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From The Wall Street Journal, this is Bad Bats.

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I'm benefiting. Every

0:36

great financial bubble begins with

0:38

a Mirage. Enron and WorldCom

0:40

made their stodgy businesses look sexy. lemon

0:43

brothers flew sky high on a belief

0:45

that home prices would only go up. Theranos,

0:49

dazzled investors with claims that its technology

0:51

could change the future of how care. All

0:54

of those companies collapsed when reality

0:56

intervened. A different kind

0:58

of bubble was happening in twenty twenty. There

1:00

was tons of money hunting green investments, Capital

1:03

markets were wide open to companies that hadn't sold

1:05

anything yet. As added fuel,

1:07

there were retail investors, trading at home

1:09

during the pandemic, eagerly looking

1:11

for the next stock that could fly them on rocket to

1:13

the moon. And there was Trevor Mountain,

1:16

a man with promise. I'm gonna build

1:18

this company become the most valuable trucking company

1:20

in the world, one of the most valuable brands in the

1:22

world, one of the top, you know, maybe five

1:24

or ten greatest growth stories in American history

1:26

because I know what's coming. Trevor captivated

1:29

investors large and small, and the

1:31

moment quickly made him very, very rich.

1:33

When Nicholas stock was at its peak, he was

1:36

on the Forbes list of the richest American But

1:38

moments pass, the bubble bursts.

1:41

And sometimes, there are consequences.

1:44

Billionaire tycoon who promised to revolutionize

1:46

the truck industry with the likes of social

1:49

media platform and TV appearances

1:51

to inflate

1:51

his cholesterol. now a trial in New York.

1:53

He's charged with lying about the company's products

1:55

to mislead investors and prop up Instead

1:57

of becoming an icon of the electric vehicle

1:59

revolution, Trevor Milton became an icon

2:02

for the excesses of the frenzied markets

2:04

of twenty twenty. when Nicolas shares doubled

2:06

in value in a single day. And

2:08

this September, he went to trial on

2:10

four counts of fraud.

2:12

I am I am

2:14

a rolling tape, as they say,

2:17

in the biz. And

2:19

I'm here on the steps. of

2:21

the southern district court in Lower

2:23

Manhattan. I was there at the courthouse

2:25

covering the trial. And on the first day of

2:27

testimony, many of the people I've met while reporting

2:30

this story. the short seller, Nate Anderson,

2:32

and the whistleblower lawyer. I'm out here with Mike

2:34

Pugsley. Hey. His clients. I'm

2:36

out here with Paul Ackey. Hello?

2:38

With Mike Shout. Hi. The four

2:41

of them had spent months working together on the Hindenburg

2:43

report, but all that work had been remote

2:45

they said, a marathon of signal chat threads

2:47

and calls. And now for

2:49

the first time, they were meeting in person.

2:51

Here's Mike. I always just kinda

2:53

thought of us as pin pals.

2:56

you know. It's like meeting your pen pal after.

2:58

It's like a digital pen pal. Like, I feel

3:00

like he's an old army buddy or something. We've been

3:02

through a lot of stuff, but we haven't actually

3:04

met until a couple days ago. We were

3:06

talking standing on the steps of the famous Thurgid

3:08

Marshall US courthouse. Then

3:10

Mark pointed out the Trevor was down the block

3:12

looking at us. look towards

3:14

me like how Trevor's looking at you. Oh,

3:16

really? Okay. Yeah. That's cool.

3:18

That's interesting. So I got Trevor giving me the

3:20

stink eyebright behind my back right now.

3:23

They could Then Trevor walked past with his lawyers.

3:25

And I asked if he'd do an interview. any?

3:27

They declined. No press. Before,

3:30

during and after the trial, We sent

3:32

summaries of our reporting and questions to Trevor's

3:34

lawyers and PR reps. They never

3:36

answered our questions, but one of his lawyers

3:38

said we had, quote, inaccurately reported

3:40

on numerous aspects of mister Milton's life

3:43

without giving us any specifics.

3:46

So Trevor cited this story. He's been something I've been

3:48

left a piece together on my own.

3:50

Not long after the Kinder Morgan report came out,

3:52

his social media went dark, and he's avoided

3:54

the press since. The trial

3:56

was my chance to finally get a sense of Trevor's

3:58

version of what happened, why he said he was innocent.

4:01

In this season finale, I'll take you inside

4:03

the trial. and the version of events presented

4:05

by prosecutors and Trevor's defense.

4:08

We'll hear a secretly recorded phone call played by

4:10

prosecutors in court. and I'll talk to

4:12

some of the jurors who helped to decide Trevor's

4:14

case. To understand what

4:16

the prosecution and defense each had to do to

4:18

win, I sat down with my colleague who covered

4:20

the trial with me. My

4:21

name is Karen Ramey. I'm a

4:24

reporter at The Wall Street Journal. I cover

4:26

white collar crime and federal law enforcement.

4:29

and I've been covering courts here at the

4:31

journal for about six years. Karen's

4:32

reporting often takes her inside high

4:35

profile cases like this one. She told me

4:37

financial fraud cases can be difficult

4:39

to prosecute because the prosecutors have

4:41

to convince jurors about not just the defendant's

4:43

actions, but also their intentions. if

4:45

you have a murder case, like, you have a dead body,

4:47

and you have a gun, and the question

4:49

is often who did it. Mhmm. But in

4:51

financial crime, there's less debate

4:53

over the events in question. Like,

4:55

we all agree

4:55

that Trevor tweeted it. He sent

4:58

these emails.

4:59

But the question is, what was in his

5:01

head? When he did it? What was his state of mind?

5:03

What was he thinking? And that is a tricky

5:05

thing -- Yeah. -- like to get in somebody's head

5:07

and know what they were thinking. So a lot of

5:09

this trial was really about that.

5:12

Founders often talk a big game about

5:14

future of their companies. But in this case,

5:16

Corinne told me puffery would cross the line into

5:18

fraud if the jury's found several things

5:20

to be true. If they found Trevor lied,

5:23

if he did so intentionally and if those

5:25

lies mattered to investors. Prosecutors

5:28

had to prove all of that. And all the

5:30

defense team had to do was create reasonable

5:32

doubt about any one of those elements in

5:34

the mind of one juror. Karen

5:36

and I talked to some of those jurors after the trial.

5:39

I'm Jennifer, and I'm Drew

5:41

number six.

5:41

Jennifer Deroche from the Bronx.

5:44

She's a safety director. And Maggie,

5:47

Drew number five. Maggie Garrity. from

5:49

the upper west side of Manhattan. And what

5:51

do you do for work? I'm a freelance

5:52

bookkeeper. Oh, okay. So this is your

5:54

lane in some ways. Yes.

5:57

Exactly. So how I I'm curious,

5:59

you know what companies are supposed to look

6:01

like, I guess.

6:02

Look, I deal with very small businesses.

6:04

Sure. Right? I would

6:05

I I deal with people who can have somebody come

6:07

in once a month

6:08

and, you know, put everything in order. So

6:10

at a completely

6:11

different level, but Yeah.

6:14

I mean, there's a there

6:15

I know some bullshit when I see it

6:17

too. And

6:18

to sway these jurors, Trevor had hired some of

6:21

the most powerful defense attorneys in the business.

6:23

who have represented the likes of the Trump Organization

6:25

and Elon Musk. I was

6:27

eager to see their strategies, and as the

6:29

trial got underway, I gotta look at the first

6:31

strategy to discredit the witness.

6:34

The defense tried that with the very first witness

6:36

in the trial. Paul

6:37

Lackie, the

6:38

person behind the Nikola insider Twitter account.

6:40

Tell me what you kind of felt when you walked

6:42

into the courtroom. It was exceedingly

6:45

intimidating, but On

6:48

the other hand, there there's a

6:50

feeling of pride to be

6:52

called into one of the greatest

6:54

courthouses in the country.

6:56

and

6:58

asked to, you know, go up there and tell

7:00

the truth and the whole truth. Paul

7:02

told me that he was preparing to come to New

7:04

York to potentially play a big role in trial.

7:06

He was asked to wear a suit. That

7:09

was a slight issue. I don't know no suit. I

7:11

have a tuxedo that I got married in, and

7:14

my my wife confirmed that that would not be

7:16

appropriate to wear. So he borrowed

7:18

a suit from his dad and wore the shoes

7:20

from his wedding day. And when he was called

7:22

to testify, I remember him nervously shuffling

7:24

into the courtroom, which was a grand

7:26

one, walls of our nate, wood and stone,

7:28

feldy curtains, I remember

7:30

Trevor wearing a well tailored blue suit.

7:33

turning over his shoulder and staring at Paul

7:35

as he made his way to the stand. Absolute.

7:38

How can that be possible we've done it? The prosecution

7:40

played several clips from the Nikola one review

7:42

we talked about in episode three. They

7:44

asked Paul to compare and contrast Trevor's statements

7:46

with what Paul said he knew about the state of the

7:48

truck. It

7:49

really was just, you

7:50

know, the same story I've been

7:53

telling or trying to tell for years

7:55

just this time, you know, under oath.

7:58

When it came time for Trevor's lawyers to have

7:59

their turn questioning Paul, they tried to

8:02

cast doubt on his character and motivations.

8:04

They tried to imply to the jury that Paul

8:06

was motivated by money. They asked him

8:08

about the six hundred thousand dollars he got from

8:10

Hindenburg short and implied that he stood to

8:12

make much more if Trevor was convicted. Thanks

8:14

to Paul's participation in the whistleblower

8:16

complaint. the SEC. I

8:18

asked Paul about this later that day, and he said

8:20

something similar to what he said on the stand. That

8:22

wasn't motivated by money? he

8:24

wouldn't refuse it either. You know,

8:26

the SEC or Congress in this case,

8:28

they set up this program to to give

8:30

people a little bit of of an

8:33

incentive. And, you know, I didn't set out for any

8:35

of this stuff and I didn't seek it out.

8:37

It found me. But, you know, I'm

8:39

not gonna flush the money down the toilet.

8:41

We asked the jurors we spoke with about the defense's

8:43

line of attack on Paul Ackey, whether his

8:45

testimony was colored by the fact that he made

8:47

money off calling out Nikola. to

8:49

be there's I don't have a problem with

8:52

somebody making

8:53

money that way. I

8:56

thought he was generally, you

8:58

know, a a believable witness.

9:02

They certainly tried to embarrass him,

9:04

but I

9:06

didn't see any reason why he would be up

9:08

there lying at this point.

9:10

So the fact that he made money,

9:12

yeah, not Not

9:13

really a problem. Not at all. I

9:16

mean, Paul Acke

9:17

made up with, like, six hundred

9:19

measly thousand dollars, and then

9:21

Trevor's got, like, eight billion

9:23

valuation. Jennifer,

9:25

the juror, is referring here to the value of

9:28

Trevor's holdings at Nicholas Peak back in

9:30

twenty twenty. His net worth is much

9:32

lower now. Either way,

9:34

this argument about financial motivations

9:36

didn't seem to sway the jurors. but

9:38

the defense didn't need all of their tactics to land.

9:40

Just one, which brings me into the second

9:42

defense strategy that I found fascinating.

9:45

They argued that Trevor didn't know he was doing anything

9:47

wrong, because Nikola executives had been

9:49

cheering him on and encouraging him.

9:52

Trevor's lawyers did this with Mark Russell,

9:54

who became Nico as CEO a few months before

9:56

the Hindenburg report was published and

9:58

stayed with the company after

9:59

Trevor stepped down. He

10:01

testified for the prosecution about how Trevor's

10:03

public statements on Twitter and in interviews

10:05

raised alarms within the company.

10:07

He said the company's social media

10:09

passwords were changed, to prevent Trevor from

10:11

posting on behalf of Nikola. The employee

10:13

didn't work however, because Trevor

10:15

just instructed an employee to give the

10:17

new passwords. But during

10:19

cross examination, the defense had Mark

10:21

Russell Reid a text out loud that he'd sent

10:23

Trevor after a TV appearance. The

10:26

text read just caught your CNN

10:28

interview. You've always had a gift

10:30

for battle and the war of ideas, but

10:32

you've clearly worked and focused yourself to a

10:34

whole other level. so cool for me

10:36

to see it.

10:37

Sitting in the room during this

10:39

part of the trial, there was a palpable sense of

10:42

betrayal between Trevor and his former colleagues

10:44

in the courtroom. Jennifer, one

10:46

of the jurors we talked to, she said that

10:48

she really picked up on this tension. Every

10:50

person that he

10:53

personally knew the way he

10:55

looked at them is like, how

10:57

dare you? How could you be here?

10:59

You know? And that's made me made

11:01

it seem like it's a lot more

11:03

personal. How how could you see

11:05

that? I I mean, I it's funny you said that

11:07

because I watched was kind of sitting

11:09

behind him as Paul

11:11

came down the aisle. Yeah.

11:13

And and Trevor kind of turned over his

11:15

chair and stared at him. And I was like,

11:17

wow. It's really intensely staring

11:19

this guy down, but you could see that from the jury

11:21

box. Well, he was, like,

11:23

there. Yeah.

11:24

I'm I'm on the second row. I'm up

11:26

and I'm looking kinda like down at him. And

11:28

he's a tall guy, and

11:30

he

11:30

would lean in and just I'm

11:33

like, okay. Why are you so angry?

11:36

When the

11:37

prosecution rested and it was time

11:39

for Trevor's team to call their own witnesses,

11:41

they only called one. Expert

11:43

witness Alan Farrell. We

11:45

mentioned him in episode three. He's a

11:48

securities law professor at Harvard. The

11:50

defense was using him. It seemed to

11:52

argue that even if Trevor had misspoken,

11:54

even lied in some public statements, it didn't

11:57

matter. Because Alan Farrell said he'd

11:59

analyzed whether the stock moved when

12:01

Trevor gave interviews or tweeted.

12:03

And according to him, There were things

12:05

other than Trevor's contemporaneous statements that

12:07

could explain meaningful movements in Nikola's

12:09

shares. Things like market volatility

12:11

or analyst reports. I

12:13

asked Maggie, the jury who works as a bookkeeper.

12:15

What she thought of this strategy? Maggie

12:17

did the expert witness leave any impression on

12:19

you or

12:20

he super annoyed me because

12:22

he had set up this model

12:24

and,

12:26

you know, they kept saying the same things over and

12:28

over again. As if we were stupid, just telling

12:30

us this this

12:31

thing over and over and over again

12:34

as if

12:34

it matters because it was really

12:37

about this

12:38

accumulation of lies went

12:40

on for years.

12:41

For

12:42

Maggie, even if Alan Farrell's

12:44

analysis was correct, that no single

12:46

statement of Trevor's moved the stock on a

12:48

given day, She says she was convinced

12:50

that the sum of Trevor's statements had a

12:52

meaningful effect on the share price. And

12:54

when it came to cross examination, One

12:56

of the prosecutor's strategies with Alan Farrell

12:59

was similar to the defenses for Paul

13:01

Ackey. They asked him how much money he was

13:03

being paid to testify. He confirmed his

13:05

billing rate was one thousand two hundred and fifty

13:07

dollars an hour, and then he'd already been paid

13:09

more than half a million dollars to work on

13:11

Trevor's case. We asked the jurors

13:13

about this. I thought

13:14

he was he was paid very well

13:16

for what he did. Like, bro, come

13:18

on. You can say it if

13:20

that's what gives you pay twelve fifty an

13:22

hour, but Yeah.

13:23

I mean, he

13:25

made over half

13:27

a million dollars and good for

13:29

him, I guess.

13:31

Throughout the trial, the prosecution had attempted

13:33

to prove that Trevor had lied, that he had done

13:35

so intentionally, and that those lies

13:37

mattered to investors. all of

13:39

which were necessary for a guilty verdict.

13:41

And to me, there's one

13:43

piece of evidence that would tie all these elements

13:45

together for the prosecution. It was tape of a phone

13:47

call between Trevor and a wealthy

13:49

businessman named Peter Hicks. Trevor

13:51

is trying to convince Peter and his son to let

13:53

him buy some land. with eight and a half million

13:56

dollars worth of Nicolet stock options.

13:58

Trevor launches into the

13:59

pitch. I focus

14:00

on what I'm the best at and the best in

14:03

the world. and then no one can even compete with. He had

14:05

going to meetings with He talks

14:07

about his leadership at Nikola and says Nikola

14:09

is already locking down specific routes. and

14:11

making deals with energy companies to make

14:13

hydrogen fuel. And then Peter

14:15

Hicks asks a very specific question.

14:17

Now

14:17

Trevor, this is the plan. I

14:19

mean, you're You're

14:20

not gobbling it up right now because that will

14:22

be getting too far ahead of yourself?

14:24

Or are you? The language

14:25

in that question really jumps out. Peter

14:28

Hicks is asking, this is the

14:30

plan. Right?

14:31

He's asking Trevor if he's talking in the present

14:34

tense or if he's talking about the

14:36

future, about

14:36

the plan.

14:37

something already underway?

14:39

You're not gobbling it up right now

14:41

because that will be getting too far ahead of

14:43

yourself or are you? No.

14:45

We

14:45

aren't a certain route. So from LA,

14:47

the

14:47

the Phoenix were already doing that. That's where that's where

14:50

ABM bev is, you know, with the anis or

14:52

bush. So they've already given us their routes.

14:54

Okay. And on those thirteen routes

14:56

that we've already begun procuring power

14:58

and and planning stations and

15:00

gobbling up the rates and taking energy from the grid,

15:02

and we're we're already in that process right now. That's why

15:04

we're going public. I mean, he can't go public on a

15:06

open a dream. Eagle

15:08

executives later said in court that Nikola

15:10

hadn't struck any deals with energy companies at

15:12

that point. but Peter Hicks testified

15:14

that he believed they had and took

15:16

the deal, accepting needless stock

15:18

options as some of the payment for the land.

15:20

I

15:20

remember in closing, prosecutors came back to that and said

15:23

something like, oh, he had a chance to fess up

15:25

and

15:25

he didn't. Again, my colleague,

15:27

Corinne. that there

15:28

were these moments like the one you pointed out

15:30

where he could have said, yes, that's the plan and

15:32

we're gonna do this. But instead, he

15:34

charged ahead. In

15:36

closing arguments, prosecutors said this call got to

15:39

the fundamental argument of their case.

15:41

Trevor lied about Nikola's

15:43

business, two investors, intentionally.

15:45

And then it was

15:46

the defense district, closing

15:48

arguments. What

15:49

stuck out here for me was that

15:51

Mark MacKasey, Trevor's lawyer, really

15:54

really went for it. It was almost

15:57

a little over the top, a little bombastic,

15:59

and I just had the sense that

16:01

no matter what happened, like, they were

16:03

going down fighting. Trevor's

16:06

defense

16:06

attorney pulled out all the stops.

16:08

He said Paul Lackie was basically a

16:10

guy who set Nicholas House on fire. while

16:12

betting that the house would burn down. Trevor

16:15

Milton, on the other hand, he said was merely

16:17

careless with his grammar. This

16:19

is

16:19

from the transcript, quote,

16:20

did Trevor

16:21

Milton say some things where he used the wrong

16:24

tense or when he used the present instead of

16:26

the future? Yeah.

16:27

Sometimes you did. But we are

16:29

living in a day and age when everyone is

16:31

on their phone and their Twitter and their

16:33

Zoom and their TikTok and their Facebook

16:35

twenty four hours a day. So

16:38

imagine the nightmare it is for Trevor

16:40

at forty years old to have his life hang

16:42

in the balance because of some word

16:44

choice he made where sometimes he

16:46

pressed send on his phone without making sure his

16:48

grammar was on point. The

16:51

jury began deliberating on the morning of

16:53

October fourteenth. a Friday.

16:55

Honestly, I had no idea what they would

16:57

decide. All you needed for an

16:59

acquittal was reasonable doubt in the mind of a

17:01

single juror. My

17:03

colleague Corinne and I waited. She was

17:05

in court. I was at the office. In about

17:07

five hours in,

17:09

I was sitting in the courtroom when I

17:11

saw Trevor walked up to

17:14

Trevor's brother and said,

17:16

you need to call our parents. There's a

17:18

verdict. So I get this message

17:20

that there's a verdict. You sent me a message

17:22

and I run onto that subway and I go

17:24

three stops and I run into the courthouse and I'm like, oh

17:26

my god, did I miss the verdict? And it's like,

17:28

everybody's just standing around really tense, you

17:31

know, cut tension with knife kind

17:33

of tense. When I got there,

17:35

Trevor was standing, the lawyers were

17:37

judge told us he wasn't going to have the verdict read

17:39

until Trevor's wife was there. One

17:42

by one, Trevor's family members would arrive

17:44

back at the And each time the door

17:46

opened, we all turned our heads to see if it was

17:48

Trevor's wife. And then she

17:50

finally arrived, and the jury was

17:52

called back into the room. And

17:54

jury forewoman

17:56

reads the verdict. And what

17:58

I particularly remember is it was

18:00

count one guilty. And then on count

18:02

two, she said not guilty.

18:03

and then guilty on three and four.

18:06

And, you know, family members kind

18:08

of gassed, some started to cry,

18:10

I think Trevor was genuinely kind of

18:13

surprised and shocked by the

18:15

verdict. After the verdict, Trevor and

18:17

his family stayed in the courtroom quietly

18:19

for a long time. Karin

18:20

and I rushed to file our story before

18:23

deadline. I

18:23

asked Karin about the significance of the

18:26

split verdict. What's the

18:28

importance of that split verdict? Why does

18:30

that matter? So

18:30

it matters because it

18:32

gives the

18:33

defense an argument on appeal.

18:35

So there are two securities fraud counts

18:38

he was guilty on count one, not guilty on count

18:40

two. And this is really weird and

18:42

really confusing. Because these two securities

18:44

fraud counts, they require

18:47

like, really similar things. And

18:49

so it was hard to understand the jury's thought

18:51

process, like, how they could arrived at

18:53

this conclusion. The one

18:54

count that came back not guilty? One of the

18:56

jurors we spoke with, Maggie, said that

18:58

when they started deliberating, she was the only

19:00

juror who wanted to find him guilty on that

19:03

count. The trial had already run longer than expected,

19:05

and she was worried that if deliberations

19:07

dragged on, there could have been a mistrial.

19:10

you

19:10

know, eleven to one is really

19:13

hard. It's really,

19:15

really hard and it

19:16

was tiring. It was

19:18

the end of the day. So I have to

19:20

say even though I know this is not something you're

19:22

supposed to do and the judge tells you, you

19:24

know, stand by what you

19:26

believe and convince other

19:28

people, I didn't think I was able to do

19:30

that, and I thought we could have been,

19:32

you know, a

19:33

hung jury.

19:35

the And the whole

19:36

thing would have had to go all over again. And

19:38

you didn't wanna

19:39

be that hold

19:40

out, Maggie.

19:41

I did not

19:42

wanna be the person who was

19:45

responsible for him

19:46

potentially

19:47

getting off.

19:48

Yes. After

19:51

his

19:51

conviction, both Trevor and his lawyers have pledged

19:53

to keep fighting. The three charges Trevor

19:55

was convicted on can receive sentences up to

19:57

twenty years each. Though under federal

19:59

sentencing guidelines, he'll likely receive a much

20:01

lighter sentence. Until then,

20:04

Trevor is out on a hundred million

20:06

dollar bond. His sentencing is currently scheduled

20:08

for January twenty twenty three, after

20:10

which he can file an appeal.

20:13

After the break, An answer to one last

20:15

question I've had since I first started reporting on all

20:18

this. How did Trevor think this was gonna

20:20

end? What was his

20:22

exit plan?

20:32

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20:32

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20:58

The

20:59

whole time I've been working on this story, I

21:02

kept wondering, how

21:03

did Trevor think this was going to

21:05

end?

21:05

Throughout my reporting process, I talked to people

21:08

who had their But importing over the

21:10

documents and exhibits that came out in trial,

21:12

I found the closest thing I've gotten to an

21:14

answer from Trevor himself. It

21:16

was actually in that taped call with Peter Hicks, the one that

21:18

got played at trial. We already heard

21:21

the part prosecutors played as evidence of Trevor

21:23

Lyon to an investor. but I'm

21:25

going to focus instead on another part of the

21:27

call where Trevor talks about himself,

21:29

his past, and his plans for the

21:31

future. And just like we did with

21:33

this podcast, He starts his story

21:35

in Saint George. I

21:36

was in a small town in Utah called Saint George,

21:38

and Saint George is probably the worst tech

21:40

tech city on the planet Earth. We we

21:42

know Saint we know Saint George. That's

21:44

the voice of Peter Hicks' son who's taping

21:46

the call. We know Saint George. I'm surprised,

21:48

yeah, you decided to base a tech company

21:51

there. Well, I was young. I

21:53

was twenty three foot. I was basing it.

21:55

I was just like I was just where I was living, and I

21:57

was like, started it. Yeah. Trevor talks about

21:59

how the businesses

21:59

he built there would have succeeded, but he just

22:02

couldn't raise enough money in Southwest Utah.

22:04

What I should have done is moved to Silicon

22:06

Valley. And I would have gotten

22:07

chance of, you know, billions

22:09

of

22:09

dollars from people at that time because that was the

22:11

hot thing, but Trevor goes on to describe how

22:13

despite being an outsider far from

22:15

Silicon Valley, he'd built Nikola.

22:18

this world changing company. And at the

22:20

time of the call, it was about to

22:21

go public. But Trevor was on to say,

22:23

he didn't plan to stay on it Nikola

22:26

much longer. he'd envisioned their business

22:28

plan. But running factories, that

22:30

wasn't his thing. I really don't want to be on the assembly

22:32

lines county pennies for for washers and

22:34

who's who's the chief is washer supplier in

22:36

the world. Yeah. I

22:38

this is my last hurrah. I'm done. So

22:40

after this, I'm I'm you know, I'm gonna be

22:42

sitting on my ranch for the rest of my life

22:44

and and raising cattle and just, you know, trying to trying to have

22:46

a family. I don't have one yet. We're trying. So it's

22:48

a that's gonna be my goal. You

22:50

know, after two years of being in there,

22:53

at that point, I can't help company anymore. It's already

22:55

the vision's already there, and all it is is execution

22:57

and massive amounts of money that's

23:00

you know, coming in and I really wanna be dealing with all my crap.

23:02

It's not my joy. Trevor seemed to find

23:04

his joy in selling the promise. Five years.

23:06

And the promise had been sold.

23:09

The

23:09

details. He said he'd

23:10

leave that to others. You know, there's at some

23:13

point, it just doesn't you know, it doesn't make sense to put

23:15

a baseball player into into

23:17

a into, you know, into a soccer game.

23:19

And what I'm really good at

23:21

is not running factories and running,

23:24

you know, you know, doing doing

23:26

filings with the SEC and, you know,

23:28

it just that's just stuff doesn't even I'm

23:30

not even I don't even enjoy them.

23:32

Yeah.

23:32

Trevor

23:35

made and sold big

23:38

promises. He rarely

23:40

saw them through to fruition. And

23:42

before he had delivered on one, he was onto

23:44

the next. And

23:45

that, in the

23:46

end, turned out to be a vulnerability.

23:49

Because some of the people

23:51

who

23:51

once believed in Trevor the most, who

23:53

tried so hard to make his promises into

23:56

reality, were also those left

23:58

behind when he moved on to his next

24:00

And as we told you throughout this

24:02

series, some of those people found each

24:04

other, teamed up, and worked

24:06

together to bring him down. Mark

24:09

Pugsley, the whistleblower lawyer told me that when he

24:11

thinks of this case, he thinks of his

24:13

client, Mike Shroud, burned it by

24:15

Trevor, and then channeling that into

24:17

becoming a whistleblower. I

24:19

think about Mike sitting

24:21

in his garage

24:23

for years, three years, just

24:25

being sad. and financially devastated by what

24:27

Trevor Milton did to him. And

24:31

I don't know if Trevor realizes this,

24:33

but that that guy might that he

24:35

thought he could walk all over. I mean,

24:37

Trevor Milton could go to prison for

24:39

many years because of Mike

24:41

Shroud. And maybe

24:43

there's a lesson there. for people that think they can

24:45

walk all over the little guys because

24:47

guess what? Sometimes the little guys come

24:49

back and kick your

24:51

ass.

24:52

Mike

24:53

shop Stroud and his

24:54

wife Miranda. We heard from both

24:56

of them in earlier episodes when they talked

24:59

about getting into business with Trevor. we

25:00

were still in that era

25:03

in our town where you

25:05

trusted people. Yeah.

25:06

It wasn't unusual to

25:08

you just take somebody's word for it. Not like we

25:10

do now. They were the

25:12

first

25:13

people we talked to who said they felt hurt enough

25:15

by Trevor that they started keeping

25:17

evidence. evidence that years later, they

25:19

would use to help bring Trevor down. I

25:21

was a

25:21

hundred percent onboard. Like,

25:23

let's let's give this our best because

25:26

not only does

25:28

it tick

25:29

me off what Trevor did to us,

25:32

but all the other investors, all the other

25:34

people he took advantage of and he needed to be

25:36

stopped. I wanted

25:37

to see how

25:38

they felt, now that the dominoes have

25:40

fallen. So I gave Mike a call.

25:43

Hey, Mike. Hey. How

25:45

are you? Yeah. How are you? hour

25:48

Not great, but

25:50

good bye. What's

25:52

what's going on? kind

25:54

the

25:56

of end of life chair from

25:59

Miranda. So When

26:01

we met Mike and his wife Miranda a few months

26:03

ago in Saint George, Miranda had

26:05

recently been diagnosed with colon

26:08

cancer. When I spoke to Mike last

26:10

week, He said the cancer had progressed quickly.

26:12

He's been over just

26:14

staying with her almost twenty

26:16

four seven the last few days.

26:19

set up with hospice care at her mom's.

26:22

So I was

26:24

hoping she'd have a have

26:26

a window where she's kinda lucid. Maybe she

26:29

could jump on, but it's

26:31

not happening this morning.

26:33

I I do. I

26:35

do expect her to

26:36

be probably

26:37

gone before the next

26:39

episode. So

26:42

I had called Mike expecting to talk about

26:44

his plans for the future, with potentially

26:46

millions of dollars coming his way if the

26:48

government pays a whistleblower award.

26:51

Yeah. Future's kind of a

26:53

big fat question mark in the important

26:55

areas. The money seems a

26:57

little bit

26:59

irrelevant. it is really a small

27:01

thing that I kinda remember

27:04

once in a while. This is a much bigger

27:06

deal for me. Yeah. Of course. I I

27:09

guess everything

27:11

I wanna talk to you about seems a little

27:14

insignificant. insignificant Well,

27:16

It's actually a

27:19

kind of a a nice break from

27:21

the last several days

27:23

to switch gears and do

27:25

something different. So

27:26

I started to

27:27

ask him about his experience of

27:29

Trevor's trial. Where

27:31

were you when the verdict came

27:33

out? I was

27:34

at home. I

27:35

was refreshing my computer every

27:37

few seconds. What was

27:40

running through your head? Gosh. You

27:42

know, it's it's really a mixture of a whole bunch of emotions.

27:44

Kind of sense of

27:46

closure, maybe, a little bit.

27:49

little bit of a sadness. I really

27:52

don't really don't hate Trevor. I

27:54

did care

27:54

about I did I

27:57

did wanna believe him. I did

27:59

I never

28:00

one wanted what

28:01

happens to happen.

28:03

I

28:04

will say he has gifts and I'll and I'll and I'll say

28:06

it. They really are. They're god giving gifts. You

28:08

know, everyone has everyone has some some

28:10

talents and abilities and his

28:13

or conceptual. you Most people

28:15

would love to have a tenth of what he has.

28:17

The anger. I had sometimes

28:19

heard in Mike's voice this past summer before

28:22

the trial. before the guilty

28:24

verdict. That anger was

28:26

gone.

28:26

Mike went on

28:28

to say that his wife's illness gave

28:30

him a new sympathy for Trevor.

28:32

who lost his mom to cancer when he was a teenager.

28:35

Watching my wife kind of

28:37

fade away with cancer and

28:39

starting to see how that could

28:42

really, really nice with the like,

28:44

good. I'm an adult.

28:46

It's nice with me pretty

28:48

good. I don't

28:49

dismiss what he's done because of what's

28:52

happened to him, but but I but III

28:54

certainly sympathize with what

28:56

did happen. I'm gonna take

28:57

the conversation in a slightly different direction. Do

29:00

you wish you never met Trevor

29:02

Milton? No. I don't

29:04

I

29:04

don't I don't wish that.

29:08

I'll be honest. Trevor taught me some

29:10

things. He taught me some good life lessons,

29:12

not directly, but indirectly.

29:15

there's

29:15

there's so much

29:16

that happens downstream

29:18

of an event. And I've

29:20

learned that I need to be careful not to assume

29:22

that I know exactly the reason for that and

29:24

exactly what'll happen. because

29:26

often when I do that, I find out that

29:28

the thing that it seemed obvious

29:30

doesn't happen, but down the road

29:33

further, something bigger and better happens

29:35

because of it.

29:37

I

29:38

go trailed off a little bit there. No. No.

29:41

No. There's

29:42

a a Yiddish

29:45

property that you may or may not know. But

29:47

in translation, it's

29:49

man plans and god laughs.

29:51

You've heard that before?

29:53

Yeah. I have. I

29:56

believe

29:56

that all these experiences can shape us

29:58

for good or bad. But

30:00

ultimately, we we get

30:03

to choose what kind of effect they'll have on

30:05

us, whether we

30:07

become bitter or whether we

30:09

choose to be positive and and

30:12

Thank

30:12

good things

30:13

you. Good.

30:18

Thanks. Mike

30:27

Sprout,

30:27

Paul Lagey, Darren Brooks

30:29

and Hindenburg are still waiting to see if

30:31

they'll get a whistleblower award from the SEC. And

30:34

that's for Nikola, it's paying a

30:36

hundred and twenty five million dollars to settle fraud

30:38

charges with the SEC. The

30:40

company did not admit or deny

30:42

any wrongdoing. A report

30:44

by an outside law firm that

30:46

Nikola hired disputed Hindenburg's conclusion that the company was a

30:48

massive fraud. It said Nikola

30:50

had a defined product and a maturity

30:52

level that was consistent with an

30:54

emerging company. After Trevor's

30:56

conviction, the company said it was pleased to close this

30:58

chapter and focus on its business

31:00

plan. The company has been trying to

31:02

deliver on its promises, and

31:04

delivered a hundred and eleven battery powered trucks between

31:06

April and September. It expects to

31:08

begin production of hydrogen powered semi trucks

31:10

by the end of next

31:12

year. As of the end

31:14

of September, Trevor is

31:16

still Nico's largest shareholder.

31:19

Bad

31:21

bets is a production

31:23

of The Wall Street Journal. This season is

31:25

produced with jigsaw productions in collaboration

31:27

with Storyforce Entertainment. This episode

31:29

is hosted by me, Ben Foldy. The

31:32

series is directed by Sruthi Pinemaneni.

31:34

Scott Saloway is the supervising producer.

31:37

Ken Brown is WSJ financial enterprise editor.

31:40

Shane McKinnon, Frank Matt, and Garrett

31:42

Graham are the producers.editorial consulting

31:44

by PJ Vo. Fact checking by

31:46

Elizabeth Moss, sound design, original

31:49

composition, and mixing by Armin

31:51

Bazarian. For The Wall Street

31:53

Journal, Daniel Rosen is the co executive producer of WSJ

31:55

Studios. Ben Weltman is the senior

31:57

executive producer. For jigsaw

31:59

productions, Stacey Hoffman and Richard

32:02

Perrello are executive producers.

32:04

For Storyforce Entertainment, Bli Pagan

32:06

Faust and Cory Sheppard Stern are

32:08

executive producers. Special thanks as well to

32:10

WSJ's Charles Ferrell, Jamie Heller, Brent

32:12

Kendall, Christina Rogers, Corey

32:14

Ramey, James finale, Rick Brooks, Emma

32:16

Moody, and Jessica Fenton.

32:18

If you can,

32:20

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32:22

wherever you get your shows. Thanks

32:25

for listening.

32:32

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