Bulletins

Nikola is an 'intricate fraud,' says short-seller Hindenburg Research

The activist short-seller published a long report on Nikola, accusing it and founder Trevor Milton of deception.

In one notable example, Hindenburg says it spoke to a former employee who said a video of Nikola's truck in motion was staged by "towing the truck to the top of a hill and rolling it down." Hindenburg also claims that Milton misrepresented a $16 million deal as being worth $250 million, and backs up Bloomberg's earlier reporting that Milton exaggerated the capabilities of a truck prototype.

In its conclusion, Hindenburg compares the company to Theranos, saying "we think Trevor Milton is incapable of telling the truth." Milton responded via Twitter, saying he needed "a few hours to put together responses to [Hindenburg]s' lies." As of 9:50 a.m. ET, Nikola's stock was down more than 8%.

Shakeel Hashim

Shakeel Hashim ( @shakeelhashim) is a former growth manager at Protocol, based in London. He was previously an analyst at Finimize covering business and economics, and a digital journalist at News UK. His writing has appeared in The Economist and its book, Uncommon Knowledge.

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Bulletins