‘I Am One Quarter Cherokee:’ Nikola Founder Gives Unhinged Statement After Being Sentenced To Prison

Trevor Milton Ts2
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Trevor Milton, founder of alternative-fuel vehicle startup Nikola, was sentenced on Monday to four years in prison for two counts of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud. Milton was also ordered to pay a $1M fine in addition to serving time. Normally, this would be the sort of bite-sized tidbit reserved for The Morning Dump, but, um, things got weird.

In case you aren’t familiar with Nikola, let me give you a brief summary. This alternative fuel vehicle startup was founded by Milton, went public in 2020 via SPAC, and was quickly found out to have lied about some fairly important things. A Hindenburg Research report claimed that the Nikola One truck was made to look functional by just rolling it down a hill, and that was later confirmed by Nikola itself. From there, the stock value plummeted, the SEC mounted an investigation, and we eventually ended up here, with Milton’s sentencing.

While we’ve all said some things we probably shouldn’t have in moments of desperation, it’s usually stuff like denying the passing of gas, or attempting not to make it obvious to your manager that you’re massively hungover. What Milton reportedly said in the courtroom, as per Inner City Press on the social media network formerly known as Twitter? Well, some of it reads like a Nick Mullen bit.

As I reflect on my heritage, sorry your Honor, I never had to talk about these things before. I am one-quarter Cherokee, there was ethnic cleansing against my ancestors.

My people were driven into Oklahoma. The trauma is visible on reservations. The generational trauma ended with my mother, she refused to pass it down to her children. From the time I was young, I had an unusually tender heart.

In the third grade, I saw “Where the Red Fern Grows.” I cried, and others laughed at me. I knew I would never be understood. Then my mother got stick. There was morphine for cancer. The doctors removed my mother’s breasts. She was bald.

Whew, there’s a lot to digest here, so let’s take a step back and chew the fat. The atrocities against indigenous people are terrible. I fail to see how rolling a truck down a hill connects to that. Any normal human being should cry at a film where dogs die, because that’s a normal response. It’s unfortunate about his mother.

Next, things get religious, because you just knew this was going to happen. However, it doesn’t seem like Milton thinks he’s going to hell.

My mother said there are colors in heaven that don’t exist on Earth. Your purity is broadcast in colors. For the first time in my life, excuse me, for the first time in your life, you are reviewed totally. Those who sought destruction were filth.

The process of repentance can take thousands of years on the other side. It is called Hell. Each decision is broadcast to billions of God’s creations. Our ability to absorb information is almost infinite. From that point on, I remember everything.

One day my decision will be broadcast in Heaven for everyone to see. I did not commit those crimes. I’m not dispute the verdict — I’m letting you know I didn’t do them.

Oh boy. I’m not even sure where to begin with this, and I’m not sure if I want to kick the hornets’ nest. Anyway, this evangelical reprieve comes sandwiched between two instances of comparing himself attempting to tie his fate to the fate of people of color.

Rubin Carter, one of the greatest African American boxers, was framed — he was found guilty by a jury too. In 1995, Black and Latino teenagers were convicted right here in NYC. Their reputations were destroyed. DNA exonerated them. The Five.

There is zero evidence that this is a race thing. Milton’s case doesn’t share any circumstances with those of Carter or the Central Park jogger case. It was a pretty well-documented case that ended up reaching the verdict that Milton had misled investors. It doesn’t carry the sort of sentence you’d see from a murder or attempted murder conviction.

Nikola One

Milton then reportedly went on to make a claim as to why he stepped down from his role at Nikola, alleging it was to take care of his wife following a bad plasma-related incident.

I stepped down because my wife was suffering life-threatening sickness. She suffered medical malpractice, someone else’s plasma. So I stepped down for that – not because I was a fraud. The truth matters. I chose my wife over money or power.

Stepping away from work to take care of a loved one is a noble thing to do, but it doesn’t exactly un-mislead investors or answer past sexual assault allegations. Anyway, white collar crime is bad, the courts have done their thing, and it looks like Trevor Milton is going away for a few years. Otherwise, I have no words. This is just a bizarre story, and I write about stuff like Brazilian-market Volkswagen-based pickup trucks for a living.

(Photo credits: Nikola/YouTube)

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77 thoughts on “‘I Am One Quarter Cherokee:’ Nikola Founder Gives Unhinged Statement After Being Sentenced To Prison”

  2. I knew that this guy was a grifter, but I just read the linked article about his past sexual assault allegations and… wow. This guy is first class creep and aspirational pedophile it seems.

  3. Not my place to judge anyone’s stated ancestry, but pulling this card from his posterior during a trial, and adding cancer mom, weird religion and sick wife cards to the deck… Feels like the kid who justified a missed homework assignment with “my dog ate it, my granny died and I fell down the stairs”.
    Pick one card, dude!

    2. He should have added that he’s also Jew-ish because he eats bagels sometimes, and his mom was also killed twice on 9/11. I think that stuff has been proven to work

  4. > I write about stuff like Brazilian-market Volkswagen-based pickup trucks for a living.

    I had to double check the byline because I thought that was a Jason piece.

  5. So… the use of the word gimmick is click bait, but this barely car related, socially infuriating article is just fine?
    Paging Mr. Tracy….

      1. Seriously?
        This article had absolutely nothing to do with automotive news and or culture.
        It’s clearly just a piss pot for X like comments and clicks.
        I come here explicitly to escape that type of useless social diversion.
        Obtuse individuals always use that line…

        “If you don’t agree then don’t click on it”

        That’s a weak argument at best and a sure way to show your ignorance to anyone that doesn’t agree with you.

        If I only clicked on internet articles I agreed with I’m pretty sure I’d become a complete moron in no time.

        1. Dude founded an EV company. He broke the law when taking said car company public, and is now going to jail. Your argument is akin to saying Delorean trafficking cocaine isn’t relevant to the history of Delorean.

          I don’t mean you should only read articles you agree with, but if you think it’s the “useless social diversion” you try to avoid, then freaking avoid it. It’s really not hard.

    1. Yeah, it’s the danger of working on all those old rust buckets – enough scrapes and cuts over the years that the man’s literally actually got jeeps in his blood.

  8. This kind of unhinged shit is usually part of the closing statements of someone so disconnected from reality that they insist upon representing themselves despite repeated warnings from, well, everyone.

      1. That is as may be, but his patter here doesn’t seem to further his career much. Unless it’s a prelude to some sort of insanity defense or mitigation of sentence.

  10. They´re coming to take me away,
    Haha, they´re coming to take me away,
    Ho ho, hee hee, ha ha,
    To the happy home with trees and flowers
    And chirping birds and basket weavers
    Who sit and smile and
    Twiddle their thumbs and toes
    And they´re coming to take me away,
    HAHAAAAAAAAA

  11. Brilliantly I have just managed to end a phone call with my late partners mother. I suggested that she should travel away and set up an electric trucking company in Oklahoma. She seemed happy and there is something very satisfying about watching a robot sweep up a sledgehammered mobile telephone.

  12. White assholes trying to buy sympathy by claiming a slice of identity politics are perhaps the most bizarre beasts of our contemporary sociological ecology.

    I always want to ask them how they thought it could even possibly work.

    SMDH…

  13. I saw a documentary eons ago – Andrei Chekatilo had a very similar avalanche of words as his last words in court, it’s just that he was a bit angrier. I really hope the resemblance ends here.

  16. Will Hayden (Sons of Guns) claiming to be part Choctaw didn’t save him from multiple life sentences for child sex charges, being part Cherokee should have no effect on Trevor Milton’s sentence.

    1. 100% chance he’s nothing but a white guy, whose mom never had cancer, and whose wife had a booboo where the IV line went in because the phlebotomist was tired of dealing with Trevor’s caterwauling next to her.

  17. I have no sympathy for his victims because everyone could see it was a scam. I have no sympathy for him because he’s a psycho egomaniac would would sell his mother’s last breath.

    I do have sympathy for those of us that have to repeatedly hear about Elio Motors, Faraday Future, Lightyear, Lordstown, Aptera, or any other obvious scamware.

    1. A decade or so ago the Elio Motors folks came through town with their prototype as part of a nationwide tour. I showed up wearing my HMV Freeway t-shirt and got in line to sit in their vehicle. A couple of the staff noticed my shirt and quite good-naturedly mentioned that there had been Freeway enthusiasts at pretty much every one of their stops so far.

      The main difference at the time, of course, and still the main difference today, is that HMV actually produced and sold several hundred vehicles.

      1. Carbon’s business model was insane, I remembered they exhibited at a police chiefs convention and had almost zero foot traffic vs the Ford Fleet display nearby, it was obvious there was nothing to support what they were planning. Was kind of sad, except not really, because it was probably what the folks behind the company intended all along, raise money, pay self, get away when it collapses

      1. Most of the news sites do not want to be sued so they cover these companies like they are real. A balanced approach would point out a) lack of funding, b) lack of facilities, c) previous lies, d) technical hurdles, e) company resources (personnel, patents, working prototypes, f) likely market competition, g) success or failure of similar ventures.

  18. A large number of venture capitalists, who are supposed to have expertise in judging risk vs. reward and commit large amounts of money based on those judgements, talked to this guy and decided to front him multiple containerloads of money. From this I draw two conclusions;

    1) Our financial system is irredeemably borked.
    2) Boy oh boy am I in the wrong racket…

    1. “Hey babe, I negotiate million dollar deals for breakfast. I think I can handle this Eurotrash. Hey, sprechen ze talk, huh?”
      “Hans, Bubby, I’m your white knight!”

      • Harry Ellis, Nakitomi Tower Trevor Milton, probably.

  20. Well, he is at least correct about the significance of colors – after all, humankind is simply materialized color operating on the 49th vibration, but that’s all pretty self-explanatory.

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