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Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty of fraud

cnbc.com

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Re: Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty of fraud

#51

Post by agumonkey »

simonh wrote: post #24
keepquestioning wrote: post #11

I remember when some FAANG buddies of mine were gloating about gains made of NKLA. It reminded me no one gives a fuck if their money is made by corruption, fraud or unethical activity. The world is truly a "Fuck you, I've got mine" type of place. Never forget it, and never trust anyone. I see the same story playing out in the Celsius network crap.

It really isn’t. I’m kind of fed up with people, who live at a time of unprecedented wealth freedom and opportunity, complaining how bad things are while the state of the world around them improves dramatically. I was reading about poverty in the UK recently, the numbers are poor, but then I noticed that poverty is defined by a proportion of average wages. That means as wages go up, so does the poverty threshold. It…

I find these numbers a bit weak. Your life is not a flat basket of goods, it's more of a graph (pyramid would say maslow) and today it's hard to get a flat but easy to get Gbps link on your flagship smartphone, but it doesn't make your life great in the end.

Re: Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty of fraud

#52

Post by kgwgk »

coffeeblack wrote: post #49
kgwgk wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Funding secured" it not exactly the same as "will negotiate with investors", is it?

Maybe he did. But a letter of intent isn’t the same as a contract. Yet it warrants the statement “funding secured”.

Maybe he did... What we know for sure is that he settled with the SEC and that a court ruled recently that there was nothing concrete and that it was inaccurate to say so.

"No reasonable jury could find that Mr. Musk did not act recklessly given his clear knowledge of the discussions."

"There had been no discussion about what the purchase price would be for a share of stock. Nor had there been any discussion about what percentage of the company the PIF would own or the total amount of money the PIF would contribute."

What we don't know yet is how much damages he will be told to pay.

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/court-...

Re: Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty of fraud

#53

Post by hef19898 »

missedthecue wrote: post #8
robswc wrote: post #2

It’s about time. I just can’t believe how fraud of such a scale can happen. Reminds me of Bernie Madoff.

Nikola is still a $1.3 billion company if you really want your mind blown.

That's the true insanity here. Did they ever sell a truck? In the meanwhile those un-innovative legacy manufacturers have the first working protypes on the road. And where is the Tesla Semi again?

Re: Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty of fraud

#54

Post by dotxlem »

simonh wrote: post #24
keepquestioning wrote: post #11

I remember when some FAANG buddies of mine were gloating about gains made of NKLA. It reminded me no one gives a fuck if their money is made by corruption, fraud or unethical activity. The world is truly a "Fuck you, I've got mine" type of place. Never forget it, and never trust anyone. I see the same story playing out in the Celsius network crap.

It really isn’t. I’m kind of fed up with people, who live at a time of unprecedented wealth freedom and opportunity, complaining how bad things are while the state of the world around them improves dramatically. I was reading about poverty in the UK recently, the numbers are poor, but then I noticed that poverty is defined by a proportion of average wages. That means as wages go up, so does the poverty threshold. It…

The world does not improve uniformly or get worse uniformly.

What’s good for most is bad for some and vice versa.

Re: Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty of fraud

#55

Post by joering2 »

gmd63 wrote: post #34
joering2 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't find it dishonest, rather brilliant he found a hill the truck rolled down from. The whole ordeal was the weakest chain of the whole lawsuit - most of the time the tech showed is not 100% working. The truck showed would not be on sale anyways, but obviously whatever would leave a factory. Musk showed houses that did not even have real solar panels even thought he told people in their faces these are solar pane…

What is "brilliant" about faking a car moving with the intent of misleading your investors, who are redirecting to you vast amounts of wealth from more deserving companies that would make society a better place? You're stealing from companies that create economic acceleration to create economic friction. If we keep rewarding scammers with this notion that they're doing anything remotely of value, we end up with a soc…

It was a prototype! Musk sold his cybertruck on unbreakable windows and that turned out to be deception too. How about $30,000 investment in robo taxi and ROI of 100% per year (even Madoff wasn't giving that good returns). I mean most stuff Musk every push is or was scam. Milton never had a chance to finish his project (hello Feds) but the company is doing fine and they will eventually release their truck.

Again -- matter of how much runaway you had and how fast you become too rich to jail. I'm sure his father wealth (owning multiple emerald mines) helped too.

Re: Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty of fraud

#56

Post by simonh »

dotxlem wrote: post #54
simonh wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really isn’t. I’m kind of fed up with people, who live at a time of unprecedented wealth freedom and opportunity, complaining how bad things are while the state of the world around them improves dramatically. I was reading about poverty in the UK recently, the numbers are poor, but then I noticed that poverty is defined by a proportion of average wages. That means as wages go up, so does the poverty threshold. It…

The world does not improve uniformly or get worse uniformly. What’s good for most is bad for some and vice versa.

That's certainly true, and as a result there are always things getting worse somewhere, and that's always more newsworthy than things getting better anywhere.

Re: Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty of fraud

#57

Post by phpthrowaway99 »

rvz wrote: post #44
javawizard wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll bite. How so?

This is why [0] > The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that Elon Musk, CEO and Chairman of Silicon Valley-based Tesla Inc., has agreed to settle the securities fraud charge brought by the SEC against him last week. The SEC also today charged Tesla with failing to have required disclosure controls and procedures relating to Musk’s tweets, a charge that Tesla has agreed to settle. Essentially by agree…

Oh yes, and when I paid my speeding ticket last week I proved I was smuggling drugs down the interstate.

Re: Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty of fraud

#58

Post by skinnymuch »

Reason077 wrote: post #41
robswc wrote: post #2

It’s about time. I just can’t believe how fraud of such a scale can happen. Reminds me of Bernie Madoff.

Far bigger frauds have happened. I'd argue Nikola's fraud was pretty minor in comparison to the likes of Madoff, Enron, or Theranos. At least the only victims here were investors - many of whom probably realised or suspected that Milton was exaggerating the company's progress, but were happy to play along as long as it kept pumping the value of their investments.

Check Nikola spots like the subreddit, Twitter, Stocktwits. Lots of bag holders who are technically investors, but really just ordinary middle class people in deep losses from Nikola.

Still nothing close to the examples you gave but Theranos is as blatantly a con from the get go as Nikola.

Re: Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty of fraud

#59

Post by ajdegol »

rvz wrote: post #44
javawizard wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll bite. How so?

This is why [0] > The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that Elon Musk, CEO and Chairman of Silicon Valley-based Tesla Inc., has agreed to settle the securities fraud charge brought by the SEC against him last week. The SEC also today charged Tesla with failing to have required disclosure controls and procedures relating to Musk’s tweets, a charge that Tesla has agreed to settle. Essentially by agree…

Is that what he was addressing in his TED talk here https://youtu.be/cdZZpaB2kDM

At 27:46 mark?

Re: Nikola founder Trevor Milton found guilty of fraud

#60

Post by gizmo »

0xy wrote: post #12
europeanguy wrote: post #3

[flagged]

"We think we can do self driving in a year" (very unrealistic prediction) versus "we have a working truck prototype" (literally false). Being an optimist isn't fraud.

Musk knew at the time fsd was nowhere close to working every time he asserted that buying a tesla was a great investment that would make money for you as an autonomous taxi. Blatant fraud, no question about it.
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