Convicted Fraudster Trevor Milton Rides His Trump Pardon To Another CEO Job, Somehow
from the failing-upward dept
While we chronicled the fall of Nikola, a company that promised over-the-road trucks built with hydrogen propulsion systems, it’s useful to note that it was literally only this past February that the company declared bankruptcy. What came before that was the company’s previous CEO, Trevor Milton. Milton made wild promises to investors in order to get more funding, including showing them video of its prototype truck zooming down a highway under its proprietary propulsion system. The only problem is that it was doing no such thing. Instead, it had been towed to the top of a hilly road and then it coasted down that road, with the footage being taken at a tilted camera angle to make it look like it was actually being driven when it wasn’t. Yes, it really was as cartoonish as that.
From there, the company suddenly lost a bunch of contracts, copyright was invoked in a failed attempt to silence criticism of its actions, and Milton was eventually convicted of fraud and sentenced to 4 years in jail. And then Donald Trump pardoned him, because of course he did. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the millions of dollars Milton donated to the Trump campaign and other Republican candidates, nor anything to do with Milton being represented by Brad Bondi, brother of current U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Milton never did a day in prison and lied publicly after his pardon, saying that the pardon indicated he was innocent, when it did no such thing. But never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that mere months after that pardon for fraud would Milton suddenly become the CEO of a well-established company.
The disgraced founder of Nikola Corp., who was sentenced to four years in prison for fraud for lying to investors about technological breakthroughs at the once-hyped electric-truck maker, has been named CEO of SyberJet Aircraft, the company announced Tuesday.
In a press release, SyberJet said Milton would guide the development of a new nine-seat light jet called the SyberJet SJ36. The company said it would be the fastest jet of its kind ever developed, with speeds clocking in as high as Mach .88.
Now, SyberJet is not a publicly traded company, unlike Nikola. But it is backed by private equity, meaning raising funds for this ambitious project is going to be important. And Milton has a lot of, ahem, runway to get this new jet off the ground. Deliveries on the product aren’t expected until 2032.
There is something of a con job already happening on the SyberJet website, where you can see this.
“Renowned”? That should be “infamous”. And these claims about what Milton did and did not bring to market are pretty laughable. The context about what happened after a few hundred trucks got sold is pretty damned important. For fuck’s sake, guys.
And I do mean “guys.” This is the kind of failing upward you can only get from a white guy. The ink on Milton’s pardon isn’t even dry yet, and he’s already a CEO of another company. And they say you can’t get justice in America anymore.
Filed Under: brad bondi, donald trump, pardon, trevor milton
Companies: nikola, syberjet
Comments on “Convicted Fraudster Trevor Milton Rides His Trump Pardon To Another CEO Job, Somehow”
And with George Santos’s sentence being commuted by Donald Trump earlier today, a new axiom becomes viable: Republicans can commit as much crime as they want so long as they support Donald Trump.
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I just saw that. How are Republicans not completely embarrassed about worshipping this douchebag?
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Because they have no shame.
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Because to be a republican requires that you be literally incapable of feeling the emotion known as ‘shame’, otherwise they wouldn’t be a republican.
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Hey, he pardoned Blagojevich too. He just loves political corruption.
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Corruption in general seems to be the only true skill he has.
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Reading TechDirt is getting more depressing as the months go by and it’s not even the fault of the writers. They simply cannot keep up with the crime machine that is Donald Trump’s twitter account. By the time any post makes it here we’re three outrages down the street.
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Things that reflect reality can be disheartening.
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“Let the wicked forsake his way… return to Trump, and He will have compassion on him; He will abundantly pardon.” (The Trump’s Bible, circa 2025)
Note specifically the excuses. Trump said Blumenthal was worse for deceiving people about his lack of service in the Vietnam War. It’s worse to lie about military service than rip off hundreds of thousands of dollars from people…? Of course Trump would say that. He dodged military service and he’s ripped off billions.
But also note the moral relativism. Because Blumenthal is supposedly worse, Santos gets off. This is a primary feature that leads to the accusation-confessions. If you do something bad (or if I lie and say you did it), then I’m free to do it, or even to do worse! See also voter fraud, insurrection, political violence, government censorship, etc.
“The Nazis were not very effective diplomats. But as propagandists they were remarkable. Their system was successful by its very simplicity: deny everything abroad that you encourage at home: accuse your enemy of doing just what you intend to do.”
I don’t understand. Why would a Mafia-linked career criminal from a family of career criminals be delegitimizing our entire legal system? /s
Remember this every time Republicans pretend to represent law and order. They gleefully pardon convicted criminals.
Re: IF 'True' republican(read: MAGAt loyalist) THEN Innocent
Ah but that’s the trick, in their minds every republican convicted of a crime was falsely convicted due to a political witch-hunt, so when they pardon or excuse a republican that’s been convicted and found guilty in court in their minds they’re merely seeing justice done and an unjust conviction overturned.
Conversely every non-republican is guilty on accusation, and remains guilty no matter the lack of evidence of their guilt or even in the face of evidence of their innocence.
It’s a seriously warped and hypocritical view of the world, but that’s tribalism-turned-cult thinking for you.
New corporate era...
In an era where corporations are using lawsuit settlements to pay bribes/blackmail to the sitting US president, a CEO with a history of blatant fraud and manipulation seems par for the course.
Also, private equity would do anything to make a buck so a crooked CEO seems like an obvious win for them. Like knows like.
Trumery
Until yesterday, I did not know that trumpery is a real word. If you don’t know it, look up the definition. It is shockingly fitting…
It’s obvious why pardoned fraudsters are good candidates for CEOs. Companies have an enormous advantage if their leaders can do crimes and get away with it.
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If you assume that the company in question and their product/proposed product is already bogus then that makes a disturbing amount of sense.
‘What about this guy to head the company?’
‘A convicted fraud?’
‘That got a pardon, which means he knows exactly how and has the connections to to weasel out of any future fraud convictions, you know, should one of those become an issue in the future…’
You can't trust the CEO but I'm sure the design and construction is solid... right?
And Milton has a lot of, ahem, runway to get this new jet off the ground. Deliveries on the product aren’t expected until 2032.
And yet I already know with certainty that you could not get me to ride one of those planes at gunpoint when/if they come out, because if that’s who they want heading the company I wouldn’t trust it to safely make it off the runway.
Half credit for Elizabeth Holmes
She managed the “sell the same bullshit again” part without the pardon to protect her from the consequences of her actions.