NEW YORK (Reuters) -Trevor Milton, the founder of electric truck maker Nikola Corp, has been indicted on charges of making false and misleading statements to investors, the U.S. Department of Justice said on Thursday.
The indictment said that, from November 2019 to September 2020, Milton schemed to defraud investors into buying Nikola shares through statements about the company’s product and technology development.
Nikola did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Last September, Hindenburg Research said in a paper that it was short-selling Nikola stock and labelled the company a “fraud”, a charge it denied.
In February, Nikola disclosed, following a review by an outside law firm, that both it and Milton had made several statements that were partially or completely inaccurate.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
