis,

seen here in photos from a client's
website.

Just before being handed the reins
overseeing hydrogen production at

brother Travis was pouring concrete in
Hawaii.

So he went from concrete contractor in
Hawaii to a very technical position at

the company with zero background in that
area.

As if cracking one of the toughest
scientific nuts of our time isn't

Milton also puts out promo videos
claiming Nicholas hydrogen is 100 %

green, produced from electricity from
solar panels on the roof of its

headquarters.

which it has moved to Phoenix.

We actually make all of our own hydrogen
out of our solar wind or hydro. We have

3 .5 megawatts of solar up on the roof,
producing about 18 megawatts of energy a

day in our headquarters.

Our company is truly one of the most
innovative companies in the world.

You know how hard it was to find out
that that wasn't true? We used Google

to look at the building that the company
was housed in and saw that there were

no solar panels on the top of that
building.

So it was one of those lies where you're
like, It doesn't even sound real

because there's no way you would ever
get away with that. The number of lies,

we're just stacking up and stacking up.

Up next, not a pusher?

Is it the biggest lie of all?

Want more greed?

Follow us on Instagram.

Connect on Facebook.

And listen to the American Greed podcast
wherever you get your podcast.

We'll be right back.

As Nicholas' stock price continues to
skyrocket, Trevor Milton jets off to the

Caribbean with friends, including Jimmy
Rex, who is now a multimillionaire on

paper. That summer, Trevor wanted to go.
He bought a new house in Turks and

Caicos and wanted to take a few of us to
go with him.

And on that trip, we were in the pool.
I'll never forget this. And we're in the

pool hanging out that night and just
talking about life. Dude, this is the

Tesla. We're going to hang on to this
thing forever. And he goes, you guys,

listen, you need to sell your shares as
soon as you can. And I was like, no,

man, we're going to ride this thing all
the way like Tesla.

He goes, no, you guys, I'm telling you.

He goes, I'm selling mine as soon as I
can. You need to get out of this. And I

was just like, it was shady.

Despite the warning, Jimmy holds.

And in the short term, he's rewarded.

Welcome back to Swat Box. Nikola forming
a strategic partnership with General

Motors this morning. Nikola Badger will
be on September 8th, 2020. Nikola has a

big announcement.

A little context to this. This news
caught all of us by surprise here.

News of the GM partnership pushes
Nikola's stock up even higher.

But what goes up must come down.

For Mark Pugsley, his whistleblower
clients, and Hindenburg Research, the

evidence is mounting that Nikola's
technology is not what Trevor Milton

And then they get a call.

We actually got a tip from a source in
the company that the truck in that video

was not actually moving on its own
accord.

The source says the truck has no engine.

Huxley and the whistleblowers want to
find out how these impressive -looking

shots were filmed.

My clients, who are highly technical,
found some online sources to figure out

where the skyline was in those videos,
and they traced it to a road here in

Utah.

Ten miles south of Grantsville.

a Nikola crew finds the perfect place to
stage an epic scene of corporate flim

-flam.

The road is called the Mormon Trail.

It's steeply pitched for about half a
mile and then levels out.

According to the source, a tow truck
drags the Nikola One to the top of the

hill.

Down the road, on the flat part of the
highway, A film crew sets up.

A drone is launched.

With all the cameras in place, the
director calls action and sends the

Powered by nothing but gravity, this
shell of a truck gathers a big head of

steam.

By the time it passes the film crew,
it's cruising at interstate speed.

Beautiful. Cut.

Appropriately enough, the person behind
the wheel isn't even a trucker. He was

an actor. He was a paid actor, not a
professional driver.

So it was kind of fun.

An American Greed film crew shows how
easy it is.

Okay, putting it into neutral at the top
of the hill right by the cattle guard.

Starting very slow, five miles an hour.

Slowly building speed.

20 miles an hour.

35. 40.

50.

Nikola will later put out a statement
seeming to acknowledge these

saying... Nikola described this third
-party video on the company's social

as in motion.

It was never described as under its own
propulsion or powertrain -driven.

That's deception.

If someone sees a truck rolling, they
assume it's under its own propulsion.

The story behind this video becomes a
centerpiece of the Hindenburg Report,

which drops just two days after the
announcement of the GM partnership.

Nikola shares are tumbling after a short
seller called the company, quote, an

intricate fraud built on dozens of lies.

When the Hindenburg report came out, it
was like a bomb went off on Wall Street

because they came out guns blazing.

Hindenburg corroborates an earlier
Bloomberg report about the Nikola show

2016.

Recall that at the time, Trevor Milton
said, I really want you to look at that

truck. The cab itself, like I said,
you'll be able to go inside. We have a

little chain on the front to keep people
from hitting the control because they

do work. But you will be able to see all
the screens actually lit up and

working, which is awesome. The report
says the screens light up only because

they are powered by an electric cord,
seen here in this photo, coming up from

underneath the stage.

Down below, a team of engineers is
stationed, adjusting the cord as the

revolves.

Touch it. Feel how sturdy it is.

You're going to see that this is a real
truck. This is not a pusher. And as I

read through all those, I called. I have
a couple of close buddies at Nikola's

still. And I said, dude, is this stuff
true or whatever?

And they told me, yeah, it's all true.

Like he was part of one of my buddies
even was there when they rolled the

down the hill. And I was like, Jimmy has
a flashback.

I was like, this is what he was
referring to. He knew some stuff was

Up next, Trevor Milton is pushed out of
Nikola and into a criminal courtroom.

Trevor Milton, the founder of electric
truck company Nikola, is voluntarily

stepping down as executive chairman and
giving up his... Two days after the

Hindenburg report is published, Trevor
Milton steps down from Nikola.

Good morning.

Today we announce charges against Trevor
Milton.

Twelve months later, Milton is
criminally indicted on two counts of

fraud and one count of wire fraud.

Jeffrey Block is a lawyer representing
thousands of investors who claim in a

civil suit that they were defrauded by
Milton and Nikola.

One of the things you have to show is
that they actually intended to mislead

their investors.

And in this case, I think there's no
question Trevor Milton intended to

his investors.

There was one YouTube thing he did
called the J -Mac investing show, which

right before the murder.

But we're actually an energy company,
what we truly are.

He sold the company as if they had
already accomplished what they were

do. So, for example, he said, we have
solved the problem of hydrogen.

But what Nikola solved was the economics
on the trucking. When we first started,

hydrogen was $16 a kilogram.

We can now produce it for well under $4
a kilogram. So we've got the largest

hydrogen station in the Western world
already operational in Phoenix, Arizona.

The government alleges that Nikola's
Ballyhooed hydrogen station at its

headquarters was merely dispensing
hydrogen that had been purchased

Nikola's actual hydrogen production is
zero.

Zilch. Nada.

Trevor was claiming that they were
producing 1 ,000 kilograms of hydrogen

site at their headquarters.

The truth was they weren't producing
any.

Then there's the badger.

which was greeted with fanfare when
unveiled.

You're going to see the real Badger.
It's real, and everyone gets to see that

pickup truck. It had a lot of people who
said, hey, that's a good -looking

truck. I want to see that truck.

According to the government, the Badger
was nothing more than a pretty picture.

Well, it was a drawing.

It was never a truck. It was never
built.

What's more, the government says Milton
ordered his designers to simply put a

slick facade over the base of a Ford F
-150 truck.

Ford, one of the companies he trashes.

The badger is the going after the Ford F
-150 crown that can go much further

than a Ford F -150. He is just a serial
liar that it's just so blatant and

the lies are just so incredible.

I just think he can't help himself.

And if Milton was telling all of these
lies, what was the point?

Recall that at this point, Milton has a
six -month lockup period in which he

can't sell stock.

We think what they were doing was
pumping the stock, hoping to get to the

the six months.

Stock price would be sky high, and then
they could start selling and cashing

out. So that's a classic pump and dump.
Pump the stock.

and then dump it when you're able to.

And he's able to even after he's
criminally indicted.

Milton sells $300 million worth of
Nicholas stock in the three months after

charged with securities fraud.

Forbes puts his net worth a little north
of $1 billion, far less than his $8

billion at Nicholas Peak, but much
better than his investors, who in some

cases... Lost everything, according to
Jeff Block.

We heard from some investors who were
students who took some of their tuition

money and invested because they thought
it was such a great story. They lost it.

We heard from retirees who took some of
the retirement savings and they lost it.

Former friend Jimmy Rex says, in his
opinion, the kid from Kanab is certainly

motivated by greed.

but also by a pathological need for
praise.

All he ever wanted was to fit in and be
the man, you know, and all of a sudden

he was getting all this attention,
guessing he just got caught up in his

bull.

We want to buy a second one. Once we
have it rented, we can use it. Jimmy Rex

does not consider himself a victim.

Though he lost a huge portion of his
paper millions, he's still ahead,

because he was one of the first
investors.

It's just dirty. I was a fifth of the
original money invested in what's a

-billion dollar company and walked away
with, well, let's just say it wasn't

what it would have been.