crystal liu

in #crystal3 days ago (edited)

Intro
0:02
hi
0:02
welcome to another episode of cold
0:04
fusion where i cover anything in science
0:06
technology business or history
0:09
in front of an enthusiastic audience a
0:12
35 year old trevor milton stands on
0:14
stage proudly proclaiming his latest
0:16
achievement
0:18
the year was 2016 and the charismatic
0:21
energetic trevor seems like he's just
0:23
about to change the world behind him was
0:25
his tool to do just that
0:27
it was a truck running on revolutionary
0:30
hydrogen technology
0:31
it could save both money and the
0:33
environment
0:34
this truck called the nikola one was
0:36
going to disrupt the one trillion dollar
0:38
trucking industry and would go on to
0:40
make trevor a multi-billionaire
0:43
bosch general motors and other big names
0:46
all wanted to work with trevor and his
0:48
revolutionary company that would later
0:49
be worth 34 billion
0:52
the only problem was that none of this
0:54
was real the vehicle behind him was
0:56
simply a shell that couldn't even drive
0:58
itself and none of the technology that
1:00
he talked about even existed but this
1:02
would only be the beginning of the lies
1:05
so how was everyone fooled and how could
1:07
a man look so confident about his
1:09
achievements while knowing that none of
1:11
what he was saying was real you were
1:13
watching cold fusion tv
1:19
today it seems like the world of
1:21
startups is having its fair share of
1:23
charismatic swindlers
1:25
from theranos to wirecard the game plan
1:28
is simple pretend that you have a
1:29
revolutionary technology or business
1:31
plan gain billions in investment and
1:34
finally fake it until you can cash out
1:36
with billions
1:38
in the case of nikola motors you might
1:40
just end up with a 34 billion company
1:44
to understand how we got here we have to
Trevor Milton
1:46
go back
1:49
our story starts in utah with trevor
1:51
milton
1:52
trevor was born in 1982 and had a rough
1:55
upbringing his mother died of cancer
1:57
when he was just 14 years of age and he
1:59
would witness her coughing up blood in
2:01
her latter days
2:03
trevor and his four siblings had to
2:05
learn how to survive with a bedridden
2:07
mother and a father who worked four
2:09
hours away
2:10
it could be said that these experiences
2:12
made trevor driven he wanted to make
2:15
something of himself
2:17
milton and his father were close many
2:19
years later they would even go into
2:21
business together but that comes later
2:23
in the story
2:24
after high school milton took a mormon
2:26
missionary trip to the favelas in brazil
2:29
the experience got him thinking about
2:31
wider problems particularly
2:33
environmental ones
2:35
he would return back to utah in 2003 and
2:38
would attend the utah valley state
2:39
college to study sales and marketing but
2:41
he would drop out after just one
2:43
semester he had his eyes on bigger
2:45
things he wanted to start his own
2:47
company and so he did his first company
2:51
dealt with security alarm sales and
2:53
trevor would sell off the company for
2:54
three hundred thousand dollars
2:56
but in this deal there were already
2:58
signs of trouble according to the buyer
3:01
of milton's company he overpromised the
3:03
potential of the business resulting in a
3:04
loss for the buyer
3:06
milton also allegedly cheated his
3:08
business partner out of fifty thousand
3:10
dollars during the sale
3:12
in 2009 he would move into the online
3:14
ads business with a website that sold
3:16
used cars
3:18
trevor would then move on from selling
3:20
used cars to building vehicle power
3:22
plants and if you think this was a bit
3:24
of a leap it was
3:26
he had no formal training in the
3:27
industry
3:29
undeterred though this effort would come
3:31
in the form of d-hybrid the plan was to
3:34
transform existing diesel engines to run
3:36
on compressed natural gas
3:39
now this idea was solid natural gas has
3:42
less emissions lower maintenance costs
3:44
and is overall safer
3:47
the execution of his plan however was a
3:49
disaster
DHybrid Systems
3:50
[Music]
3:54
as mentioned trevor had no formal
3:56
engineering experience but after some
3:58
good marketing he managed to convince
4:00
the company swift transportation to
4:02
invest two million dollars
4:05
in the deal
4:06
10 trucks would be converted as a trial
4:08
run then later 800 trucks
4:11
but as it turned out trevor wasn't
4:13
pulling his weight in the deal a 2012
4:15
lawsuit revealed that only five trucks
4:18
had been delivered
4:19
in addition the engines had major
4:21
problems and didn't do at all what they
4:23
claimed
4:24
and to top it off part of that two
4:26
million was squandered on personal
4:27
living
4:29
milton was simultaneously bleeding
4:31
through investor money and needed more
4:34
in 2012 he tried to find another
4:36
investor in utah to buy out the company
4:38
but they smelt a rat and backed out of
4:40
the agreement
4:41
to run away from all of his legal
4:43
problems trevor started a new company
4:44
with his father it was called d hybrid
4:47
systems
4:48
d hybrid systems and d hybrid were
4:50
completely different companies and the
4:52
similarities in their names was
4:54
intentional
4:56
trevor and his father now had complete
4:58
ownership and would work on the same
4:59
technology but now without the legal
5:01
problems this move left the whole d
5:03
hybrid partners with nothing
5:06
as outlandish as this was the plan
5:09
worked and a new company worthington
5:11
industries paid 16 million dollars for
5:14
their company the only problem was that
5:16
the company was in shambles
5:18
in private conversations trevor admitted
5:20
that parts of the engine systems were
5:22
falling off the trucks something he
5:24
stated was potentially fatal
5:26
at the end of the day all that mattered
5:28
for trevor is that the deal was paid out
5:30
for him and his father
5:32
i freaking
5:33
helped design and develop and fix all
5:36
these repairs that
5:38
worthington didn't know about these back
5:41
of cab units were actually falling off
5:43
of the trash truck falling off the trash
5:45
like breaking off they were shearing the
5:47
damn freaking frames and then coming off
5:49
like nearly freaking causing deaths and
5:52
stuff
Nikola Motors
5:55
in 2014 trevor founded what would become
5:58
nikola motors
6:00
meanwhile worthington was losing
6:02
millions the faulty engines that
6:04
dehybride had given them was causing
6:06
nothing but problems milton was making
6:08
money while the companies that he sold
6:10
off were money pits
6:12
milton would continue to convince people
6:13
that he had valuable technology
Nikola Truck
6:18
on may 9th 2016 nikola motors announced
6:22
the nikola 1 a semi-truck that would
6:24
revolutionize the transport industry
6:27
it could travel a thousand miles without
6:29
stopping and only took 15 minutes of
6:30
downtime to refill and do another
6:32
thousand miles
6:34
the global trucking market is worth over
6:36
one trillion dollars so a disruptive
6:38
technology like this could be a game
6:40
changer if someone could make it work
6:42
that is
6:43
in a bizarre twist allegedly nicola
6:46
bought the design from a man in croatia
6:48
for a few thousand dollars but this
6:50
didn't stop the company from suing tesla
6:52
for 2 billion claiming that tesla had
6:54
stolen their design
6:57
unaware of milton's past the world was
6:59
abuzz with the news of the revolutionary
7:01
truck so how were they going to do this
7:03
exactly
7:04
well with the same technology that had
7:06
been a complete failure in the dehybrid
7:08
companies of course compressed natural
7:10
gas technology the truck was to be
7:13
revealed in a live event in december of
7:15
2016 a very tight deadline
7:19
could nicola pull it off they must have
7:21
thought that because they began to take
7:22
pre-orders they stated that the nikola
7:25
one was engineered developed and is
7:27
finalizing assembly
7:29
but what did they actually have
7:31
by august of 2016 the nikola one was
7:34
just a frame on wheels the body hadn't
7:36
even arrived yet there were no
7:38
production facilities either and
7:39
according to a source familiar with the
7:41
project the workers were scrambling to
7:43
the hardware store to pick up basic
7:44
parts
7:46
meanwhile the nikola motor company
7:48
twitter account was hyping up the event
7:50
they stressed that the truck would be
7:52
fully functioning
7:54
i missed all of this at the beginning of
7:56
august while the truck was still a frame
7:58
the company abruptly announced that it
8:00
had pivoted from compressed natural gas
8:02
to hydrogen fuel cell technology
8:05
the hydrogen fuel cell announcement was
8:07
even a shock to those within the company
8:10
in mid-november as the show was drawing
8:12
closer the team was hard at work
8:14
slapping the truck together there were
8:15
no electric motor cores or gears only
8:18
axles in an empty shell
8:20
the body finally did arrive in late
8:22
november roughly a week before the show
8:26
h2 the chemical formula for hydrogen was
8:29
decald proudly on the side of the truck
8:31
even though there was no such technology
8:33
inside
8:35
so i can understand that building a
8:37
prototype can be less than elegant but
8:39
to call this fully functioning was at
8:41
the very least a bit misleading a fact
8:43
that would later come back to haunt
8:44
nicola but more on this later in the
8:47
episode
The Big Day
8:49
[Music]
8:50
when the big day came trevor seemingly
8:52
couldn't hold back his emotion when
8:54
talking perhaps it was an appeal to
8:56
one's emotional side to shut down
8:57
rational thinking and skepticism
9:00
bloomberg would later state that the
9:02
statements made by trevor had alarm some
9:04
people familiar with the truck's
9:05
capability
9:06
they told bloomberg that the truck was
9:08
inoperable and had missing key
9:10
components to power itself
9:12
the whole truck was powered by a mains
9:14
power cord that was connected under the
9:15
stage
9:16
trevor would put an emphasis on the
9:18
touchscreens within the cabin seemingly
9:20
the only part of the truck that actually
9:22
functioned the whole thing was
9:24
essentially a big shiny decoration
9:26
so how long have you been working on
9:28
this because this is this is a fully
9:29
functioning truck right here that we're
9:30
sitting in so how long have you guys
9:31
been working on this uh
9:33
years in secrecy it's been very hard um
9:36
some of the some of the people have
9:37
found out about us over the last four or
9:38
five months as we announced some of the
9:40
the lead up to this big event but it
9:42
took years and years to get here um this
9:44
isn't just a pusher like a lot of
9:45
vehicles that they unveil or just
9:46
vehicles that don't actually function
9:48
there's a fully functioning uh
9:50
you know vehicle which is really
9:51
incredible you can go through you can
9:52
you know
9:53
functional or not trevor had smoothly
9:56
talked his way to entrepreneurial fame
9:58
the internet was ablaze with buzz and
10:01
from there they were off to the races
10:04
following the event in january of 2017
10:07
the company raised capital as part of
10:08
its series a round
10:11
nikola also signed with bosch as well as
10:13
fuel cell and hydrogen partners the plan
10:15
may have been to leverage existing
10:17
suppliers to deliver on their promises
Nikola One Update
10:23
but as time passed and the hype from the
10:25
december 2016 show faded people that
10:28
were following closely began talking
10:30
about the company stating that nikola
10:32
needed to show some updates on their
10:34
truck the nikola one
10:36
so
10:37
in early 2018 a video of the nikola one
10:40
was produced to dispel the rumors that
10:42
it wasn't a functioning truck the video
10:44
was called nikola one in motion
10:47
and the video seemingly worked even
10:49
arizona governor doug ducey was
10:51
impressed
10:52
he agreed to host the nikola
10:53
manufacturing headquarters in his state
10:55
and even played a video during his
10:57
announcement
10:59
and once again there was now a
11:00
tremendous amount of buzz and excitement
11:03
a lot of people were looking forward to
11:05
the pre-production units to be released
11:06
the following year but this was never to
11:08
be
11:09
it seems that trevor was up to his old
11:11
tricks again
11:13
he never really had any plans to finish
11:15
developing the nikola one truck he was
11:17
only interested in one thing
11:18
raising more money
11:21
after the 2016 announcement to the shock
11:23
of all of those involved in the nikola
11:25
one project the truck's development was
11:27
abandoned but nobody outside the company
11:29
knew this
11:31
the promotional nikola one video proved
11:33
to be a sham itself
11:35
according to a former employee he spoke
11:37
with the nikola chief engineer kevin
11:39
link the video was simply the result of
11:41
nicola towing the truck to the top of
11:43
the hill and letting it roll back down
11:46
unsurprisingly those who worked on the
11:47
video had to sign ndas
11:50
by september of 2019 trevor milton owned
11:53
40 of the company and by age 37 he was
11:56
now a billionaire
Hydrogen Technology
12:00
[Music]
12:03
so the company was going to use
12:04
compressed natural gas technology and
12:06
then pivoted towards hydrogen technology
12:08
they were going to use hydrogen as a
12:10
kind of fuel to power an electric motor
12:12
and why the difference well hydrogen
12:14
goes further than a battery electric
12:16
truck does and it's a lot lighter to
12:17
operate so ultimately it's just a lot of
12:19
like juggling these different things but
12:21
we're we're pretty close we just ordered
12:23
the largest order ever of electrolyzers
12:25
that i know of it was a an order
12:27
yesterday it was over 30 million dollars
12:29
for to produce over 40 000 kilograms of
12:31
hydrogen we just made that order
12:33
yesterday from nail out of norway so
12:35
we're already prepping our first five
12:37
stations to be up and running we're
12:39
breaking ground we should be breaking
12:40
down this year on these stations
12:43
okay
12:44
as good as this sounds hydrogen is
12:46
expensive and requires a lot of
12:48
engineering to store and transport
12:49
safely
12:50
the plan for nikola motors was to have
12:52
700 hydrogen stations around north
12:54
america and 70 in europe within the next
12:57
decade
12:58
nikola planned to make its own hydrogen
13:00
by using energy from solar and renewable
13:02
sources this all sounds amazing but when
13:05
you look into the details of who was
13:07
spearheading a lot of the key technology
13:09
aspects things get a little suspect
13:12
nicholas director of hydrogen production
13:14
is none other than trevor milton's
13:16
brother
13:17
previously to joining nicola his work
13:19
consisted of pouring concrete and
13:21
building a barn as a subcontractor
13:24
not exactly the experience needed
13:27
according to those familiar with the
13:28
matter travis really didn't do much of
13:30
the company he was kept around to do a
13:32
few odd jobs hold a rope here fetch
13:34
those tools and that kind of thing
13:36
trevor had given travis along with other
13:38
family members nikola motorstock worth
13:41
over 110 million dollars
13:43
[Music]
13:45
nicholas head of infrastructure
13:46
development in charge of building out
13:48
those 700 plus hydrogen station networks
13:51
was previously a general manager of a
13:53
golf club in idaho again not exactly the
13:56
experience one would expect for the job
13:59
as pointed out by kathy wood ceo of arc
14:02
invest hydrogen on average cost three
14:05
times as much as electric
14:07
trevor needed a way to fix this
14:09
in an interview trevor claimed that
14:11
nicola produces hydrogen for under three
14:13
dollars a kilogram 81 percent cheaper
14:15
than the rest of the world representing
14:18
a major breakthrough
14:19
in the hi we're really a hydro an energy
14:22
technology company we sell the energy to
14:24
consumers you know we're not consumers
14:26
but i'm sorry businesses that are buying
14:27
the trucks
14:28
that's where the money is um obviously
14:30
we want to reduce the cost of our truck
14:32
but we're now cheaper to drive than a
14:34
diesel is per mile and we make five
14:36
times the revenue of our competitors so
14:38
it's awesome i mean that's why niko's
14:40
really cracked the chicken in the egg
14:41
the generation that's investing now they
14:43
care more about the the environmental
14:45
impact of what you're doing
14:47
than they do like oh you're six months
14:49
or eight months from revenue they don't
14:50
care they're like you know what you're
14:51
changing the world you're gonna reduce
14:52
emissions more than anyone else we're
14:54
invested into you
14:56
when pressed trevor later acknowledged
14:58
that nicola produces no hydrogen at all
15:01
but this didn't stop bp later pledging
15:03
to join nikola to build out their
15:05
hydrogen fuel network
15:07
it really is amazing when you think
15:08
about it
15:11
trevor had perfected a devious game he
15:13
would act as a spokesperson for nicola
15:15
and make up lofty claims to gain
15:17
partners
15:19
essentially trevor would use these
15:20
claims to get investors and more
15:22
partners and then use the brand
15:24
recognition of those partners to get
15:25
even more investors
15:28
ultimately all of this didn't matter
15:30
though because the next piece of
15:31
technology that trevor was going to
15:33
announce was going to change the world
15:35
in late october 2019 trevor began
15:38
teasing on twitter that nicola was going
15:40
to change the world with an upcoming
15:41
announcement that was bigger than
15:43
anything that he had announced in the
15:44
past
15:46
[Music]
High Density Battery
15:50
while he was tweeting up a storm in
15:51
november of 2019 milton cashed out 70
15:55
million dollars and bought the most
15:56
expensive house in utah a 33 million
15:59
mansion on a 2 600 acre ranch
16:03
he told the wall street journal that
16:04
this place was quote a sanctuary for my
16:07
family friends and others to enjoy
16:12
on november 18 2019 nicola began
16:15
negotiations to go public
16:17
the very next day the company announced
16:20
that it had solved one of the greatest
16:21
challenges facing sustainable energy a
16:24
high density battery
16:26
this new prototype battery would provide
16:28
four times the energy density of lithium
16:30
ion and could power a tesla model s for
16:32
over 600 miles
16:35
on twitter trevor claimed that he had
16:37
seen this technology perform with his
16:39
own eyes and promised a major
16:41
demonstration
16:42
riding high off the announcement nikola
16:44
motors began to receive serious
16:46
attention
16:47
and husa bush was first to jump on board
16:50
placing a pre-order for 800 trucks
16:54
trevor estimated that the value of this
16:56
new technology was to be worth hundreds
16:58
of billions the thing was nicola had no
17:00
patent engineers chemists or research
17:03
papers published
17:04
the truth was nicola had acquired the
17:07
battery maker zap go for 56 million
17:09
dollars
17:11
as it turned out zapgo's technology was
17:13
vaporware it was a scam it didn't exist
17:17
and so there it was
17:19
nicola who had misled so many had been
17:22
misled themselves
17:24
interestingly zap go was headed by
17:26
charles resnick a shady character who
17:28
had just scammed nasa a few months
17:30
before the nicola deal charles used the
17:32
money from nasa to hire numerous adult
17:34
workers certainly not a business expense
17:37
charles would plead guilty in january of
17:39
2020 but once again all of this didn't
17:42
matter to trevor
17:43
he was still on twitter touting the
17:46
non-existent battery technology
17:50
with nothing more than the promise of a
17:52
revolutionary truck that rolled down a
17:54
hill and a game-changing battery
17:56
technology that was purchased from a
17:58
company that was a scam nicola went
18:00
public on june 4th 2020. they did so
18:04
through a technique called a reverse
18:05
merger the thing is with reverse mergers
18:08
you don't have to disclose all the
18:10
intricate details of your company
18:11
something that a regular ipo would
18:13
require
18:15
this should have raised some red flags
18:17
for investors if they knew more about
18:19
the history of nikola but alas investors
18:22
were euphoric and nicolas shares spiked
18:25
within one week of going public the
18:28
market value of nicola surged past that
18:30
of ford over 30 billion dollars
18:34
to put things into perspective ford sold
18:36
5.5 million vehicles in 2019 with a
18:39
revenue of 155 billion and had a market
18:42
cap of around 28 billion
18:45
nicola on the other hand sold nothing
18:47
and was valued at 30 billion making it
18:49
the world's biggest truck maker without
18:51
selling a single truck
18:53
and with that overnight trevor became a
18:56
multi-billionaire it was settled the
18:58
markets had spoken he was the next elon
19:01
musk
19:03
things would soon change for trevor
19:05
though
19:05
but not before one last cash grab
19:08
on september 8th 2020 nikola motors
19:11
announced a 2 billion partnership with
19:14
general motors
19:15
gm was going to take an 11 stake in the
19:17
company and manufacture their electric
19:19
pickup truck the nikola badger
19:21
so questions have to be asked did
19:23
general motors do no research or was
19:25
something else at play here
19:27
despite the chaos nicola was again
19:30
accepting pre-orders for their badger
19:31
truck to date no one has ever seen a
19:34
nicola badger they only exist as a
19:36
rendering as far as the public is
19:38
concerned
The Report
19:42
finally after lying for years and roping
19:45
in some of the biggest companies two
19:47
days after the gm deal on september 10th
19:50
the short-selling investment firm
19:51
hindenburg research released a scathing
19:54
report calling nikola motors an
19:56
intricate fraud
19:57
the firm said it had gathered extensive
19:59
evidence including recorded phone calls
20:02
text messages private emails and behind
20:04
the scenes photographs detailing dozens
20:06
of false statements by milton
20:08
they accused him of lying about nicholas
20:10
technology
20:12
this was a bombshell report and soon the
20:14
gates were blown wide open we believe
20:17
this is only the beginning of nicholas
20:19
unraveling nico's almost no intellectual
20:20
property products or revenue to fall
20:22
back on we think the company's key asset
20:24
was its founders ability to raise money
20:26
through hype and then the hindenburg are
20:28
saying outright trevor milton knew that
20:30
this was the end and he publicly
20:32
promised a full rebuttal to all the
20:34
damaging claims but instead he deleted
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his social media accounts and
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disappeared
20:44
trevor milton the founder of electric
20:46
truck company nikola is voluntarily
20:48
stepping down as executive chairman and
20:50
giving up his board seat this move comes
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after short seller hindenburg research
20:55
accused milton of making false
20:56
statements about nikola's technology in
20:58
order to try and grow and secure
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partnerships with automakers both the
21:02
justice department and the sec are
21:04
investigating allegations made by
21:06
hindenburg
21:08
on the 21st of september trevor steps
21:10
down from the chairman position and
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former vice chairman of gm stefan gursky
21:15
takes over nicholas stock plunged by 40
21:18
and negotiations between nicola and
21:20
other partners stalled and finally a
21:22
sexual assault allegation by trevor's
21:24
own cousin just added to the horrible
21:26
mess many banks liquidated their
21:28
nicholas stock seemingly in disgust
21:31
the company received a myriad of
21:33
subpoenas and investigations by the
21:35
department of justice and the securities
21:37
and exchange commission commenced his
21:39
company marketed as a game changer we've
21:41
built something that no one else thought
21:43
was possible cleaner vehicles powered by
21:45
hydrogen and electricity for every
21:47
doubter out there that said that there's
21:49
no way this is true
21:50
abs how can that be possible we've done
21:52
it but now the billionaire founder of
21:54
nikola motor company trevor milton is
21:56
being charged with securities fraud do
21:58
you have anything to say
22:00
we have a statement check it out milton
22:02
seen leaving a manhattan courthouse
22:04
thursday charged by federal prosecutors
22:06
who say he lied about every aspect of
22:09
his truck of the future milton claimed
22:11
that the nikola one could be driven when
22:14
in fact the closest it ever came to
22:16
driving was when a group of nikola
22:19
engineers took it to the top of the hill
22:21
and rolled it down so it could be filmed
22:24
for a commercial prosecutors claiming
22:26
the truck's door even had to be taped up
22:29
for the video so it wouldn't fall off
22:33
at the end of july 2021 a federal grand
22:36
jury charged trevor milton with three
22:38
counts of criminal fraud the u.s
22:40
attorney's office in manhattan accused
22:42
the 39 year old billionaire of lying to
22:44
investors making false statements about
22:46
the company and wire fraud
22:49
the sec also filed civil securities
22:52
fraud charges against him requiring the
22:53
court to permanently buy him from acting
22:55
as an officer and ordered him to pay
22:57
fines as well as give back any revenue
23:00
gained by his deceit
23:01
trevor milton of course denies all
23:04
wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to
23:06
the charges but this will be a matter
23:08
for the course to decide
23:10
since the charges nicholas stock has
23:12
been steadily falling
23:14
following the indictment the company
23:16
stated quote we remain committed to our
23:19
previously announced milestones and
23:20
timelines and are focused on delivering
23:23
nikola tray battery trucks later this
23:25
year from the company's manufacturing
23:26
facilities
23:28
nikola continues to move forward under
23:30
new management but it has to be said
23:32
correcting the course of a company built
23:34
on fraudulent claims by a compulsive
23:36
liar is not going to be easy
23:39
the gm deal lies in limbo and the stock
23:42
price is at an all-time low and faith in
23:44
the company dwindles every day
23:46
bosch general motors and a slew of
23:49
investors are left holding the bag
23:52
on a wider point it's becoming clear
23:54
that investors have collectively lost
23:56
their minds it seems as if they're only
23:59
driven by lofty promises without doing a
24:01
shred of research
24:03
everyone was just so excited that they
24:05
didn't want to look deeper and herein
24:08
lies the problem
24:09
think of yourself as an inexperienced
24:11
investor you heard about this new
24:13
company and it just showed off a
24:14
revolutionary truck it was powered by
24:16
new hydrogen technology and also had
24:19
amazing new battery technology they'd
24:21
partnered with major companies like
24:22
bosch and bp and this company has raised
24:25
a lot of money
24:26
you'd think you've hit a gold mine you'd
24:28
also think that you've gotten in on the
24:30
next tesla this whole train wreck really
24:33
is the old adage fake it until you make
24:36
it but what happens if the things that
24:38
you promise turn out to be much harder
24:40
than anticipated when do you pass the
24:42
point of no return and just keep lying
24:44
until you get caught for milton he just
24:47
kept lying until the very end
24:50
in a way the story of trevor milton and
24:52
nicola motors would almost be impressive
24:54
if it wasn't so morally bankrupt
24:57
maybe he did this all to provide for his
24:59
family that had suffered so much during
25:01
those early years
25:02
but it could have just as easily been
25:05
pure greed i guess we may never know
25:08
and with that that is the wild and
25:10
twisting story of nikola motors so let
25:13
me know what you think in the comment
25:14
section below so thanks for watching my
25:17
name is tagogo and you've been watching
25:18
cold fusion and i'll catch you again
25:20
soon for the next episode
25:22
cheers guys have a good one
25:25
[Music]
25:41
[Music]
25:49
you