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Conviction or Conspiracy: The Trevor Milton Saga (Official Documentary) — Transcript

by Trevor Milton · 18,345 words · 2,698 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:15[Music]
0:24Aviation's been a huge part of my life.
0:28My dad was a pilot when I was a kid and
0:31he used to take our family across
0:33country on some of these
0:35trips. Growing up, it was always stories
0:38of flying these little planes around the
0:41country. I didn't really realize until
0:43later on in my life how integrated
0:45aviation was going to be in my
0:48life. Traffic from the refuge to the
0:51ramp.
0:53I love flying. It's one of the feelings
0:55that I get where I can zone everything
0:56else out.
0:58I've got a thousand things that I'm
0:59worried about or thinking about. One of
1:01the great things about aviation is you
1:02just turn your phone off. All of a
1:04sudden, instantly everything's gone. The
1:07only thing that's left is you and the
1:09plane. Almost like cheating the laws of
1:12physics. And that's really what drove me
1:14with
1:15Nicollet trying to defy the laws of what
1:17was normal. People said it couldn't be
1:20done. Certainly, there's things in my
1:22life that I wish I would have done
1:23better. And as you grow, those are
1:26lessons you learn.
1:299295 airport sky condition. A Utah
1:33billionaire has been sentenced to 4
1:35years in prison. Jury found him guilty.
1:38Shares tumbling
1:41near capabilities of Nicola's early
1:44technology. It is the new hot electric
1:46vehicle stock Nicola roaring higher. It
1:48is now up 96%. Investors are betting big
1:51on EV right now. founder. Trevor Milton
1:54became a billionaire overnight when he
1:56took Nicola public back in June of 2020.
1:58Trevor Milton is one of these
2:00breakthrough entrepreneurs and these
2:02guys think big. One of the tasks in life
2:04that we have as entrepreneurs is to be
2:06able to take risks that no one else
2:07thought was possible. He built something
2:09that became a $30 billion company. With
2:11Nikolai, I warned you that the stock
2:13would spike right out of the gate and
2:15then plummet. That's what happened.
2:16Nickeola shares are tumbling after a
2:18short seller called the company quote an
2:20intricate fraud built on dozens of lies.
2:23Hindenburg researched they say the
2:25company has made false statements. It
2:27has rigged its truck reveals and it's
2:29had misleading demonstrations. Nicola
2:32towed a truck up a hill and then just
2:34let it start rolling because the truck
2:37couldn't run itself. It was being rolled
2:38down a hill. It was in motion. When the
2:40Hindenburg report came out, they had
2:42taken pieces of story, spun it to to
2:45tell their their tale. The trucks
2:47worked. I mean, we had driving trucks at
2:48the time this came out. It was
2:49ridiculous. Today, we announced charges
2:53against Trevor Milton. It seemed almost
2:55as though there was a coordinated effort
2:58between Hindenburg dropping their report
3:00and the government issuing subpoenas to
3:03Nicola at their corporate offices. They
3:05were
3:06literally one day apart. Trevor Milton
3:08steps down as executive chairman amid an
3:11investigation into the company. Nicola
3:13has fallen out 35% fraud securities
3:16lying to investors. Can I blame the
3:18average American for thinking that
3:19Trevor is guilty? Absolutely not. Having
3:22been at NLA from almost the beginning. I
3:25knew to the contrary. The indictment
3:26claims that Trevor Milton used his
3:28massive social media platform to inflate
3:31his company's stock price. It was
3:33difficult for a New York jury to relate
3:35to him. a wealthy guy from the west who
3:38buys tracks of land larger than the city
3:41that they live in. The government did
3:43kind of use that to their advantage. You
3:45would think by reading the transcripts
3:47that nothing Nicola was doing was real
3:50at all. There's 1500 employees working
3:52on all sorts of various programs. If it
3:54was a scam, what were those people
3:56working on? Trevor Milton, the founder
3:58and former CEO, will be spending the
4:01next four years in prison for fraud. The
4:04company has cut all ties with Milton,
4:06but the damage is done.
4:09It's heartbreaking, but I know that I'm
4:13not of value
4:16to my family if I'm a
4:21mess. There's a lot of stuff out there
4:23about me that's just simply not
4:25true. The truth is important to me.
4:28That's why for the first time, I'm
4:29telling my side of the story.
4:32Trevor Milton, take one.
4:34[Music]
4:55Parker. There we go.
4:58Do you want your uh egg over easy or do
5:00you want to scramble?
5:03Um over medium. Okay. How did you go
5:06with me?
5:09Bet on Instagram.
5:12Trevor slid into my
5:16DMs. I think our back and forth banter
5:19was kind of playful. I was
5:23captivated from the beginning. I'd never
5:25met anyone like him. One of the things
5:28that I was most attracted to was his
5:30spontaneity, optimism. He was just
5:32someone that was light-hearted and I
5:34could have adventure with. We ended up
5:37going to one of your employees weddings.
5:40Remember, we were supposed to be going
5:42hiking. Yeah, we were going to go
5:43hiking. I forgot about this wedding. He
5:46gets a call from his brother Travis and
5:48his brother says, "Where are you?" He's
5:51like, "You're supposed to be at Kevin's
5:52wedding." We had to turn around. I was
5:54like, "Do you want to go to this wedding
5:55with me?" And I said, "Absolutely not."
5:57She's like, "No."
6:00But she did. I did. I did end up going.
6:02And then we had this incredible moment.
6:05It was after the ceremony. There was
6:07like chaos going around looking into
6:09each other's eyes. And I was like, "This
6:11is this is going to be
6:13it." I knew in that
6:16[Music]
6:18moment. I knew he was the one. And I
6:21knew it was going to be wild.
6:23I knew it was going to be a
6:26really big adventure and it has
6:33been. I was born in a small town in Utah
6:37called Leighton,
6:40Utah, and my father worked for the Union
6:43Pacific
6:45Railroad. And so he relocated to Las
6:49Vegas. Back when I was there as a young
6:51kid, there was not a lot of people that
6:52lived there. So, Vegas was still really
6:54small.
6:56Growing up in Las Vegas was a good time.
6:59We had a lot of fun together there. We
7:00lived in a somewhat rural neighborhood
7:03there. Lots of kids his age around
7:05there.
7:08I've known Trevor since uh first day of
7:11kindergarten. I remember the first time
7:13I I actually saw Trevor. He would kick
7:15his heels mid-stride. And I remember him
7:18walking into the class and I thought,
7:19"That's strange. I've never seen anybody
7:21do that." And it turned out we were
7:22neighbors. And so we quickly became good
7:24friends. We knew all of our neighbors.
7:26We were friends with everybody around
7:28us. We played a lot. Rode dirt bikes,
7:30built forts, playing sports. We were
7:32pretty competitive against each other.
7:35There's five of us kids. My oldest
7:36sister is 10 years older than me and my
7:38youngest sister is 10 years younger than
7:40me. Wide range of age group in our
7:42family. Yeah. Half the time we were
7:43fighting, half the time we were, you
7:45know, best friends. Trevor was unique. I
7:48wouldn't say a troublemaker, but he
7:50always had so much energy. Trevor as a
7:52child was a pain in the
7:54ass. He was wild and wound tight. He was
7:58always just a little bit different in
7:59the way that he thought and the way that
8:00he acted. And because of that, some
8:03other kids would tease him
8:06relentlessly. They didn't have a lot.
8:10And Trevor had to work for a lot of the
8:12things that he got. And I think that
8:14also contributed to some of his ambition
8:15and drive. He decided at an early age
8:17that he wanted to work really hard. To
8:20see the things that he's overcome
8:22personally is something that I don't
8:24think most people know about
8:26Trevor. Come here. Ready? Sit. Stay.
8:30Ready? Go get
8:33it. Good boy. There you go. Good
8:37boy. There you go.
8:39Being able to raise a dog together has
8:43been really special just because we
8:44haven't had the opportunity to have
8:46children yet. Um I've had three
8:49miscarriages and so it's just it's just
8:51hasn't been in the cards for us. Um he's
8:54our little boy.
8:58Trevor's main influence when he was
9:00young was his mother. You know, I worked
9:03a
9:04lot. just spent a lot of time with my
9:06mother as a child because my dad was
9:08working and she was a real estate agent
9:09and I I had memories of putting up signs
9:12for homes for sale and she started
9:14slowing
9:16down. His mom was really a pretty
9:19dynamic person. She had been raised in
9:22foster care and she is the rare
9:24exception of somebody that goes into
9:26foster care and is not destroyed by it.
9:29I definitely saw the trauma and my mom
9:31just refused to pass that trauma on to
9:33her children.
9:35She was just a joyous, happy, let's go
9:37find some way to have fun. We called
9:40Trevor the Energizer Bunny, but really
9:42his mom was the Energizer Bunny until
9:44she got sick. My mother had developed a
9:49severe version of cancer. I remember as
9:52a young kid not knowing how to act in
9:56that situation. His family did the best
9:58they could to distract themselves. There
10:01was this glooiness to the situation that
10:04was heartbreaking. When it became more
10:06obvious that it was becoming more of a
10:08problem, my wife really wanted to go to
10:11a small
10:12town. That was when we decided to uh you
10:16know to essentially start planning on
10:17leaving Las
10:19Vegas. And that was like the beginning
10:22of kind of the whirlwind after that. And
10:25so we moved to uh we moved to a small
10:27town called Canab, Utah.
10:34My mother was one of the sweetest humans
10:36you've ever met on this earth.
10:39Once it became clear that my wife was
10:41battling an extraordinary battle, it
10:44really took over our lives. She required
10:47just lots of supervision and the kids
10:50would step in and help.
10:52And they all took their turn. You know,
10:54helping her eat and cleaning up after
10:57her and helping her like go to the
10:59bathroom is a very hard thing to do with
11:01your mom. And we had a little sister who
11:03was, you know, five at the time. She
11:05needed a lot of care and attention. And
11:07we really had to step up and be adults
11:09and we weren't adults. When your dad's
11:12working away from home and your mother
11:15is dying in front of you, it's just a
11:17really tough time as a child. You're
11:20just helpless.
11:24The hardest day of my life was calling
11:26my kids on the phone and say she
11:30passed. Very, very hard to see your kids
11:34see that, know that, realize that their
11:36mom's
11:37gone. In general, you know, Trevor took
11:40it the hardest of any of my kids. And I
11:43can still remember him standing in the
11:46mortuary with his finger on the coffin
11:49just shaking like a
11:52leaf. As a child, I remember thinking
11:55like, why is it that it happens to her?
11:56This doesn't make any sense. Like, why
11:58is it that to a good person this would
12:00happen when a lot of bad people are just
12:02rewarded with health?
12:05Losing my mom, I did go off the rails. I
12:08partied a lot trying to constantly avoid
12:10the pain.
12:14I should have been there for my family
12:16and I
12:18wasn't. So, I I carry a lot of guilt
12:20that I didn't step up to the plate and
12:21help my father and my brother and my
12:23little sister and my family in that in
12:26that time. And I'm very grateful
12:29that, you know, Trevor did actually step
12:31up and do a
12:32lot. I was doing paper routes. I was
12:35doing mowing lawns. I was doing anything
12:36I could to make money. Our insurance
12:38company dropped us and we had to sell
12:41everything we owned to pay for my
12:43mother's cancer treatment.
12:45I would say that Trevor was always
12:47ambitious, but I think experiencing that
12:50as a 14-year-old really gave him a lot
12:52of perspective as to how unpredictable
12:55life can be and how to try and make the
12:58best out of a situation. I don't know
13:00where I'd be today if she was alive
13:02because it it changed me. It changed me
13:03to become a fighter. You know, I went
13:05through
13:07hell. I was not an
13:10academic. I didn't even graduate high
13:12school. But I went back and got my GED
13:15so I could go to college. And I moved up
13:18to Northern Utah to go to a place called
13:20Utah Valley State
13:23College. I did miserable at college. I
13:25was not good. I was not a good student.
13:27He has so much energy that the hardest
13:30thing in the world for him is to sit in
13:32a classroom for an hour or hours at a
13:34time. I think one of the reasons why
13:37Trevor has been able to be someone
13:39successful is he's been able to channel
13:41that into something productive.
13:43[Music]
13:46I decided to go sell alarms in Puerto
13:49Rico for a company and went door to
13:52door. I got to learn Spanish when I was
13:53there. That was a lot of fun. And then I
13:55came back and I decided I was going to
13:57go start my own company, a company
13:58called St. George Security and Alarms.
14:01That was a huge learning experience for
14:02me because I had to learn how to take on
14:05partners, take on investment, build,
14:08grow, and eventually sell. But we sold
14:11it for that time when I was young. It
14:13was a sizable amount of money. And I put
14:16that toward my next
14:20venture. At the time, the internet was
14:22very, very young. still Amazon was only
14:25selling books and you know eBay was
14:28doing pretty well and I was like there's
14:31got to be a blend of eBay and
14:33Amazon and there just wasn't and so we
14:37decided to build this company called
14:38Upillar. It was a online classified
14:41website that allowed you to sell
14:42anything you had. You could sell shoes,
14:44you could sell jewelry, you could sell
14:46cars, you could sell anything. We were
14:48growing like crazy. We had dealerships
14:51from all over the country advertising on
14:53our website and it grew too fast. We
14:56couldn't afford to handle the
14:58servers and so we ended up having to
15:00close
15:05down. I lost my house. I lost every
15:07asset I
15:09had. I lost it
15:11all. Trevor, he just sees opposition
15:14differently than most people and sees
15:16failures differently. I think he just
15:17sees it as a stepping stone. I was never
15:20blessed with the ability to win when I
15:22was a kid. I always lost. I remember
15:24seeing how hard my mom fought through
15:26her cancer. She fought to the very last
15:29second even though she lost. And that
15:32was something she taught me is you fight
15:35until the very last second.
15:37[Music]
15:40Trevor had an uncanny desire to to
15:44succeed where a lot of people just give
15:47up. He just found another way to get
15:49there.
15:50After I lost everything in Upillar, I
15:52wanted to rebuild a company. I always
15:54thought as a entrepreneur that the best
15:56way you can fix something is by taking
15:58an industry that's not beautiful or
15:59sexy. You take that and turn it around.
16:01Then all of a sudden you created
16:02something that no one else has created.
16:04And so I decided to get into the heavy
16:06duty trucking world. It was kind of an
16:09ugly industry for a long time. It
16:11pollutes a lot. It creates an enormous
16:13amount of emissions and noise. And
16:15that's ultimately the market that I
16:16thought was going to have the best
16:18growth over the next 20 years. And I was
16:20right. And so with no money and just an
16:22idea, I started a business called
16:24Dhybrid. We would take these diesels and
16:26we would reprogram them to run off of
16:28natural gas and diesel at the same time.
16:30And it burned cleaner. And so natural
16:31gas had a lower ignition um temperature
16:34so it would ignite first and help clean
16:36the burn. And we were able to reduce the
16:37emission substantially. Dehybrid was
16:40able to sign a contract with Swift
16:41Transportation to outfit their trucks on
16:44the road. Ultimately, that company
16:46Dehybrid failed. I lost everything I had
16:48again. But the company was great. The
16:50the time the market was fantastic. And
16:52so, new investors came in and we built a
16:55company called Dhybrid Systems, which
16:58was only surrounding the area of storage
17:00of natural gas and that was it. And at
17:02this time, natural gas started taking
17:03off. Everyone was investing in natural
17:05gas. We ended up doing pretty well with
17:07that one. We ended up selling it to a
17:08company called Worthington
17:11Industries. I mean, I think I walked
17:13away with a couple million dollars. That
17:16was about it. But that was that was
17:17good. I mean, I'm not going to complain.
17:18At my age, that was wonderful. You can't
17:20be you can't be upset at walking away
17:22with a couple million
17:28dollars.
17:35Early childhood in Las Vegas, my dad was
17:38working at the Union Pacific Railroad.
17:40You know, as a kid, I spent a lot of
17:42time with him at the railroad yard. I
17:44was climbing all over the locomotives,
17:46having fun. And I got a ride in him a
17:47few times. And what I didn't know at the
17:50time was it was going to alter the rest
17:52of my life. But I always talked to the
17:54operators. I asked them about why these
17:56locomotives could pull so much weight.
17:58These guys would say, you know, there's
17:59so much power and torque in these
18:01electric motors. And that was like the
18:03light bulb for me that went on, you
18:05know, 30 plus years prior uh to me
18:07developing Nicola, which was a the idea
18:09was a locomotive semi-truck.
18:22In 2014, we decided to set up a new
18:25company to build a essentially an
18:28electric semi-truck.
18:30[Music]
18:33In 2014, electric vehicles were still
18:35considered kind of fringe. Not a lot of
18:37people believed in them. What's the
18:38reception so far? You know, it's not the
18:41best time in the world to be debuting
18:44this with the economy, gas prices so
18:46low. uh Tesla was starting to grow a
18:48little bit but in the electric heavy
18:50duty world you were considered crazy to
18:52even consider it. So the core mission
18:54initially was to transform the trucking
18:57world and develop a new type of truck
19:00that solved some of the problems the
19:01trucking industry was facing surrounding
19:04fueling uh surrounding the experience of
19:06truckers and trucks cuz they hadn't
19:08changed in such a long time. He had this
19:11vision that he could do a hydrogen
19:14electric vehicle. It became apparent
19:16that he could have a no tailpipe
19:19emissions truck running down the road
19:21that would didn't have the range anxiety
19:24that a battery electric truck would
19:25have. For every trucking company, if you
19:28got 10% of their business, it would be
19:30an extremely big difference it could
19:32make in the quality of the air in this
19:36country. I left Worthington Industries
19:39which bought the previous company to
19:41start the new company. Worthington
19:44became a seed investor. That means they
19:46invested first before anybody. I put my
19:48money in. Worthington put their money
19:50in. And that's where we
19:55started. Trevor didn't have an office uh
20:00at that time, but he did have a
20:02basement. I think most every band starts
20:05in the garage. Well, startup companies
20:08start in basements.
20:15The early days in Nicola when we first
20:17started were just filled with craziness
20:20and
20:22fun. It was like, "Okay, we're going to
20:24build the semi-truck." There's never
20:25been a semi-truck like it ever built or
20:28developed. How in the world do we take
20:30this idea, this schematic, this drawing,
20:32and turn it to life? And so we started
20:35hiring people. He called me and he said,
20:36"Hey, I've got something I'm working on.
20:38I think you might be interested." It was
20:39new. It was a startup. I never worked in
20:41a startup environment before. No one had
20:43titles. It was just engineers. So,
20:46everyone did everything. So, to be able
20:48to put your fingerprint on something and
20:50say, "Yes, I I built this. I helped
20:53build this." That's what was intriguing.
20:55I had a house in on the east side of
20:57Salt Lake City. And in my basement,
20:59that's where all the engineers were.
21:01This is uh where it all began. This
21:03where um Nicola was started. This
21:06basement is where we had all of our
21:07engineers working. Um, we had this the
21:10road would just be lined with cars. You
21:12know, we had computers all over the
21:13basement. It wasn't just his basement.
21:14It was also his kitchen and his living
21:16room and, you know, loud noises and
21:19laughing and calling suppliers on the
21:21phone. Uh, neighbors were suspicious for
21:23a while. We had a lot of cars and a lot
21:25of guys. I think we had one or two uh
21:27girls that work for us at the time with
21:28uh probably a dozen or more guys. And so
21:31the neighbors definitely got suspicious
21:32wondering what was going on. They called
21:34the cops on us. The cops showed up and
21:36they were like, "Hey, we got a call that
21:37there's 14 guys and two girls here every
21:39day." It was like, it was bad. So, they
21:41we invited the police in and they came
21:42down and they looked at everything and
21:44they were like, "Oh yeah, you're just
21:45running an engineering company. It's
21:46cool." When they left,
21:48it was a good thing I wasn't married
21:50because, you know, I don't think any
21:51wife wants 14 employees down in the
21:53basement working with wires and cables
21:55and computers. When I would go over to
21:57his house, it was there were desks all
22:01over his basement. There were cameras up
22:03everywhere and I was kind of like what's
22:05going on here or like this feels a
22:07little strange and it was just very kind
22:09of secretive because it was a brilliant
22:19idea. It's
22:21crazy. This was it right here. I haven't
22:24been here since we left. It's the first
22:27time moving from the basement of our
22:29house to here. It was uh it was quite
22:31the change. It was the first time we had
22:34uh any type of buildout at all. All of
22:35our assembly was done here. We had high
22:37voltage battery areas. We had our
22:39powertrain area. We had our whole
22:40chassis over Nickelo 1 being designed
22:41and engineered and even assembled and
22:43built. Everything came in here.
22:44Everything. It was just brings back a
22:46lot of memories when we first started.
22:48It was honestly a really exciting time.
22:51uh one Trevor, you know, he he his
22:53optimism is like um it's contagious and
22:57so everybody's excited about this goal
22:59and this vision that he sees and
23:01everybody's just working like crazy
23:03trying to get these things done. It was
23:05probably one of the funnest times in the
23:06company. Honestly, it was chaotic, but
23:08it was always a good chaos. What
23:10intrigued me about
23:13Nicola was the amount of work that they
23:18wanted to do in such a short time. And
23:21it had never been done before. Nobody
23:23had at that point had a fuel cell truck
23:26and and certainly not a class 8 fuel
23:29cell truck. A lot of the people that we
23:30worked with weren't from the automotive
23:33industry. And that was by design because
23:35a lot of the people that were brought
23:37in, they knew not to say no. They
23:39wouldn't look at a problem and say,
23:40"Well, that can't be done." Instead, we
23:42would work around the problem and say,
23:43"How can we do that?" Nicholas soon
23:45developed the culture of kind of a hold
23:47my beer situation. We're like, "Oh, you
23:49tell me that can't be done. Just just
23:51wait. We'll make it happen." And that
23:53was very exciting and fun. And Trevor
23:55promoted that type of environment.
23:58There's lots of challenges when it comes
23:59to developing products. There's the
24:02challenge of the technical where you
24:04have to create something that wasn't
24:06created before, but there's also the
24:08challenge of the opportunity to open
24:10doors. It takes a unique person, a
24:13unique skill. And I was always impressed
24:14with Trevor's ability to do that. He
24:16really can help people catch a vision
24:19because he can explain how it'll work.
24:21And when they come up with, well, what
24:23about, yeah, but what about? Well, his
24:26answer to that is, I'll figure that out
24:28and I'll tell you what it's going to be.
24:30starts as a little seed and you put a
24:31little water on it, it starts to grow
24:33and he brings you back a tree.
24:37I remember one of the first meetings I
24:38was a part of in Salt Lake. We were
24:41going over a lot of the costs associated
24:43with various components of the hydrogen
24:45fuel cell electric semi-truck and the
24:48amount of hydrogen tanks that we
24:50projected to be required to reach the
24:52range that we wanted to obtain with the
24:54truck would have represented at such a
24:56large expense to produce the truck that
24:59it was no longer viable to move forward.
25:03And I remember the finance manager and
25:06everybody else being a little bit
25:07alarmed. And I remember thinking to
25:08myself like, "Oh man, I just sold my
25:10house. I just moved here and this
25:14company is not viable. This is
25:16frustrating." The finance manager went
25:18and got Trevor out of another meeting,
25:20pulled him in, he's like, "Hey, we've
25:21got a problem." And Trevor, he goes,
25:23"Hold on just a minute." And he pulled
25:24out his phone and he called up the
25:27manufacturer of the tanks. and he was
25:30able to negotiate the reduction of the
25:33price in the tanks by like 75% within
25:37like 5 minutes. He took something that
25:39most I would say businessmen or anybody
25:42familiar with that type of problem would
25:44have given up and Trevor had it solved
25:47in a matter of minutes. And to say that
25:49that was confidence inspiring is an
25:51understatement. And that was the magic
25:53of working with Trevor was you never
25:56knew what was going to happen, but you
25:58knew that if Trevor was involved that it
26:00had a lot of potential to be something
26:02[Music]
26:04big. Ladies and gentlemen, Trevor
26:07Milton, CEO, Nicola Motor Company.
26:15[Applause]
26:16[Music]
26:19[Applause]
26:20The day that we launched that truck, the
26:22feelings and the emotion and the
26:23excitement in that room were you could
26:25taste them. You could feel them. And it
26:26was because it was something that had
26:28never been done. I mean, people don't
26:29realize this. Right now, semi-truckss,
26:30electric ones, are out there all over
26:32now. And it was because of Nicola. This
26:35is a really incredible time. Uh, one of
26:36my favorite quotes uh quotes in the
26:38world. Just just a couple days ago, one
26:40of our users sent it off to us and it
26:42just really just shocked me. It was
26:43everything I've been trying to capture
26:45and explain to people for years and
26:47years and that is the electric light did
26:48not come from continuous improvements of
26:52candles. We had invited lots of
26:56truckers. We invited different
26:58suppliers. We invited different people
27:01from the states that were looking at
27:02moving different locations just to again
27:05express and show what Nicola is intended
27:08to be and and share that vision. And it
27:11was exciting.
27:16The night of the unveiling was exciting
27:19because we had the truck up on the
27:20stage. It was all uncovered up and we're
27:22able to pull the sheet off and it was
27:24neat to finally show off what we had
27:26been developing for so long.
27:29Movers revolutionized our world. It's
27:32time we revolutionize
27:35theirs for those who dare to reimagine.
27:47No one thought that simple electric
27:49semi-truckss would ever work. And so you
27:52don't realize what you're fighting
27:53against. You're fighting against every
27:54other OEM in the world. You're fighting
27:56against your competitors. You're
27:58fighting against oil companies. You're
27:59fighting against people out there that
28:01just want to see you destroyed and they
28:03make money off of it. And so we had this
28:05huge group of people that wanted to see
28:07us fail. And so the excitement on the
28:09stage was even bigger because you're
28:10like, you know what? Screw you, man.
28:12Like, forget you guys. Like, that's what
28:14you get for second guessing us, you
28:16know? Oh, that thing is so
28:19awesome. Oh, we've been waiting so long
28:22to show this to the world. You have no
28:23idea. It's uh it's hard to even
28:27contain my emotion about
28:29this. You imagine going up against the
28:31biggest companies in the world. Wasn't
28:34against a a neighborhood company or even
28:36a big company. and we go up against the
28:39biggest in the world people 4050$50
28:41billion market
28:43caps. This is what we've been able to
28:45show the world we can do. You're going
28:47to see that this is a real truck. This
28:48is not a pusher. Thank you so much
28:51everyone. I appreciate it. Thank
28:54you. Come here buddy.
29:04[Music]
29:11very happy to be sitting down now with
29:13the founder and CEO of Nicola. Guys,
29:16thank you both for being with us. Taking
29:18Nicola public as a spa was wild. I mean,
29:23first of all, I didn't even know what a
29:24spa was. I had no clue. Trevor, let's
29:26start with the transaction that has
29:28brought you to this desk this morning,
29:29which is of course Spack Spack Spack
29:32Structure. Nickeola Motors will be doing
29:34a reverse merger with Vector IQ
29:37Acquisition Corp. That is how they were
29:39able to go public uh quickly is by
29:41merging with that blank check writing
29:43stock. Veto IQ does the deal to acquire
29:46you guys essentially or merge with you.
29:49We needed a method to get to the market
29:51to get publicly traded quickly and
29:52that's really what the spa was there
29:54for. It was it helped us get to market
29:56in less than 6 months. Saved us a bunch
29:58of time. That was really our main goal
29:59is how do we build as many trucks as we
30:01can. We'll be sold out for quite a few
30:03years. So, we needed access to uh the
30:05markets as fast as we could. As much as
30:07you would love to fight against this for
30:09a number of reasons, I think this story
30:10has legs. You know, to look back, I
30:12actually think it was the right
30:13decision. I don't think there was
30:15anything wrong with going public via the
30:16spa. It was that we were the first big
30:19spa on the market that we got the target
30:20on us. I mean, we went from 3 billion to
30:2330 billion in a matter of a few months.
30:25That was the beginning of like the chaos
30:27that ensued thereafter. Nickeola roaring
30:30hired is now up 96%
30:32104% 113%. One point last week, it had a
30:36market cap bigger than that of Ford
30:38Motor. At the beginning of June, I
30:39warned you that this thing would spike
30:41to the deal closed. At the time, it was
30:43trading just under $34. Within a few
30:45days, Niklo stock nearly tripled to an
30:47intraday high of9 $94. Let's rewind for
30:51just a second. In 2016 when we unveiled
30:54this truck and and we told the world we
30:55were going to do a fuel cell. The fact
30:56that we are the first people in the
30:58world to develop ever and to deliver a
30:59fuel cell truck for people to see
31:02function was the reason why the
31:03valuation went crazy cuz they were like
31:04this could change the entire world. This
31:06is like the smartphone when they first
31:08came out with it. It wasn't pretty but
31:10it worked.
31:14So, for the IPO, um, when we were doing
31:17all the financial videos with Yahoo
31:19Finance and things like that and talking
31:21about our our company, we set up the
31:23cameras and I got to sit in and listen
31:25to him talk to, um, the other side. And
31:28so, it was really interesting to see his
31:30perspective um, and understanding that
31:33side of the business. the generation
31:35that's investing now, they care more
31:36about the the the environmental impact
31:38of what you're doing than they do like,
31:41oh well, you're 6 months or 8 months
31:42from revenue. They don't care. They're
31:43like, you know what, you're changing the
31:44world. You're going to reduce emissions
31:45more than anyone else. We're invested
31:47into you. After that happened, the whole
31:49world is like, holy crap, spaxs are
31:51going to become the biggest thing in the
31:52world. And it also created a bullseye
31:54for the government cuz the government
31:55was like, we have to shut down every
31:56Spack in the world because we can't have
31:58this kind of money flinging around. We
32:00want the standard way of going public to
32:03be the way you go public and that
32:05shouldn't be how it is. Also, spaxs were
32:07just getting exciting. I mean, there
32:09there's a couple before us, but now it's
32:11like a wave. You're out in the ocean.
32:12You have no idea if you're going to
32:13catch a big wave. We caught the monster
32:16wave and we just never expected it. The
32:19World Health Organization raising its
32:21global risk assessment for the Corona
32:22virus's spread and impact. Uh we are in
32:24the middle of what appears to be the
32:2713th maybe trading halt of the session
32:30so far in order to provide stability to
32:32the financial system and to support the
32:34flow of credit in the economy. The
32:36psychological impact is causing people
32:38to stay home resulting in kind of a
32:40voluntary shutdown. They've got nothing
32:42to spend their paychecks on. So they
32:43either invest or pay down debt. Investor
32:46trader whatever you want to call me the
32:47retail investor participate in the
32:49growth of this company. See a lot of
32:50FOMO. See FOMO buying. the emotional
32:52buying which just shows how manipulated
32:54the stock actually is. So a retail
32:57investor is somebody like you or me. You
32:59don't have to use a stock broker to buy
33:00stock. You can go on a lot of these new
33:03services like Robin Hood. You can buy
33:06and sell stock yourself without paying a
33:08broker commission. The contribution from
33:10retail investors in an equal stock is
33:12really hard to determine. I I actually
33:14didn't know that answer myself and I
33:15asked my executive team, a guy named Kim
33:17Brady. said, "Retail investors are
33:19important." And he was like, "You're in
33:21you're kind of an idiot, Trevor. They're
33:22not." He asked the bank the banks and
33:25the NASDAQ to produce a a report and it
33:28showed how much was day traded by small
33:30investors and how much was traded by
33:32computers. And almost everything in
33:34Nicola was traded by computers and only
33:36a small percentage, like really small,
33:38was actually done by retail. So, a lot
33:40of the world thinks that like retail
33:41investors affect stock, they actually
33:42don't affect hardly anything at all.
33:44It's all done on these massive computer
33:46programs that trade millions of shares a
33:48day and they do it within fractions of a
33:50second. If we could have raised money
33:52privately, we would have done that. In
33:54the private sector, they look long-term.
33:56They look 10 years out. Their idea is
33:58prove it to us first, then come to us.
34:00Whereas the public markets are like,
34:02hey, show us your vision and then let us
34:03help you get there. So, we had to go
34:06public.
34:08[Music]
34:20Welcome back to Squawkbox. Nicola
34:21forming a strategic partnership with
34:23General Motors this morning. Nicola
34:25Badger will be engineered and
34:26manufactured by GM. The partnership with
34:29General Motors uh came about because of
34:31the Badger. The Badger was an electric
34:33pickup truck that was designed to be the
34:36leader, the first really in the electric
34:39pickup world that was just that could
34:41actually do what a pickup truck wants to
34:43do. We would not do this program unless
34:46we had an OEM partner and GM was very
34:48interested in our concept because we had
34:53a really neat truck design. four or five
34:55different OEMs. We analyzed who would be
34:57the best one for for Nicola to build the
34:58Badger. And Jim was very unique to us
35:01because they brought a lot more than
35:02just building the Badger. And so we
35:04wanted to tackle the market that was the
35:07Ford F-150. Millions of trucks being
35:09sold every year. There was other people
35:11working in the electric pickup world,
35:13but they were small and they didn't have
35:14the ability to actually function as a
35:16real work truck. It's used for job
35:18sites. It has a 15 kW power export, so
35:21you can power drills and saws and an
35:23entire, you know, job site. It's got,
35:25you know, it's got all the doors for a
35:27family. You can put car seats in it. You
35:28can put a four-wheeler in the back. And
35:29so, we built this beautiful Badger uh at
35:32first on paper. And it was around, it
35:34was designing it around what we wanted.
35:36Then we took it to the next level. And
35:39the Badger became something where we
35:41decided to try to build it from the
35:42ground up using parts from suppliers,
35:45vendors, and also parts off other
35:47vehicles that we could use. It's a very
35:49common practice in the electric vehicle
35:51world. For instance, the first Tesla
35:52that was ever built was built on a Lotus
35:54chassis. We met in depth with the
35:56engineers and both sides to say, which
35:59of your technology do we use? Which of
36:01our technology do we use? There's a very
36:03good marriage in specs for the vehicle
36:05and products that GM had to offer and
36:08stuff we had to offer to make this
36:09product a reality in a very short period
36:11of time. It was delivered functioning in
36:14November of 2020. Are you going to make
36:17money off of the Badger? And I asked
36:18that because you said, "Oh, yeah. Nicola
36:20is stock surging. The company's going to
36:22be allowing pre-orders for the Badger
36:24pickup truck." Let's talk about the
36:26semi-truck because that sounds like it's
36:28really going to be the bread and butter
36:29for your business. A $10 billion
36:30backlog, I understand. about that $12
36:32billion mark. A 2,600 acre $33 million
36:36mansion. $25 billion valuation. 28.8
36:38billion roller coaster ride for your
36:40stock. And it's a roller coaster only
36:42going up it seems so
36:47far. Once the headlines started
36:51to appear that Trevor was the new
36:56billionaire, that's when people started
36:58to swoop in and there was a huge assault
37:01against him. Jimmy, take one AB soft
37:05sticks. Mark.
37:07So, I remember the first time I heard
37:09about Nicola, I was hosting a a client
37:11appreciation party. I ran out of movie
37:14theater. Afterwards, Trevor and there's
37:17a couple other guys sitting there and
37:18they were trying to figure out what to
37:19go do after the movie event and he said
37:22to me, he said, "Hey man, I I want to
37:23run something by you." He says, "Dude,
37:25look at this." He had a rendering of the
37:26truck and I remember seeing it for the
37:28first time. I was like, "Oh my gosh,
37:30that's the future, bro." I think I
37:32asked, you know, how do I get involved
37:33with this? And then he said, "Well,
37:34dude, if you want to invest, you know, I
37:36can get you in." $500,000 I put in of
37:39the original $2.5 million that was
37:41raised. Nicola became a company that was
37:45like stratosphere type of success
37:48overnight. The idea or general concept
37:51of replacing fuel with hydrogen which is
37:54like turning water into fuel was such an
37:57enormous concept that even a glimmer of
38:00hope that they could pull it off would
38:02represent literally hundreds of billions
38:04of dollars in value.
38:08I was up I think 15 20 million in a day
38:11at one point. We got some zones here for
38:13you. Part of the problem was it went so
38:15big so fast that it just got this giant
38:18spotlight on it. I think it became a
38:20very big target for people to look at
38:22that and say there's a a huge potential
38:25to to benefit and gain from this
38:27company's stratosphere type of success.
38:30One of the targets that that come after
38:32companies like that are short sellers.
38:34Wilfred Super Micro stock tumbling after
38:36short seller Hindenburg came out with a
38:38skating report. Roblox shares are taking
38:41a hit on a report from short seller
38:42Hindenburg. Hindenburg, they took direct
38:44aim at block co-founder Jack Dorsey.
38:47When you hedge a stock, there's people
38:49who make bets that the stock is going to
38:52go much higher and there are people that
38:54make bets that the stock is going to go
38:57much lower. A short stock person is
39:00somebody who's betting on it going down.
39:02We do have a bombshell today from short
39:04seller Hindenburg Research which is
39:06revealing a new short position against
39:08Carl Icon's IEP. So one of the things
39:12that they did and short sellers often do
39:14this is a tremendous amount of research
39:16about the company. Nicola Corporation
39:19was a company that was pre-product
39:22pre-sales.
39:24They recognized that this company had an
39:25enormous stock valuation and so
39:28Hindenburg said, "You know what? We're
39:30going to bet against this guy."
39:33Often times when you work on a case, if
39:36there's one key misrepresentation by a
39:38corporate executive, that can be the
39:40foundation for a pretty strong case.
39:44Moving on now to the founder of Nicola
39:47exaggerated the capabilities. investment
39:49firm accusing Milton of making false
39:52claims, showing a truck rolling down a
39:54hill to make it look like a working
39:56prototype. Out on a flatbed trailer and
40:00coast it down the hill, took it to the
40:02top of a hill and rolled it down. The
40:04same truck that he was showing at the
40:06presentation, barreling through the
40:08hills of the Utah desert, the truck was
40:11rolling down the hill. I thought it was
40:13hilarious. I really did. I mean, it's so
40:16brazen. I mean, what are you going to
40:18do? You have you have to laugh as as far
40:20as like the actual kind of caper
40:27itself. Oh, this was going to be a
40:30promotional commercial for Philips
40:32internally. It was used just as an
40:34internal an internal promotional video
40:38specific to a a component that was on
40:42the truck marking 90 years of their
40:45company business.
40:47And so they asked Nicola if they could
40:50film one of their vehicles. Is that your
40:52rig? Yes. So they came up with a script.
40:55They designed the script. We didn't.
40:57Well, how much ethanol does it take? Uh,
40:59none. It's electric. They came up with
41:01the planning of it. We didn't. What kind
41:03of suspension do you have? Leaf springs.
41:05Does yours? No, I have air ride. They
41:08did all the video of it. We didn't. What
41:10parts do you use? Phillips.
41:15Well, at least that hasn't changed. And
41:17one of the things that they did is they
41:19said, "Well, gez, it would be really
41:20cool to have this truck moving." And
41:21Nico is like, "Well, this truck doesn't
41:23move yet." We were not willing to put
41:25that truck under its own power for the
41:26first time in a vid in a commercial.
41:29Just it wasn't smart. And they said,
41:30"Well, can we roll it down a hill?"
41:32"Sure, go ahead. Knock yourself
41:34out." The company later came out and
41:37said, "We should use some snippets of it
41:38um on social media." So then the chief
41:41legal counsel, a guy named Brit
41:42Worththing, he came up with the verbiage
41:45and the verbiage he came up with was in
41:48motion. One of the engineers brought up,
41:50hey, is this deceiving at all or is this
41:51misleading because it says in motion,
41:54but it's not driving under its own
41:55power. And Britain said, "It doesn't
41:56matter. Theoretically, it is in motion
41:58and it's technically correct by the laws
42:00of physics and we're safe to do it." So
42:02Britain approved it and then he called
42:03an employee and told him to post it. And
42:06no one cared for years.
42:09I like it on.
42:13Two years later, we had our trucks out
42:14on the road. While we're still private,
42:16operating in full fuel cell power,
42:17driving loads on the road. So, it's been
42:19superseded by new information. And we're
42:22still private, so no one could ever
42:23invest on that. Fast forward to going
42:26public. The spa screened all these
42:28videos. They were fine with it. No
42:29issue. Investors screened it. No
42:32investor that ever invested said they
42:33were misled. Everybody knew. No big
42:36deal. Hinnenberg comes, the short
42:37seller. He coins the phrase Nicola
42:40rolling down the hill and somehow in the
42:43media between all the people he paid off
42:45to run with these stories. It caught
42:46fire. Nicola towed a truck up a hill and
42:50then just let it start rolling and all
42:52of a sudden it became the biggest news
42:53in the world that NA rolled the truck
42:55down a hill. It was being rolled down a
42:56hill. You know, they essentially
42:58incentivized people to go out and do a
42:59thing called the Nicola roll where they
43:00would go out and roll their vehicle down
43:01the same hill. Doing the Nicola
43:04challenge today. 15 mph. still in
43:07neutral as you can see. In motion. It
43:11became this like thing. Man, this
43:13Nickeola one is cruising back. The
43:15company produced videos of its trucks
43:17concealing the flaws. In the situation
43:19with Nicola, there were just dozens of
43:23material lies. This was a a very strong
43:28potential case. After you see this truck
43:30come to life here tonight, you guys will
43:32understand that what we show you, we can
43:34actually deliver on. And What can you
43:36tell us about what happened here? He
43:38said that it was not a pusher, which is
43:41industry parliament. So basically
43:43meaning a prototype that cannot operate
43:46under its own power. You're going to see
43:48that this is a real truck. This is not a
43:49pusher. That's exactly what it was. It
43:52was an inoperable prototype that it had
43:54several components missing from it. That
43:56was the problem with Trevor is like he
43:58was always talking too much. and you're
44:00in the position you're in taking
44:02billions of dollars of investment money.
44:04You can't tell these little white lies,
44:07you can't stretch the truth. A pusher in
44:09the automotive world is a vehicle that
44:10never will nor can drive. That's the
44:13definition. It's something that you
44:14build just to show a concept. It's not
44:17intended to operate. It doesn't have any
44:19of the intended actual functioning parts
44:21in it. It's a shell of a vehicle. This
44:24truck could drive if it we wanted it to.
44:26The power steering worked. The steering
44:28worked. It had fuel tanks on it. It had
44:31gearboxes on it. The air brakes worked.
44:33The batteries worked. The e axles
44:35worked. It had all the DC/DCs and the
44:36cooling system. The turbine worked. The
44:39power distribution worked. And the low
44:40voltage and high voltage worked. And it
44:42was designed not as a pusher truck, but
44:44as a prototype proof of concept that we
44:46could go and drive and test.
44:49That's not a pusher.
44:51It couldn't even power itself at the
44:53unveiling. There was a cable snaked up
44:56through the stage so its lights turned
44:57on. The power cord that was running to
45:00the truck was used to power some of the
45:02lighting. If you're going to turn on all
45:04your radios and all your electronic
45:06systems unless you're going to turn on
45:08the actual engine that's providing
45:10electricity, you can't run a vehicle in
45:13a show for hours on end with the engine
45:16not running. They had artists stencil H2
45:19and zero emission on the side of the
45:20truck even though it had zero hydrogen
45:23components on board. I think if you look
45:25at the way Tesla did the Cybert truck,
45:29it was the same thing. You create this
45:31cool machine, then you build a prototype
45:33and it's not a working vehicle. It's
45:35prototype. Sure.
45:38Oh man, it didn't go through. And you
45:41say, "This is a buildable device." And
45:43you get really excited about it. We're
45:46going to make this and it's going to
45:47look like that. The Tesla Optimus
45:49humanoid robots at the robo taxi event
45:52were teleyoperated by Tesla stars. Musk
45:55did not state that there was teley
45:56operation. The Tesla team did not say
45:59there was human assistance. So again,
46:01you know, you have Elon Musk selling a
46:03vision of the future but not necessarily
46:05showing a ton of progress in the
46:07present. This is a playbook that
46:09everybody uses.
46:12at the end of a power cord. Introducing
46:15the extended range electric bolt.
46:18The only exhaust emission out of the top
46:19is water
46:21by the TDI clean diesel with up to 814
46:24highway miles per tank. And none of the
46:27chairman of those companies have ever
46:29been indicted.
46:30[Music]
46:33I think you know when you're the CEO,
46:34it's your responsibility not to put out
46:36your most grandiose or biggest marketing
46:39piece ever knowing that it was a lie. I
46:41think that falls on you regardless if
46:43you're the
46:45CEO. The day before publication, I had
46:49read the report so many times, panic had
46:52started to set in. I remember
46:55wondering, what if everything is
46:59wrong? Very soon, I was going to end up
47:02pushing a publish button and a whole lot
47:04of things were going to
47:06happen. We were picking a really big
47:08fight and we knew it.
47:14[Music]
47:19When the Hindenburg report first came
47:21out, it almost seemed laughable.
47:23Immediately, I thought it was like some
47:26kind of a joke. I didn't even believe
47:27it. I think everybody thought that at
47:28first within the company cuz it was so
47:30blatantly false. Everything about it was
47:32false. And there's email chains inside
47:34the company between all the executives
47:36and the attorneys and everyone and
47:37they're like, "This is a joke. This is
47:38absurd." I would say a general
47:41consensus was that it was just a scam.
47:44My initial reaction was to develop my
47:46own post or video and just blast out
47:50this is all I couldn't
47:55believe how misleading some of the
47:58allegations were. They
48:02were so easy to disprove. I could have
48:06disproven the majority of them with
48:08pictures on my cell phone. You know,
48:10we've got truth on our side. We don't
48:11need to worry, Trevor. It's like we have
48:13nothing to worry about. Ignore them.
48:14Which became impossible. I didn't quite
48:17understand the severity of it because as
48:21I read through it, I was like, where are
48:24they getting this? It it none of it
48:26seemed accurate. And so I was like,
48:28okay, this is going to blow over. It's
48:30going to be
48:31okay. And it wasn't.
48:37Nicola shares are tumbling after a short
48:39seller called the company quote an
48:41intricate fraud built on dozens of lies.
48:44Short selling researcher Hindenberg
48:46research. This is the report on Nicola.
48:48It's fairly hefty. It basically comes
48:50down to this. They say the company has
48:51made false statements. It has rigged its
48:54truck reveals and it's had misleading
48:56demonstrations. Nicola shares tumbling
48:58in the after shares took a huge hit
49:00after this report came out. I think the
49:02stock fell 40%, 50%, whatever it was. I
49:04I remember losing over $10 million that
49:06day. Wait, we have reached out to
49:08Nicola. No comment at all. It was
49:10shortly after the Hinnenburg report. An
49:12email was sent saying the employees are
49:14not allowed to make any statements,
49:15share any information. I was told not to
49:17say anything. I was told that I couldn't
49:19post anything. I couldn't defend
49:21everything that was false. They were
49:23going to address everything.
49:25Nicola has now made a statement. They
49:28want to be clear. This is not a research
49:30report. They say it is not accurate.
49:31This was a hit job for short sale profit
49:34driven by greed. We have nothing to
49:36hide, says Nicola. We I knew plenty of
49:38people on the marketing team and I would
49:39regularly pull them aside and say,
49:42"What's the deal?" Like, "Hey, all you
49:44have to do is release a picture or two
49:46to validate ourselves, let alone Trevor,
49:49but ourselves. Like, this isn't hard.
49:51What's going on? Like, have you seen the
49:52news? Like, this is bad." It appears
49:55there are now two agencies that are
49:57investigating Nicola. The the ship is
50:00sinking. Saying that the Department of
50:01Justice, what are you guys doing about
50:03this? The SEC is also silence is an
50:06admission of guilt. Four short sellers
50:08that are moving in on Nicola. How is
50:10this beneficial to the company? Nicola
50:12shares tumbling in the air. There's 1500
50:14employees working on all sorts of
50:16various programs. If it was a scam, what
50:18were those people working on? We don't
50:20buy into this. We don't buy into the
50:22hype. You have a company that barely has
50:24any revenue here. We think it is ripe to
50:26fall at some point in the future. So
50:28that definitely is a factor as well.
50:33I believe Hindenburg misrepresented the
50:37information that they had to tell a
50:40story that they wanted to tell a tell a
50:42version that they wanted to tell that
50:45the American public was being misled,
50:48but that was certainly not the
50:50intention. The timeliness of the
50:52Hindenburg report was very interesting.
50:56Normally, you would see reports coming
50:58out from short sellers to their investor
51:00pool on a regular basis about the bets
51:02that they're placing and why, but this
51:05one was very, very interesting. It
51:07seemed almost as though there was a
51:10coordinated effort between them dropping
51:13their report and the government issuing
51:16subpoenas to Nicola at their corporate
51:18offices. They were
51:21literally one day apart. It's just
51:24bizarre that that those things would
51:26happen at the same time and so close to
51:28one another. At the time of this
51:30Hinnenburg report, I believe there was a
51:33very real smear campaign targeted
51:35against my brother and I believe it was
51:36for profit. It was to short the company
51:38and make a lot of money and they got a
51:40bunch of people involved in it and uh it
51:42was really sad to see and sad that it
51:45took any roots at all because it was all
51:46based on lies.
51:50Pressure today comes following a
51:52CNBC.com report involving two women who
51:55are accusing former Nicola chair Trevor
51:58Milton of sexual abuse. One incident
52:00dating back to 1999, the other one
52:02dating back to 2004. A representative
52:04for Trevor Milton denies the
52:06allegations, telling CNBC, "Mr. Milton
52:09strongly denies these false allegations.
52:11At no point in his life has Mr. Milton
52:14ever engaged in any inappropriate
52:16physical contact with anyone. For that
52:19to come out at the same time is not a
52:23coincidence. There is just no damn
52:27way. Somebody was trying to take him
52:30down and take him down
52:32[Music]
52:33hard. During this short, there was three
52:36allegations. One was my one was my
52:37cousin and two was other people that um
52:40I had run across in my past a long time
52:42ago. And one of them was uh one of them
52:45had sent me a message talking about how
52:47it was her me too moment and she was
52:49proud of it and couldn't you
52:51know and she never disclosed that to the
52:54prosecutors. And uh the other one we
52:56found information and evidence where
52:58they were being represented by this
53:00person who was involved with the short
53:01sellers. They were being financially
53:03funded by them paid their attorney legal
53:05bills were paid by them and they were
53:08promised an immense amount of money in
53:10order to come out. And so when all this
53:12came out and they found out that there
53:13was financial incentives behind every
53:15one of these women, it the the case was
53:18uh the case was dropped at that point.
53:20It's just the world we live in. You're
53:21guilty now until you're proven innocent.
53:23And as soon as someone makes an
53:24accusation, you're
53:27guilty. I was definitely in a vulnerable
53:30position at the time. There were a lot
53:33of opportunistic people that came out of
53:35the woodworks to try to extract as much
53:37as they could out of me at that time.
53:41Beyond the abuse allegations, there was
53:43also another angle, a guy named Peter
53:44Hicks that was tied to a piece of land I
53:46bought. Peter Hicks was a wealthy real
53:49estate investor that Trevor Milton
53:51bought a Utah ranch and it was a
53:53multi-million dollar transaction. Part
53:56of the payment on the land deal included
53:59Nicola stock options. So after the
54:02Hindenburg statement came out, Hicks saw
54:05an opportunity to try and get more money
54:08from Trevor on this land deal. Peter
54:12Hicks had already made a fortune off of
54:14the land deal. He made millions of
54:15dollars within just a matter of weeks.
54:17And after the Hindenburg report came
54:19out, Peter Hicks jumped on the
54:22bandwagon. It is very frustrating to see
54:25people twisting the narrative for their
54:28advantage.
54:31After the Hindenburg report, it
54:35was my opinion that Hindenburg had
54:40really done an injustice because they
54:44they persecuted a person that had up
54:48till now had just
54:50given everything to to create this
54:53company, to create this idea. There were
54:55many people within the organization that
54:57felt the same way that he was
55:00just personally attacked.
55:04Trevor Milton, the founder of electric
55:06truck company Nicola, is voluntarily
55:08stepping down as executive chairman and
55:10giving up his board seat. The stock has
55:11been on a wild ride over the past couple
55:13of months, just a little over a week
55:15after short seller Hindenburg Research
55:17released a report saying Nicola misled
55:20investors. The hardest part was actually
55:24the
55:25homeront at first because we were
55:28getting death threats and it got a
55:32little bit scary.
55:35So, we had to get private security. We
55:38had to, you know, kind of just hunker
55:40down
55:42and be silent is what we were
55:47advised. They didn't stop. It it it it
55:50went on for months and
55:53months. This was after the company
55:57decided to turn on us. As we agreed to
56:00exit a certain way, they were behind us.
56:03They were our friends. You know, we were
56:05going to family events and we could tell
56:09that it was advised. It It wasn't one at
56:13a time or at different times. It was all
56:15at once. No one could speak to us. It
56:19was really devastating.
56:25[Music]
56:30The people at Nicola that were in the
56:32leadership were concerned that, hey,
56:35we're targeted now and we don't want to
56:37be uh ourselves accused of anything
56:41improper. And so they tried to find a
56:43way to protect themselves. even if the
56:46statements were false, they just didn't
56:48want the appearance of being blamed for
56:50anything. And so they hid behind Trevor,
56:53which was the face of the company, to
56:54say, "We need you to say this and we
56:56need you to do this and we need to do
56:57that." And then when Trevor said, "I'm
56:59going to step aside," they use that to
57:00their leverage and their advantage to
57:03say, "Well, now we can just blame him."
57:06Um, and we can be in the clear.
57:13I don't know if you could ever create a
57:15better perfect storm than what
57:16Hinnenburgg did. I had already told the
57:18board that I was planning on stepping
57:20down in December. So, we went public in
57:22June. I planned on staying on for only
57:24less than 6 months and then stepping
57:27away, retiring, and focusing on, you
57:29know, trying to help my wife get
57:31healthy.
57:36In 2018, we had bought a home, but we
57:40were doing a bit of renovation, so it
57:41wasn't ready when we moved down to
57:42Phoenix and we got an Airbnb. What I
57:45didn't realize about the Airbnb is that
57:48it had really high amounts of mold in
57:50it. So, I recall like opening the washer
57:54and just black mold all over. And after
57:58that, my health just started to
58:00deteriorate a little bit. So I went to a
58:02clinic to try to just queue in to see
58:05what was happening and get some blood
58:07work done. I was there for only 5 days
58:10and on the fifth day when they put the
58:12PRP in me, something was different. A
58:17doctor had put the wrong person's blood
58:19plasma that had all kinds of sicknesses
58:21in it and injected it into my wife
58:23thinking it was hers. It almost killed
58:26her instantly on the spot. When they
58:28injected it, it it was a pretty
58:32substantial reaction, pulsating down my
58:35leg. I was more dizzy than usual, and I
58:39could tell that something wasn't right.
58:41Trevor got me back home, and then I went
58:44down into two
58:46seizures, stopped breathing. Trevor
58:49called an ambulance and they came to get
58:52me, rushed me back to the same emergency
58:54room where they did a ridiculous amount
58:57of testing and told me nothing was
58:59wrong. Um, I was very, very
59:03sick. So, we went on this journey to try
59:06to find what was wrong. It destroyed her
59:10body. It destroyed her health. It
59:12destroyed her ability to have children.
59:14It gave her diabetes instantly,
59:17autoimmune diseases instantly, and her
59:18body started attacking itself, thinking
59:20someone else's blood was in there, and
59:21now it doesn't know what is what. In one
59:23day, she went from being a healthy young
59:25woman with the aspect of maybe having
59:28kids in a family, wanting kids in a
59:31family, to a type 1 diabetic. For at
59:35least the first two years, I just kept
59:39hoping and praying that she wouldn't die
59:41today. I couldn't drive. I couldn't
59:43cook. I couldn't walk up and down the
59:45stairs. It was a really hard time for
59:47Trevor and I because he had the pressure
59:50of taking care of all these employees
59:52and their
59:53families. Yet his wife was dying at
59:56home. Like we had no idea what was going
59:59on during this time of going public. The
1:00:02insanity was crazy. And I was working
1:00:03long hours and my wife was at home
1:00:05barely getting out of bed. I could not
1:00:07help my wife grow the
1:00:11company, deal with all the SEC stuff,
1:00:16deal with Hindenburg. I had to choose
1:00:18one or the other. I had to choose my
1:00:20family or the company. I chose my
1:00:22wife. My life right now is revolved
1:00:25around trying to take some of that
1:00:27stress off of her and like support her
1:00:29in the ways I can because a lot of her
1:00:31therapy is stuff she has to do on her
1:00:32own.
1:00:34So, I have to check my blood sugar
1:00:37regularly. I wear a continuous glucose
1:00:39monitor for diabetes. And so, I have an
1:00:43app on my phone that sends like me
1:00:47alerts. If it gets too high or too low,
1:00:50depending on the number that it reads on
1:00:52here, then I will um put insulin in. And
1:00:56I do that before I eat, too. And I used
1:01:00to be really scared of needles and I'm
1:01:02not anymore because it's part of my
1:01:05everyday
1:01:09life. I also developed something called
1:01:11pot syndrome. It's a condition where
1:01:14when you change elevations when you're
1:01:17going from standing to sitting or
1:01:20sitting to standing where the blood
1:01:21pressure needs to change it, it doesn't
1:01:24happen quick enough for you. So
1:01:26basically it doesn't make it to your
1:01:27brain enough and you get these dizzy
1:01:29spells. I used to have them really bad
1:01:32where I needed assistance walking. I
1:01:34couldn't drive. I mean it made it almost
1:01:37impossible to move around the house by
1:01:39myself which was a tough a tough time of
1:01:42life. It's definitely sent me on an
1:01:45interesting journey of health and it's
1:01:47kind of had to be a part-time job of
1:01:50finding solutions so I can live a life
1:01:54that feels
1:01:58meaningful. It was a really tough
1:02:00situation because I stepped away because
1:02:01my wife was dying. The way the media
1:02:03read it was Trevor's guilty. He stepped
1:02:06down because of Hannenburg and then all
1:02:08of a sudden thousands of articles went
1:02:10out and he was uncontrollable and then
1:02:11all of a sudden there's no no way to fix
1:02:13that narrative. But today Nicholas
1:02:15executive chairman and founder stepped
1:02:18down because of some high stakes
1:02:19boardroom drama. This Hindenburg
1:02:21research report was something
1:02:24that totally smashed the stock. He's a
1:02:27he was worth a billion dollars. I don't
1:02:28know if he's below that at this point. I
1:02:30might get the hell out of there, too. I
1:02:32wonder whether his leaving has something
1:02:33to do with GM being unhappy about the
1:02:36situation and the fact that Gerski, who
1:02:38helped put that deal together, is now
1:02:40running the company. When I left the
1:02:41company, it was at $30 a share. It was
1:02:43worth 10 plus billion dollars and they
1:02:45had a billion dollars in cash in their
1:02:46books. Under the direction of Steve
1:02:48Gerski, he's destroyed the entire
1:02:50company. You know, the entire deal with
1:02:51GM fell apart as I was no longer there.
1:02:54The new leadership didn't want anything
1:02:55to do with the Badger. Essentially, GM
1:02:57says that's we're out too then. And so
1:02:59they just they they both just bailed on
1:03:01it and then it caused the stock to fall
1:03:02even further and then it made me look
1:03:04even more guilty. So the whole thing was
1:03:05a cascading effect of things that the
1:03:07company did and everything they did made
1:03:09it look like he was guilty. Yeah. He
1:03:11says he stepped down because of his
1:03:12wife's health. Uh I mean what do you
1:03:15think? It's the day after the report
1:03:16came out that it was all a fraud. Uh I
1:03:20think it's pretty clear why he stepped
1:03:21down. When Trevor stepped down after the
1:03:23Hindenburg report was released, the
1:03:26optics did look bad to me. It it really
1:03:30demonstrates a lot about Trevor's
1:03:31character when you know what else was
1:03:33going on. The amount of stress that that
1:03:36would cause Trevor had to prioritize
1:03:38something. Do you prioritize money or do
1:03:41you prioritize family? And Trevor
1:03:44prioritized family devastating
1:03:46consequences to his character or his his
1:03:49reputation. Yeah. But did he do the
1:03:51right thing? Absolutely. So do I wish he
1:03:53could have stayed on? Yeah. Absolutely.
1:03:55I I often wonder where Nicola could have
1:03:57been if Trevor were still there because
1:04:01so many amazing things were about to
1:04:03happen.
1:04:24Good morning. My name is Audrey Strauss.
1:04:27I am the United States Attorney for the
1:04:29Southern District of New York. Today, we
1:04:33announce charges against Trevor Milton,
1:04:36former CEO and executive chair of Nicola
1:04:39Corporation. We charge that Milton
1:04:43engaged in a scheme to enrich himself by
1:04:46making false and misleading statements
1:04:48to retail investors about the
1:04:51development of products and technology
1:04:53at Nicola Corporation. Today's criminal
1:04:55charges against Milton are where the
1:04:57rubber meets the road. Now Milton will
1:05:00have to answer in a court of law for his
1:05:02allegedly false and misleading
1:05:04statements.
1:05:10I was in Wyoming and I got a call from
1:05:11my attorney and he said, "Uh, Trevor,
1:05:14you're going to be
1:05:15indicted." And I said, "For
1:05:17what? I don't understand. Why would I be
1:05:20indicted?" He says, "They, uh, they're
1:05:22going to indict you. They're going to,
1:05:23you know, they're going to arrest you.
1:05:24They're going to indict you." And I was
1:05:26like, "Holy cow, this is crazy." And I
1:05:28and I, you know, was like, and first
1:05:29thought in my head was is how's Chelsea
1:05:32going to handle this? You know, her
1:05:33health, like that was the first thing I
1:05:35thought about. I felt like I'm a strong
1:05:36enough person. I can handle just about
1:05:38anything put put at me. But you don't
1:05:39want to see your family go through that
1:05:41kind of uh torture and
1:05:43pain. And so it was uh it was tough. I I
1:05:46just so many emotions cuz I didn't
1:05:48understand like why are they indicting
1:05:50me? And he says because of your speech.
1:05:51Yeah. It was how I used my my my my verb
1:05:54tense in conversation. So it was uh that
1:05:56was what they took issue with. It wasn't
1:05:58that there was any money missing. There
1:05:59was no dollars taken, stolen,
1:06:02misappropriated, no funds missing, no
1:06:04documents destroyed, no documents
1:06:06incorrectly submitted to the government,
1:06:07nothing. I mean, the stuff you would
1:06:08think about fraud, that's what fraud is,
1:06:09right? So, that was really, it just
1:06:11didn't make any sense to me. I was like,
1:06:12"Wait, this isn't real." I thought it
1:06:14was had to be like a bad dream or it
1:06:15just wasn't real, but it was
1:06:18real. So, I had to drive home and I
1:06:22remember hugging my wife and I just
1:06:23said, "Listen, I need to tell you
1:06:24something is going to be really hard for
1:06:25you to hear." And and I told her and she
1:06:29just fell in my arms just balling. I saw
1:06:32my wife break down and from that moment
1:06:33on, I saw her her health go to complete
1:06:35hell. And it was the
1:06:37hardest few years of my entire
1:06:41life. Well, when I heard that Trevor was
1:06:44going to be indicted, I just couldn't
1:06:46imagine that they could even find the
1:06:48substance for an indictment. It was uh
1:06:52almost paralyzing. Just sucks the life
1:06:54right out of you to think about that.
1:06:56Being indicted by the
1:06:58DOJ just about ensures you of either
1:07:02being convicted or of maybe wishing
1:07:04you'd been convicted and given up early
1:07:06and just gone to jail. It gets that
1:07:09oppressive
1:07:12during this this
1:07:14time. We both have had incredible
1:07:17amounts of stress. I was on death's door
1:07:20and he had moments where he said, "Am I
1:07:25the one causing this?" I mean, it was
1:07:28heartbreaking. But then he's going
1:07:30through the biggest trial of his life,
1:07:32which ultimately were going through it
1:07:35together. And we both are looking at
1:07:38each other
1:07:39with such empathy, wishing that we could
1:07:42change each other's situations. I was
1:07:44indicted in front of the world. you
1:07:46know, wire fraud, security fraud, you
1:07:49know, all this stuff. Allegations of
1:07:51these girls at the same time. I mean,
1:07:52just everything came at me at once to
1:07:54destroy me. And it was amazing. And to
1:07:57see her just stand by me and just say,
1:07:59"This is BS. I don't care. Like, I'm it
1:08:02doesn't matter. Like, I'm here and I'm
1:08:03here and I'm going to be with you every
1:08:04second of every day and support you."
1:08:06And I I just I'm just I'm so grateful.
1:08:10She has not ever failed to support
1:08:13Trevor through this adversity. It's been
1:08:16remarkable. It
1:08:18[Music]
1:08:21is difficult for me to express what
1:08:24that's meant. So, she's had, I think, a
1:08:27tremendous impact on Trevor's life in
1:08:29general, but especially with all these
1:08:30trials, keeping him focused and not let
1:08:32all this that's going on get to you. You
1:08:34know, she's she has a calming effect on
1:08:36him. And it's been wonderful. She's
1:08:38probably been one of his greatest
1:08:39strengths in this. I believe I know that
1:08:42I want to be with this man. He's the
1:08:44love of my life. He's my best friend.
1:08:47He's He balances me. And
1:08:50so if we had to start over on a beach
1:08:54with a taco truck, and I've said that
1:08:56even when we were dating, like, I'm here
1:08:57for it. Let's do it.
1:09:08[Music]
1:09:17How did the trial end up in New
1:09:20York? Well, to be honest with you, the
1:09:23the real easy answer is because they
1:09:24could never convict me in another
1:09:26district in America.
1:09:29In the Southern District of New York,
1:09:31the conviction rate is nearly 100%. It's
1:09:35safe to say is not a place that you want
1:09:36to be as a criminal defendant.
1:09:39Take one marker. I'm Clifton Newman. I
1:09:42have 24 years experience as a trial
1:09:44judge. Numerous high-profile cases, most
1:09:47recently the state versus Alex Murda, a
1:09:50double murder trial. Cross examination.
1:09:52I think most federal courts have a
1:09:54higher conviction rate. They are more
1:09:56selective in their decision to
1:09:59prosecute. The Southern District of New
1:10:02York probably have all the resources
1:10:03that they need to pursue a case uh
1:10:06successfully.
1:10:07One of the arguments made in the
1:10:09pre-trial phase was that venue was
1:10:11inappropriate in New York because none
1:10:13of the conduct actually occurred in New
1:10:14York. They said that a wire went through
1:10:16New York for a piece of land that I
1:10:18bought. Dad securities tied to it. Come
1:10:20to find out later, the wire never
1:10:21actually never went through New York.
1:10:22I'm guaranteed by the Constitution the
1:10:24right to be tried by my peers, not
1:10:26someone 3,000 m away. Remember this is
1:10:28what happened to the founding fathers of
1:10:29America. They used to drag the founding
1:10:31fathers of America across the ocean to
1:10:32where the people hated him and convict
1:10:34him and try him and kill him inside the
1:10:36court there. We filed a motion for a
1:10:38venue just telling the judge that was
1:10:39wrong. The judge heard it and he just
1:10:41said it's going to stay
1:10:44here. The courthouse at the Southern
1:10:47District of New York is one of the
1:10:49oldest courouses in the country. It's
1:10:51where the biggest cases have been tried.
1:10:53For an attorney, you look at that court
1:10:57house as being like, oh, like this is
1:11:00the big show.
1:11:02Going into the Southern District was
1:11:04really, really interesting. You know,
1:11:05you immediately you walk in there, it's
1:11:06a very, very dark room. A lot of dark
1:11:08woods, almost no light. The setup was a
1:11:11little strange because we were just
1:11:12coming out of CO. There was plexiglass
1:11:15around the witness box, plexiglass
1:11:17around the lectern where the attorney
1:11:19spoke. I was there at Trevor's trial for
1:11:21the whole thing. I was there every
1:11:22single day, front row, watching the
1:11:24trial, and it was, I would say, a very
1:11:26difficult experience. They said you
1:11:28don't care about the the the
1:11:29environment. I just thought I'd give you
1:11:30an opportunity to say it's true before
1:11:32you get the cross.
1:11:34It was horrible.
1:11:36I don't think I could have prepared for
1:11:38something like that. I get high blood
1:11:41sugar when I'm stressed, like cortisol.
1:11:43The whole time I'm just like shoving an
1:11:45insulin pen in my leg trying to be
1:11:48discreet on the front row. I was present
1:11:51for 3 weeks of it. I had an idea about
1:11:54the legal system and how our country
1:11:57works. It was quite an awakening. Not at
1:11:59all what I expected. My friends and
1:12:01family being in that courtroom were
1:12:02everything to me in my life. And I bet
1:12:04we had 20 to 30 people at my trial for
1:12:07my friends and family every day of the
1:12:09trial. He had a lot of support there.
1:12:12And I think that just trying to get
1:12:14through the craziness of every day. He
1:12:16needed that. And we're as a family, we
1:12:18were happy to do that. Most of them were
1:12:20traveling 3,000 miles away. They were
1:12:22giving up everything in their life for
1:12:24two months. No one should ever be
1:12:26subjected to that ever. As difficult as
1:12:28it was, we also talking with Trevor
1:12:30every day. And you know what? His
1:12:31optimism is always there because he's
1:12:33like, you know what? I I'm in the right.
1:12:35I'm going to win this. I did no
1:12:37[Music]
1:12:40wrong. Service on jury duty is the
1:12:43highest form of public service next to
1:12:46service of our country in a time of war.
1:12:48It is a very high calling for one to
1:12:51serve honorably on a jury.
1:12:55The jury in my trial was tough. There
1:12:57was a couple people in my jury that I
1:12:59thought were really good people that
1:13:00would stand up for the truth. The rest
1:13:02of them I had doubts about. People who
1:13:04knew Nicola as a business in their
1:13:07community in Utah. Those jurors probably
1:13:10would have had a very, very different
1:13:13impression of the facts in this case. He
1:13:15had none of that. They dragged me to a
1:13:17city where people would never be able to
1:13:18understand me, who would hate who I
1:13:20stood for. It would be a class warfare,
1:13:23and they knew it had nothing to do with
1:13:24the trial, but they could convict me
1:13:26because they could guarantee a jury that
1:13:27would convict me. Nobody was a lookalike
1:13:30person to Trevor. It's hard to believe
1:13:33that any of these people had even traded
1:13:34a stock before or, you know, even knew
1:13:37how the SEC operates. Most everyone
1:13:39there either worked for the government,
1:13:41who is involved in the government. They
1:13:42hate wealthy people. where I come from,
1:13:44what I stand for, what my family is
1:13:46like. It was a very, very anti-wealthy
1:13:48mentality in that courtroom from day
1:13:50one. You know, some of them were asleep
1:13:52half the time. And you know, they
1:13:54wouldn't look at Trevor. I think there
1:13:56was one girl looked at Trevor and looked
1:13:58at our family. I think that I could have
1:14:01walked out on the street and none of the
1:14:03jury would have recognized me except
1:14:05maybe that one girl.
1:14:09I'd say probably 90% of the evidence
1:14:11that showed I was innocent was prevented
1:14:12from coming into trial. The company
1:14:14claimed privilege in all these
1:14:15communications. I never got to show the
1:14:17jury it. Thousands of documents that
1:14:19show I was innocent. It appears when you
1:14:21read the transcripts, it was very, very
1:14:24difficult for that evidence to get let
1:14:27in. The prosecutors and our defense
1:14:29would go meet with the judge and they
1:14:30would come back and they would say,
1:14:31"Yeah, none of this comes in." It was
1:14:33oppressive to listen to the manipulation
1:14:35that goes on and what they do and don't
1:14:37allow the jury to hear. People were
1:14:40coached into wording things so things
1:14:42couldn't be presented into evidence.
1:14:44Like we could not talk about the trucks
1:14:46that were out on the road and and being
1:14:48test driven. That was very difficult.
1:14:50The day after Hindenburg hit, our CFO
1:14:52had a call with the biggest investors we
1:14:54had at our company. And in my CFO's
1:14:56diary, he wrote, "Trevor's not
1:14:58fraudulent." The judge did not allow
1:15:00that into trial.
1:15:03I have witnesses that have come forward
1:15:05to me to tell me that they told the
1:15:06government in statements that I was
1:15:07innocent and the government never turned
1:15:09them over to me. I know of dozens of
1:15:11them. But none of that information was
1:15:13made available to the defense to be
1:15:15submitted to the
1:15:17court. Only the information that was
1:15:20voluntarily provided to the defense
1:15:23could be presented in court. you know,
1:15:25if there's cooperation between the
1:15:27company and the prosecution, they're not
1:15:31going to release anything to the defense
1:15:33that could be presented in court that
1:15:35would damage their
1:15:38case. When I met with the DOJ, they went
1:15:41through my testimony and they determined
1:15:42that nothing in my testimony was
1:15:44supportive of their claims against
1:15:46Trevor. And even though I had all the
1:15:48information surrounding what we had and
1:15:50hadn't done in Nicola and how that
1:15:53related to the accusations against
1:15:54Trevor, I believe that they did not want
1:15:56me to testify because it would have
1:15:59exonerated Trevor from any of the
1:16:01allegations they had against him.
1:16:04I can remember sitting there in the
1:16:06trial watching a slide that the DOJ put
1:16:09up of a particular interview he had and
1:16:12at the top of the interview it said,
1:16:14"Mr. Milton, what is your plan for
1:16:16Nicola going forward? And then the DOJ
1:16:19in the trial, they highlight the thing
1:16:22that they thought was a misspeak, but
1:16:24nobody called any attention to the fact
1:16:27that the guy already said, "What's your
1:16:29plan?" And Trevor was speaking about his
1:16:32plan going forward. And then they said,
1:16:34"Well, that wasn't true at the time."
1:16:35Well, no, it wasn't true at the time.
1:16:37That was his vision of the future. Plain
1:16:39as day, right up at the top. If they'd
1:16:41have just looked at that and allowed it
1:16:43in, it would have made a big difference.
1:16:46But the jury didn't get to hear that. It
1:16:48was not allowed.
1:16:50Founder of Nicola Motors facing years in
1:16:53prison, defrauding investors for his
1:16:55$3.3 billion company with technology
1:16:59that didn't exist. He even claimed that
1:17:01Nicola was developing the technology for
1:17:03a new pickup truck, which he called the
1:17:06Badger. But in fact, the Badger was
1:17:08nothing more than another company's
1:17:10truck that was dressed up with Nickeola
1:17:13branding. That was categorically false
1:17:16and a lie by her and it destroyed our
1:17:18stock. And it's it's provable that it
1:17:20was a lie because a guy named Dave
1:17:22Sparks who bought those assets later and
1:17:23it was driving when he bought it. Boy,
1:17:25have I got a story for you guys. The
1:17:26Nicola
1:17:28Badger. These trucks actually exist.
1:17:31They're real. It runs. It drives a full
1:17:34interior. It is really cool. butt that's
1:17:37been sitting in storage for over three
1:17:39years. Nicola decided to cancel these
1:17:41programs focusing on the big rig stuff.
1:17:44All I wanted to do was post it. They
1:17:45say, "Hey guys, look, it's real. This
1:17:47isn't a fraud." But I couldn't because
1:17:49when you're dealing with companies this
1:17:51big, there's a lot of pieces of paper
1:17:53that you sign that basically just say,
1:17:54"Shut up and don't tell anybody about
1:17:56what's going on." It was very
1:17:57frustrating not to be able to show all
1:17:59the hard work we put into and unveil
1:18:02that this was a real real truck. 99% of
1:18:05that chassis was handbuilt custom parts
1:18:08and the cab was custom as well. All the
1:18:10interior, custom dash, custom seats,
1:18:13custom steering wheel. So to say it was
1:18:15just a badge Raptor is a complete false
1:18:18statement. That is not adding up here.
1:18:21So So Tom, help us understand something.
1:18:23The press is always going to frame
1:18:25things the way they want. And so I had
1:18:28to kind of put press and media aside.
1:18:33the way that the prosecution was trying
1:18:36to make him out to be a total
1:18:41devil. I was stunned at the way that
1:18:44they twisted what took place. If you
1:18:47knew anything about the actual issue,
1:18:49then it just is not a clear picture at
1:18:52all.
1:18:57Right before our closing arguments, one
1:19:00of our attorneys got CO
1:19:03They decided to shut the courtroom down
1:19:05for a whole week. You have a jury who
1:19:07heard a case for over a month. Then the
1:19:10jury had a oneweek vacation. They just
1:19:12forgot about everything. They went back
1:19:13to work. They went back to their lives
1:19:15and then come back and try to remember
1:19:17everything you've heard. It's kind of
1:19:18difficult. Some of them probably
1:19:20researched me. There's a lot of content
1:19:22out there about me that was not true. I
1:19:24don't know what impact the delay might
1:19:27have had, but I have never experienced a
1:19:31juror take jury taking a oneweek break
1:19:34between trial and argument and
1:19:36deliberations. And then they got called
1:19:38back in for the final closing arguments
1:19:40and jury um instructions and 36 pages of
1:19:44instructions. Well, the jury charges in
1:19:47the Alex Murdoch trial involving a
1:19:50double murder charges were 15 to 20
1:19:53pages and the Trevor Milton case was 36
1:19:57pages. I can tell you if you give the
1:19:59jury too much, they won't look at it.
1:20:00And that's what happened. They had
1:20:01already put it out of their mind. They
1:20:03got called back in. They got the
1:20:04instructions and they were like, "We're
1:20:06just done with this. We just want to go
1:20:07home."
1:20:08[Music]
1:20:11After a month-long trial, we would
1:20:13expect the deliberations to cover
1:20:15several days. In this case, the jury had
1:20:18a verdict within a few hours, we
1:20:21immediately knew that that was a bad
1:20:24[Music]
1:20:26thing. When the verdict was read by the
1:20:29jury, it was uh single-handedly the
1:20:32hardest moment of my entire
1:20:35life because I knew inside. I said,
1:20:37"This jury just convicted an innocent
1:20:39person that spent his life serving and
1:20:42giving to
1:20:44everybody and they destroyed me. It
1:20:47broke me. I I just I I I sobbed. I
1:20:51fell." She just collapsed, you know, and
1:20:54just started balling. I think a most
1:20:57people were in shock. There was just
1:21:00tears. But Chelsea just collapsed. My
1:21:02wife called me and told me that they
1:21:04found him guilty. And I was just like,
1:21:07"You got to be kidding me." I remember
1:21:09that night going home and just there was
1:21:12no comfort. There was nothing that could
1:21:14bring us comfort. Just him and I in the
1:21:17room and just no words. I think back and
1:21:20I still can't believe that they would
1:21:22say guilty. It hit me very hard. All of
1:21:24a sudden, I felt like I had a weight on
1:21:26my shoulders that that I hadn't had
1:21:27previously. And I I was very worried at
1:21:29that point. I was just in utter shock
1:21:32that anybody could possibly find him
1:21:35guilty of some crime that didn't exist.
1:21:40They proposed that he misspoke and
1:21:42that's a lie and therefore that's a
1:21:44crime. I mean, you go to McDonald's and
1:21:47you look at their sign and you got this
1:21:48great big burger and the meat's falling
1:21:50off the edge. Well, what about their
1:21:52misspeaking? Don't see McDonald's going
1:21:54to jail.
1:21:56[Music]
1:21:59The problem is is when you say that you
1:22:02have something and you tell people they
1:22:04should invest their money in it and it's
1:22:06not accurate. It's not what you say it
1:22:07is and then those people lose that
1:22:09money. I mean, who's responsible?
1:22:11Somebody has to be responsible for that.
1:22:13And so, I don't know. I know Puffer is a
1:22:14real thing. You know, Elon Musk has said
1:22:17millions of times some different things
1:22:18were going to happen and didn't. I don't
1:22:19know if he should have gone to prison
1:22:21for it. I did think there need to be
1:22:23some kind of accountability. I don't
1:22:24think somebody should be able to build a
1:22:26company and get wealthy off of lies and
1:22:28then be able to walk away with that. So,
1:22:30I don't know. Am I guilty of puffing or
1:22:34exaggerations or misrepresentations? No.
1:22:37I had to try to explain to the world
1:22:39that we were going to change everything
1:22:40about the diesel engine, that the the
1:22:42emissions were going to go away, that
1:22:43hydrogen was a viable product. And by
1:22:45explaining all that, I would I would
1:22:47speak about the business plan all the
1:22:48time because we went public as a
1:22:51pre-revenue company.
1:22:53Everyone knew we were pre-revenue. All
1:22:55the documents that Jimmy and other
1:22:56people signed, clearly understood that
1:22:59what we were talking about was in the
1:23:01future, he signed his name on every one
1:23:03of them. He understood they were not in
1:23:04production yet. He understood everything
1:23:06he was getting into. He understood. By
1:23:08the way, I heard he made about $5
1:23:10million. That's essentially what you see
1:23:12around me is people making money off of
1:23:14me and then turning around to destroy
1:23:15me.
1:23:18[Music]
1:23:25After my trial was over, there was
1:23:27multiple employees that had approached
1:23:29me and essentially asked me for
1:23:32forgiveness for what they've done. And
1:23:34they were looking for a way to, I think,
1:23:36to sleep at
1:23:37night. One of those people that came to
1:23:39me was a former CEO of Nicola, Mark
1:23:42Russell. Mark was one of the people I
1:23:44loved most in this life. and he came
1:23:46over to my office and we were able to
1:23:48have a conversation about what was
1:23:49wrong. And in Arizona, it's a single
1:23:51party consent state. The facility has
1:23:54cameras and audio and you're able to
1:23:56hear part of that today. You knew I was
1:23:59never talking about the present moment.
1:24:00You knew I was talking about the
1:24:01business plan. I told him. No, you
1:24:03didn't. No, I didn't. No, you did not. I
1:24:05can read you your transcript right back.
1:24:07You never once told them it was a
1:24:09business plan. What could we have said
1:24:11that would have changed their case? You
1:24:12could have looked at the jury and says
1:24:13Trevor's not fraudulent. Nothing he did
1:24:15was fraudulent. All it takes is one good
1:24:18man to stand by an idol and do nothing.
1:24:20Well, that's what I'm here to talk
1:24:21about. Do you believe I was fraudulent?
1:24:24I don't believe you intended to defraud
1:24:26people. No. You knew I wasn't
1:24:27fraudulent, Mark. I don't believe you
1:24:29committed wrong. I believe you were
1:24:31wrongly convicted.
1:24:33I think a lot of it came down to the
1:24:35fact of how he felt. He was hoping to
1:24:37write a wrong to fix what had happened
1:24:40and to possibly make a play to write the
1:24:43ship. And here the truth. The truth is
1:24:44is that I didn't do anything
1:24:59fraudulent. At Trevor's sentencing
1:25:01hearing, in order to keep him out of
1:25:03prison pending the appeal, his attorneys
1:25:06made certain arguments. The judge did
1:25:09acknowledge that there were potential
1:25:11issues. Prosecutors were making a
1:25:13comparison that Nicola was just a big
1:25:15bet of lies just like Theronos. Hailed
1:25:18the next Steve Jobs, Elizabeth Holmes
1:25:20promised to revolutionize healthcare.
1:25:22She called it the iPod of healthcare and
1:25:24claimed it could run hundreds of lab
1:25:26tests with just a single drop of blood.
1:25:28But an explosive investigation revealed
1:25:30it was the scam of the century. And we
1:25:33told the judge, we said, "Your honor,
1:25:34the trucks are real. Therronos,
1:25:37everything was fake." And the judge is
1:25:38like, "Are you telling me that the
1:25:40trucks are actually real?" "Yes, your
1:25:42honor." Both of them, the hydrogen and
1:25:44the and the battery, both of them are
1:25:45available for sale today to customers.
1:25:48My defense attorneys look over just to
1:25:49verify. They say, "Trevor, is that
1:25:51true?" Yes. And at this point, I
1:25:52actually started saying it myself cuz I
1:25:54was like, I'm not waiting for my defense
1:25:56attorneys to tell the judge what's up.
1:25:59So, I was like, "Yes, your honor. They
1:26:00are real, both of them." And he's like,
1:26:02"You can let your attorney speak for
1:26:04you." And I was like, I wanted it. I was
1:26:06so bottled up and so angry that they
1:26:09were able to suppress the truth through
1:26:11this whole thing and how corrupt the
1:26:13system is that the system didn't even
1:26:15know that the trucks were real when they
1:26:18convicted me. How that is. And
1:26:20he looks over the prosecutors and he
1:26:21says, "Are those trucks available today
1:26:24to buy?" And the prosecutor said this,
1:26:26"This will blow your mind." "Well, your
1:26:29honor, they have seat belt recalls." And
1:26:31it was the first time I saw that the the
1:26:33light bulb click with the judge. Holy
1:26:35this guy just got
1:26:39railroaded. And the judge, give him
1:26:41credit, he says, "Lots of vehicles have
1:26:43seat belt recalls." It was the first
1:26:45time I saw the judge stick up for me. He
1:26:47was visibly shaken at this moment and he
1:26:49walked out of the courtroom. And
1:26:51everyone's like, "What the heck just
1:26:52happened?" He had to take a break and go
1:26:55back in the back. And he said, "I'll be
1:26:57back in 5 or 10 minutes." And he jumped
1:26:59out and left and came back. I think I
1:27:01don't know whether he went back to look
1:27:03to see if it was running or if he just
1:27:04had to get his composure. I think it
1:27:06affected him tremendously. I think he
1:27:08was under the assumption there was never
1:27:09such a truck on the road this whole time
1:27:11and now he's feeling the weight of
1:27:14this. The judge says, "Trevor, I don't
1:27:16think you intended to mislead anybody or
1:27:19harm anybody." There's a huge spectrum
1:27:21of good and evil in this world, and I've
1:27:22seen evil people walk through this
1:27:23courtroom, and I don't think you're one
1:27:25of them. There's three counts. You could
1:27:27be sentenced on each one of them. um
1:27:30instead of that I'm going to have them
1:27:31all run at the exact same time. I'll
1:27:32give you 48 months and that's it. And
1:27:35the prosecutors just dropped their head
1:27:36in their
1:27:38hands. And then the prosecutors asked
1:27:40the judge to put me in prison. And it
1:27:42was clear that the judge was visibly
1:27:44concerned at that point. He says, "I've
1:27:46been sitting here watching Mr. Milton's
1:27:47family come to this every day of this
1:27:49trial and hear in the sentencing and
1:27:52I've seen nothing but an incredible
1:27:53family supporting him and that there
1:27:55were real mistakes that have taken place
1:27:57and that will be very real on appeal. I
1:28:00can't see why he should have to report
1:28:02right now. This is his words. He says,
1:28:04"I think this is just a bump in the road
1:28:05for you, Trevor." And it was the only
1:28:07time I ever saw the judge see me as a
1:28:09human, as actually a person. And the
1:28:12prosecutors didn't say a word, didn't
1:28:14hold a press conference. It was
1:28:15essentially a total disaster for the
1:28:16prosecutors. The judge remarked upon how
1:28:19much family support he had had and that
1:28:21and it he seemed genuinely grateful and
1:28:24somewhat astonished and I think he just
1:28:27felt like he'd let the appeals court
1:28:29decide it for him cuz I think he
1:28:32realized that he got stonewalled by the
1:28:36prosecutors. Hearing the judge say right
1:28:39after the sentencing, he said, "I
1:28:42understand you're going to appeal this
1:28:43case and that is warranted." And to me,
1:28:47that's very telling for a judge of that
1:28:50level to say, "You should appeal this."
1:28:53The judge did grant Trevor's motion for
1:28:56bail pending appeal. The bail package, I
1:28:58believe, was somewhere around $und00
1:29:00million. It was secured with properties,
1:29:03and ultimately the judge let him go home
1:29:04to look after his wife. I almost felt
1:29:06greatly appreciative of the judge,
1:29:08especially because initially the
1:29:10prosecution asked for 64 years, which is
1:29:14just
1:29:17astonishing. Trevor Milton, when he went
1:29:19to trial and he was convicted, there was
1:29:22a certain amount of evidence that
1:29:24warranted the jury to believe that he
1:29:26had committed wire fraud. Now, new
1:29:28evidence has come to light that the
1:29:30person who testified against him in
1:29:33criminal court may have perjured
1:29:35himself. Count for indictment against
1:29:39Trevor Milton involved the alleged
1:29:42securities fraud violation and
1:29:44purchasing of the land and ranch in Utah
1:29:48from Peter Hicks. When we were buying
1:29:51this piece of land, the agent set up a
1:29:52phone call with myself and Peter and his
1:29:54son Lucas. The party was in
1:29:56Massachusetts at the time. Massachusetts
1:29:58requires dual party consent to record a
1:30:01phone call. Peter illegally recorded
1:30:03this phone call with his son. Now,
1:30:05Trevor, this is the plan. I mean, you're
1:30:07you're not gobbling it up right now
1:30:09because that would be getting too far
1:30:11ahead of yourself or are you? No, we are
1:30:13on a certain route. So, from LA to
1:30:15Phoenix, we're already doing that.
1:30:16That's where that's where APM bed is,
1:30:18you know, with aniser push. Peter Hicks
1:30:21alleged that he relied upon fraudulent
1:30:24misrepresentations by Trevor Milton and
1:30:28consemly enough Peter Hicks testified
1:30:31against him in the criminal case turned
1:30:33around and sued him in civil court. In
1:30:36the civil case, the Milton attorneys did
1:30:38a really good job of convincing the
1:30:40judge in the civil case to do what's
1:30:43called a forensic audit. What they found
1:30:46is 20,000 documents. Peter Hicks and
1:30:49Lucas Hicks had deleted up to or lost or
1:30:52destroyed up to 20,000 different
1:30:54documents. He deleted half of it and
1:30:55only gave half of it to the government.
1:30:57A lot of information that may have
1:30:59exonerated Trevor Milton in the criminal
1:31:02trial. Peter Hicks claimed to have been
1:31:04the victim. The real victim appears to
1:31:07have been Trevor Milton. This conviction
1:31:10on count four is troubling. If I was the
1:31:12presiding judge and this new evidence
1:31:15landed in my lap, I would automatically
1:31:18grant a new trial. The world will know
1:31:21that the government had a witness that
1:31:22lied, destroyed evidence, perjured
1:31:24himself, and that's who they used to
1:31:26convict an innocent person.
1:31:30So now you fast forward and this is
1:31:32where everything gets completely put
1:31:34into the into the tornado.
1:31:39There were reports that juror number six
1:31:41had made comments on social media that
1:31:43it was her New Year's resolution to
1:31:45abolish the billionaire
1:31:48class. This is someone who hates wealthy
1:31:50people, desired to take down a rich
1:31:53person. Almost all of her tweets are
1:31:55anti- rich. She lies to the judge about
1:31:57it. It's my understanding during the
1:31:59jury selection process that she had told
1:32:01the judge and the attorneys that she was
1:32:03not an active social media user. It's
1:32:06been determined that that was not
1:32:08factual. She uses social media quite
1:32:10frequently.
1:32:15And she's the juror who's controlling
1:32:17the jury and convicting me. Quite often
1:32:20there's a single strong willed person
1:32:23that will dominate the jury. One person
1:32:26can influence the outcome. If I was the
1:32:29judge in a case in which the juror
1:32:32demonstrated absolute bias against the
1:32:35defendant on trial, that juror would be
1:32:38taken off the jury. And it just makes me
1:32:41sick to my stomach to think that that's
1:32:42the kind of person that was on my jury
1:32:44the entire
1:32:44[Music]
1:32:47time. The judge gave the jury the
1:32:49ability to go talk to media.
1:32:54They said, "Why did you convict him on
1:32:551, three, and four, but acquit him on
1:32:58two?" Onethird of the jury was there for
1:33:00the interview. And they all agreed. They
1:33:01said, "Well, because count two required
1:33:03intent." So, there were two securities
1:33:05fraud counts. He was guilty on count
1:33:07one, not guilty on count two. And this
1:33:09is really weird and really confusing
1:33:12because these two securities fraud
1:33:13counts, they require like really similar
1:33:16things. And so, it was hard to
1:33:18understand the jury's thought process,
1:33:19like how they could arrived at this
1:33:21conclusion. The front page of my jury
1:33:24instructions said count 1 2 3 4. Two of
1:33:26those counts were for securities fraud.
1:33:28The other two counts were for wire
1:33:30fraud. The single most important element
1:33:32of all of those is what they call
1:33:33intent. In order to be found guilty of
1:33:36any criminal offense, criminal intent is
1:33:40necessary. In criminal cases, we don't
1:33:42convict people based on negligent acts.
1:33:45If criminal intent doesn't exist,
1:33:47there's no crime. Criminal intent is
1:33:50required on all four counts to convict.
1:33:53Unfortunately, the jury only thought
1:33:54criminal intent was required on count
1:33:56two, which is why they acquitted me on
1:33:58count two. It was count two where we
1:34:01just had an issue. I'm assuming an
1:34:03intent was that element missing from
1:34:06Yeah. intent to harm. Intent to harm.
1:34:08Okay. So, you acquitted him on count two
1:34:10because count two requires intent. Yes,
1:34:12that's correct. But count 1, three, and
1:34:14four did not. No. No intent was required
1:34:16on 1, three, and four. First, we found
1:34:17him guilty on those. So, criminal intent
1:34:19was missing in the 4-week trial. Yeah.
1:34:22The jury says, "Yes, we found no intent
1:34:24in the entire trial." What in the heck
1:34:26did I just hear? When the jury gets it
1:34:29wrong, a growing trend of activist
1:34:30jurors is fueling new reasons for
1:34:32appeal. The jurors came out and said,
1:34:34"One of the jurors had to be home by
1:34:365:00, and if we didn't convict him, then
1:34:38there might be an alternate brought in,
1:34:40and he could be acquitted on all
1:34:41counts." if you just kind of want to
1:34:42describe what those first mo moments are
1:34:44like, that first hour in that room
1:34:46together.
1:34:47Well, we
1:34:49were um we just wanted to like get
1:34:53through it mostly cuz I knew I couldn't
1:34:56go back. Like I said, I pay for our
1:34:58school. I'm in school. I pay for out of
1:35:00pocket and um my job wasn't going to pay
1:35:03me after 15 days and I had a like I was
1:35:06already losing money being in jury duty,
1:35:08right? this is who was on my jury and
1:35:11we're like this is this is insane. Like
1:35:13this can't be real. Like I feel bad
1:35:15because I couldn't come back that Monday
1:35:16so maybe just step down just let them
1:35:19keep deliberating. Yeah. Cuz maybe if
1:35:22they had just kept on talking about it,
1:35:23things would have just There's also the
1:35:26fact that like we represented all the
1:35:28evidence. It certainly looked from the
1:35:31outside, which is confirmed from the
1:35:34reporting that it was a rushed verdict
1:35:36because the jurors just simply wanted to
1:35:38be done. We filed massive motions to
1:35:41throw this entire trial out and they
1:35:43were
1:35:43denied. It blows my mind that this is
1:35:46America. So, there we have it. Evidence
1:35:49that a jury in New York just put a man
1:35:51away for 4 years while openly admitting
1:35:52that he's innocent. But at least juror
1:35:55number six made it home by 5:00
1:35:57[Music]
1:36:07[Music]
1:36:09p.m. After Trevor had to leave Nola, the
1:36:13passion was
1:36:14gone. The folks that were left in charge
1:36:18just lost touch with with what we were
1:36:20doing, what we were trying to do. The
1:36:22current management has diluted the
1:36:24shareholders to almost nothing,
1:36:26equivalent to about 2 cents a share now.
1:36:28They sold off the most valuable assets
1:36:30the company had, including the
1:36:31headquarters and the factory land. They
1:36:34spent over a billion dollars in cash and
1:36:35are almost out of money now. They
1:36:37severed the relationships with our best
1:36:39suppliers. To say that there was poor
1:36:41management would be an understatement.
1:36:43They were the ones chasing the dollar.
1:36:46It wasn't what it used to be, so it
1:36:47wasn't it wasn't the place for me. From
1:36:51my understanding and my personal
1:36:53opinion, I was let go because of
1:36:56my, you know, my relationship with
1:36:58Trevor because I was loyal to him. And I
1:37:01saw a lot of that happening as I was
1:37:03leaving. More people that were loyal to
1:37:05him were let go. They started
1:37:07to descope what we did. In fact, I was
1:37:10hired to do nothing for a full year
1:37:12because they just wanted to keep me on
1:37:14the books. I think it was to to not have
1:37:16me say anything. and I ended up leaving
1:37:19because I didn't want to be kept quiet.
1:37:21We poured everything into that company.
1:37:23We put our blood, sweat, and tears. I
1:37:25have no idea how many nights I slept at
1:37:29Nicola working on projects. Only to have
1:37:32something like this come along and
1:37:36portrayed as a scam. It was really hard
1:37:39to deal with. Like all my friends and
1:37:41family, it's like, "Aren't you ashamed
1:37:42that you worked for such a a criminal?"
1:37:46And I had to defend him and defend
1:37:48myself and say, "No, I'm a very honest
1:37:50person. I have high integrity. I work
1:37:52for people with high integrity." And
1:37:55he's not anything that they say that he
1:37:57was. If Trevor ended up going to prison,
1:38:01um, it would be a horrible
1:38:04[Music]
1:38:07injustice. Are you
1:38:10hungry? Come
1:38:12on. Come on.
1:38:17Good dogs.
1:38:21Wait,
1:38:27break. If the appeal doesn't go through
1:38:31and there is a possibility
1:38:35of my my worst nightmare
1:38:38happening, I mean, we've had to have
1:38:41conversations to
1:38:42prepare yet. No matter how you prepare
1:38:46for something like
1:38:47that, you look at other cases that it's
1:38:50happened to or other situations and
1:38:52maybe this is the best route. Nothing's
1:38:53guaranteed. You never know what way a
1:38:55judge is going to rule. And so, uh,
1:38:59those are the moments that I broken down
1:39:01into
1:39:02nothing. Um, and it's been
1:39:16It's
1:39:20heartbreaking,
1:39:21but I know that I'm
1:39:24not of value
1:39:27to my family and everyday society
1:39:31and, you know, all the people that we
1:39:34take care of, the employees that we
1:39:35employ. if I'm a
1:39:37mess. I've had to ask for help a lot and
1:39:40I'm
1:39:41grateful for the people that have been
1:39:44there for me.
1:39:49So, we're doing five lb steps.
1:39:53Seven. Okay. Usually, I don't sit next
1:39:54to you because, you know, Yeah, I know.
1:39:58We want to keep the piece in the house.
1:40:01We have a couple competitive players
1:40:02here and I tend to win. This was six and
1:40:05then one more seven. Okay, seven. Good.
1:40:06Okay, a sevens this time, guys. So, you
1:40:08have a can be a straight seven. Anything
1:40:11that equals a seven. And sevens are
1:40:14wild. Did I draw? Nope. Why did you I
1:40:17have refused to look in my mind at the
1:40:19idea that that appeal will be
1:40:22unsuccessful. I don't even I don't even
1:40:24give it any place to think about it. I
1:40:28can't. It would be a disaster
1:40:31for on many many levels.
1:40:37I laughed for Look at that again. That's
1:40:41why he was giggling at the beginning of
1:40:42the game. Something was going on.
1:40:46It would be really hard for me to have
1:40:47joy knowing my brother was stuck in
1:40:49somewhere he couldn't have joy. It would
1:40:50be really difficult for me. My brother
1:40:52and I are close. It would eat me alive
1:40:54every day. Where's a buck? Oh, he's out.
1:40:57He's out. Oh,
1:41:00it makes me sick to my
1:41:02stomach every day. Chelsea's got nines.
1:41:06That's BS. Shoot. Don't look. That's a
1:41:07lot of nines. That's a lot of nines.
1:41:10Why'd you look over there? Cuz you fold.
1:41:12You put them up. You put them right with
1:41:14a glass of water. The few times that
1:41:16we've had to have conversations where we
1:41:19would prepare for the worst. I break
1:41:21down so deeply that I I think Trevor
1:41:28feels like he doesn't want to bring it
1:41:29up again because he doesn't want to see
1:41:31me in the depths of, you know, crying on
1:41:35the floor and not wanting to face those
1:41:38realities. I forgot you actually. All
1:41:40right, my turn. I'd say I'd like to
1:41:44carry you. As you prepare for your
1:41:46appeal, the only thing you're really
1:41:48thinking about is your family. you don't
1:41:49have a lot of time to dwell on like the
1:41:51negative possibilities. I think we have
1:41:53an incredible appeal, one of the best I
1:41:56think in the Southern District that's
1:41:57probably come through there in a very
1:41:59long time. So, I think we have a very
1:42:00good chance of getting it overturned.
1:42:02You can let your mind go there
1:42:03negatively, but it doesn't do you any
1:42:05good because there's nothing you can do
1:42:07to change it.
1:42:09[Music]
1:42:12Some of the things I wish people could
1:42:14take away from this, especially
1:42:15entrepreneurs, is that most of the
1:42:17information they're going to get from
1:42:18investors and other people's is
1:42:19completely bogus. They have their own
1:42:21desires. They have their own agendas.
1:42:23And they will destroy you to take
1:42:25everything you've ever built. And I
1:42:26didn't know that going into this. It
1:42:28helps me understand where that famous
1:42:29saying is, the root of all evil comes
1:42:31from money. And it's true. I saw some of
1:42:33the best people I've ever met in my life
1:42:35become cowards over money. The day I
1:42:38left Nicola, the stock was at $30 a
1:42:40share and is now down to about 10 cents
1:42:43a share. The existing management now has
1:42:45absolutely destroyed the company,
1:42:46pillaged it, taking multi-million dollar
1:42:49salaries up to $8 million while they
1:42:51bankrupt the company. I think they
1:42:53should be in prison for it. They lied to
1:42:54the government. They destroyed evidence.
1:42:56They tried to destroy me, but then they
1:42:57just took millions of dollars while they
1:42:59did it. That to me is is is really
1:43:02unforgivable.
1:43:03[Music]
1:43:04To the entrepreneurs out there, when
1:43:05you're in a tough position, go with your
1:43:07gut. Don't ever listen to anybody. If
1:43:09anyone ever tells you, "Oh, you're not
1:43:11good enough. You need to step aside, or
1:43:12we need more people in here to really
1:43:14support you," that's bunch of horse
1:43:16crap. Those people never built a company
1:43:18like you did. You're you're enough.
1:43:20You're good enough for what you're
1:43:21doing, and you're good enough to
1:43:22continually grow your company. Don't
1:43:23listen to those people.
1:43:26[Music]
1:43:56Heat. Heat.
1:44:05What was your reason for pardoning
1:44:07Trevor Milton? Uh, highly recommended by
1:44:11many people. He did a business deal like
1:44:14in Utah and then they brought him into
1:44:17New York where he had a rough road and
1:44:19they say it was very unfair. And when I
1:44:22heard about it, I said, "Nope, not going
1:44:24to happen." They destroyed five years of
1:44:26his life and he did nothing wrong.
1:44:34Will be the first ones in
1:44:38line retreat from the
1:44:42struggle. Cuz warriors don't run. Ashes
1:44:47to ashes, dust to dust.
1:44:51[Music]
1:44:54This ground is covered with broken
1:45:01promises. And just when everything seems
1:45:08lost, together we live. Together we die.
1:45:14Side by side. Warriors
1:45:18stone in the heat of the
1:45:22battle. We'll be the first ones in
1:45:26line. We'll retreat from the
1:45:31struggle. Cuz warriors don't
1:45:34run. All the odds stacked against
1:45:39us. We're running out of time.
1:45:43The winds may be
1:45:47surrounded. Warriors don't
1:45:54run. Side by side we take our
1:46:02stand. This ground is covered with our
1:46:06solemn
1:46:09[Music]
1:46:10promises. Always true to our
1:46:15[Music]
1:46:17commands. Forever we live as legends. We
1:46:22die side by side. Warriors don't run.
1:46:29[Music]
1:46:32In the heat of the
1:46:35battle, we'll be the first ones in
1:46:39line. We'll retreat through the
1:46:44struggle. These warriors don't
1:46:48mind. All the hearts act against
1:46:52us. We're running out of
1:46:56time, but we may be surrounded.
1:47:02Warriors don't
1:47:05[Applause]
1:47:06[Music]
1:47:07run. This isn't the end of the story.
1:47:11It's just the beginning.
1:47:13[Music]

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