Trump pardon founder Nikola Trevor Milton

President Donald Trump pardoned Nikola Corp. founder Trevor Milton For his judgment for federal crimes in October 2022 in connection with deception investors with false claims about the success of electric and hydrogen truck manufacturer.

Milton, 42, was convicted in December 2023. For four years in prisonbut since then it has been free by awaiting appeal on the criminal verdict of former executive director on securities and the wire fraud charging US District Court in Manhattan.

The pardon was followed by two weeks after the federal prosecutors called the judge of the Court of District Court Edgard Ramos to order Milton to pay restitution Of the $ 680 million to shareholders Nikola, and another $ 15.2 million to Peter Hick, the victim of his wire of fraud.

Because of the pardon, Ramos could not order any restitution.

“Oh my God, Oh, you won’t believe what just happened,” Milton said in Instagram Video posted on your personal account on Thursday. “Probably the best day I was in five years old.”

“I just got a call from the President of the United States, on my phone, and he signed my full and unconditional pardon of innocence,” Milton said, which seemed to drive a vehicle in the video.

“I’m free. Prosecutors can’t hurt me anymore,” he said. “I can’t destroy my family, I can’t take everything away from me, I can’t ruin my life.”

The White House confirmed the pardon.

Milton defenders did not immediately respond to the comment requests.

A spokesman for the US lawyer at Manhattan, who prosecuted Milton, refused to comment on the pardon.

Manhattan US lawyer, when in 2021 he received an indictment against Milton, said some investors flooded with his scheme “suffered dozens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars of losses, including, including loss of their retirement or fund that they borrowed in Nikola.”

Milton also gave significant political donations to Republicans at the end of 2024, including $ 920 000 USD The Trump 47 Committee, first reported by New York Times journalist Ken Bensinger.

Milton, who “never gave political donations before, donated two million dollars to the Republicans between September and December.”

In a a statement On Thursday, Milton said, “This pardon is not just about me – but about all the Americans wanted by the government, and unfortunately, that’s a lot of people.”

Milton also claimed that there were “striking similarities” between his case and those who were launched against President Trump. “

The president has been charged with four criminal cases between his first and second term in the White House.

After Trump was elected in November, the US Ministry of Justice requested the rejection of two federal cases, citing the policy of the department prohibiting the federal persecution of the seats.

There was no complaint in the Federal Court in Manhattan or the 2nd round of an American appeal court indicating that the criminal case against Milton had been terminated for pardoning.

However, it is not uncommon for the presidential pardon notification to be submitted to the court a few days after the issue of pardons.

“No wonder why confidence and trust in the Ministry of Justice has not been destroyed,” Milton said in a press release.

“I wish the judges stop believing in everything that prosecutors food so that Americans could again trust the judicial system,” he said. “Until that happens, our judicial system will continue to erode as long as nothing left.”

Trump’s pardon of Milton, if confirmed, would delete her criminal judgment and sentence, which included a $ 1 million fine.

Earlier this week, Trump signed a full and unconditional pardon for Devon Archer, a one -off business partner Hunter Bidenformer president Joe BidenSon.

Like Milton, Archer was also convicted in the case of fraud.

Immediately after the inauguration on January 20, Trump especially pardoned about 1,500 people who were either accused or convicted of crimes related to January 6, 2021, an attack on the US Capitol by the President’s supporter.

On the second day in power, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbrichtwho served a life sentence for crimes associated with his Silk Road in the dark market.

In February, former Illinois Gov. Genus Blagojevich received the presidential pardon. Blagojevich served eight years in prison after being convicted of trying to sell the Senate left by Barack Obama after the first slave senator was elected President in 2008.

In February, Nicholas filed for Chapter 11 of bankruptcy protection in the US Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.

The company said in the submission that there were obligations between billion and $ 10 billion, and property between $ 500 and $ 1 billion. He also requested the court’s approval for the sale of work, saying he had about $ 47 million in cash.

Nicholas, which in recent years seems primarily electric and fuel cells, electric semia of trucks. The company has only sold 600 vehicles since 2022, since the last third quarter.

As the capital of the company decreased, many of its trucks retreated as a result of defects. In its conference call in the third quarter, the company warned investors that it had enough money to finance operations in the first quarter of 2025, but not more than that.

Nicholas collapse only five years after reaching a market capitalization of $ 30 billion in 2020, which exceeded Ford at that time.

The evaluation encouraged Milton’s wrong statements, which was charged in July 2021.

According to prosecutors, from November 2019 to September 2020. Milton forced unprofessional investors to invest in Nikola “through false and misleading statements regarding the development of Nicholas products … through interviews on social networks and television, printing and pods.”

“Milton made false claims regarding almost all aspects of Nikol’s business,” the US lawyer at Manhattan said at the time of his indictment.

They included false claims “that the company had an early success in creating a” fully functioned “prototype of the semi-category known as” Nicholas one “, when Milton knew that the prototype was neoporable.”

The office also said that Milton gave “false and misleading statements that Nikola made and built a truck with electric and hydrogen drive known as the” badger “from” Ground Up “using Nicholas parts and technology, when Milton knew it was not true.”

Last fall, the judge confirmed the arbitration award for almost $ 168 million against Milton for his misleading statement about Nikola.

– CNBC -ovi Eamon Javes contributed to this story.