NKLA - Renewed: Nikola and Trevor Milton's Soap Opera | Benzinga
Heigh- ho, heigh-ho, it's off to court we go
When last we left the ongoing drama that is Nikola Corp. and its convicted founder, Trevor Milton, the fuel cell truck and hydrogen fuel distribution company had been unable to collect on a $167.7 million arbitration award in November. Milton moved in January to get the award overturned.
Last month, Nikola sued Milton in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) under the Arizona Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act. It wanted to prevent Milton from selling or moving his company stock until he had paid up.
Court rejects Nikola bid for restraining order
The court in Phoenix declined the TRO, saying Nikola lacked evidence and probably couldn't prove its case. But it ordered Milton to answer questions about his sale of more than 37 million Nikola shares through his M&M Residual LLC from Feb. 22 through March 13.
That reduced Milton's Nikola holdings to just under 13.3 million shares, a far cry from holdings that once made him worth billions on paper.
Nikola claims Milton is playing keep-away — "to frustrate, hinder and delay" the company's ability to collect on the arbitration award" according to the lawsuit.
About half of the award — $83.3 million — would flow from Nikola to cover the unpaid portion of a $125 million Securities and Exchange Commission fine. The agency fined Nikola in 2021 in conjunction with Milton's false statements about the company's technological achievements and prowess.
Buying votes for board seats?
Nikola theorizes Milton may have given shares to some existing stockholders to support the five candidates he is pushing for seats on Nikola's board of directors. Milton nominated the alternate slate for June's board meeting. That prompted Nikola to issue a preemptive news release urging shareholders to vote against the slate.
The five "have no public company experience, add no skills or experience to the board, and indisputably lack the depth of experience that the current Nikola board members bring to the company" Nikola said in the release.
Milton largely ignored the Arizona court order for discovery he was supposed to make by Wednesday.
Enough already, Nikola says in SEC filing
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, the company said "Nikola's disgraced founder and a convicted felon" ...