⁍ Nikola Corp founder Trevor Milton stepped down following claims of nepotism and fraud.
⁍ The company named Stephen Girsky, former vice chairman of General Motors Co, to take over as chairman.
⁍ GM recently announced it would receive an 11% stake in Nikola under a partnership.
– The founder of a company developing electric trucks has stepped down after a short-seller accused him of fraud and nepotism. Nikola Corp. says Trevor Milton has resigned as CEO and as a board member, Reuters reports. “The focus should be on the company and its world-changing mission, not me,” Milton says in a resignation letter. “So I made the difficult decision to approach the board and volunteer to step aside.” Milton, who owned 25% of the company’s outstanding shares at the end of July, says the allegations from Hindenburg Research are false and he will defend himself against them. Hindenburg, which accuses Milton of making false claims about Nikola’s proprietary technology and appointing his brother to lead a unit without any experience in the industry, accuses the company of “unconscionable behavior,” the Financial Times reports. “While founder Trevor Milton’s departure may give the appearance of a company that’s moving on, we believe this is only the beginning of Nikola’s unraveling,” Hindenburg says in a statement. Nikola, a competitor to Elon Musk’s Tesla in the trucks space, said last week it was discussing the claims with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. It has publicly rejected the accusations and threatened to take legal action against Hindenburg.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/nikola-chairman-int/nikola-share-slump-deepens-as-founder-resigns-idUSKCN26C0JF