⚖️ Trevor Milton pardoned after 4-year Nikola fraud sentence

A federal jury in Manhattan convicted Trevor Milton in October 2022 of lying to investors about Nikola, the truck maker he founded. A judge sentenced him in December 2023 to four years and a $1 million fine, CNBC reported. In March 2025 President Donald Trump pardoned him, and the White House confirmed it, the Associated Press reported. Milton had not served a day of it: he stayed free on bail while he appealed.

Now the part a money desk cares about: who ended up holding the bill. The New York Times reported that the pardon means Milton will not be required to comply with a court order to compensate Nikola shareholders, who lost tens of millions of dollars after the share price collapsed. The Associated Press said the pardon could wipe out hundreds of millions of dollars in restitution that prosecutors were seeking. Nikola itself filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February 2025, per the AP.

The charges and the verdict

A grand jury indictment unsealed on July 29, 2021 accused Milton of lying about "nearly all aspects of the business" to bolster stock sales, CNBC reported. He pleaded not guilty and was freed on a $100 million bond secured against two Utah properties. His legal team said he was "innocent" and that the government was seeking to "criminalize lawful business conduct."

The jury saw it differently on three of four counts. Reuters reported that Milton was convicted on one count of securities fraud and two of wire fraud, and acquitted on an additional securities fraud count. At trial, the AP reported, prosecutors said a company video of a prototype truck appearing to drive down a desert highway actually showed a nonfunctioning Nikola rolled down a hill. Nikola's CEO, called as a government witness, testified that Milton "was prone to exaggeration" when pitching investors.

Four years, with a footnote

Prosecutors asked for 11 years. Milton's lawyers asked for probation. Judge Edgardo Ramos split the difference, and then some: four years, a $1 million fine, three years of supervised release and forfeiture of property, per CNBC and the BBC. Restitution, CNBC noted, was to be determined at a later proceeding.

"Trevor Milton lied to investors again and again — on social media, on television, on podcasts, and in print."

Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, in a statement quoted by CNBC after the Dec. 18, 2023 sentencing

Milton told the judge, per Reuters as quoted by CNBC: "I did not intend to harm anyone and I did not commit those crimes levied against me." The judge allowed him to remain free on bail while he appealed.

The SEC side of the ledger

On the day of the indictment the SEC filed its own civil securities fraud charges against Milton, asking a federal court to bar him from serving as an officer of a public company, to make him disgorge ill-gotten gains and to impose a fine, CNBC reported. The company took a separate route. In December 2021 Nikola settled with the SEC, without admitting or denying the findings, and agreed to pay $125 million, per the SEC order and CNBC. That order says Milton's statements in tweets and media appearances "painted a picture of Nikola that diverged widely from its then-current reality."

In September 2025 the New York Times reported that the SEC dropped its civil case against Milton. The paper said that means no additional civil penalties and none of the restrictions the commission had sought on his ability to work in securities-related positions, though the dismissals needed judges' approval and leave open private lawsuits from victims. A White House official told the Times the decision was the SEC's; an SEC spokesman declined to comment.

What the pardon covered

Milton said in a social media post that he received "a full and unconditional pardon" from Trump, who called him personally, per Reuters. According to the New York Times, the pardon spared him prison time and the shareholder compensation order. It did not end everything: the Times reported he still faces a class-action lawsuit filed by shareholders. The Times cited prosecutors as having recommended that he pay more than $660 million back to shareholders; the pardon spares him the overwhelming majority of such obligations, it reported.

Milton called it "a sacred pardon of innocence." Asked why he issued it, Trump said Milton was "highly recommended by many people" and suggested the prosecution was political: "They say the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president," per the AP. The Southern District of New York declined to comment. The AP also reported, citing the Federal Election Commission, that Milton and his wife donated more than $1.8 million to a Trump re-election fund less than a month before the November 2024 election. The paperwork says four years; the calendar says none of it served.

The fortune that came and went

At its peak Nikola was valued at more than $30 billion, and the stock touched $93.99 on June 9, 2020, CNBC reported. The indictment put Milton's holdings at roughly $8.5 billion at the height. By the December 2023 sentencing, CNBC said, the shares traded under $1 for a market value of about $296 million. If you want the short version: a jury, a judge and a regulator each put a number on it, and a pardon then took the largest of them off Milton's plate.