How to Lie Your Way to $34 Billion [Nikola Motors Fraud]
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 พ.ค. 2024
- Trevor Milton took the phrase "fake it till you make it" to the extreme. Let's take a look at the wild story of Nikola Motors. I've been sitting on this script idea for a year, so here it finally is.
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www.forbes.com/sites/alanohns...
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www.zdnet.com/article/sec-pro...
www.cnbc.com/2020/09/21/nikol...
nypost.com/2020/10/01/who-is-...
edition.cnn.com/2020/09/29/te...
www.trucks.com/2019/05/08/rou....
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...
www.businessinsider.com.au/mo...
www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da...
www.ttnews.com/articles/nikol...
observer.com/2020/09/nikola-f...
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![Boeing's Downfall [Greed Over Safety] feat. Mentour Pilot](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/vqgTcb8DqfY/mqdefault.jpg)
Well, technically, a truck that doesn't start is indeed zero emissions
With a flawless safety record as well. No person has ever received even a minor injury while operating a Nikola vehicle....
haha. true dat
😂😂😂
The perfect prop.
Yes, powered by green energy (kinetic energy and gravity:)) should be a winner!
You did more research into Nikola Motors than Nikola Motors did into hydrogen electric motors. Amazing.
I gotta feeling Carl Icahn will
be CF's next such feature, ...
followed by Austin Russell,
sometime within a year or
two after. . . . :--))
actually, this comment doesn't get it quite right. This video provider did more research than any of Nikola Motor's VC investors. And together, those morons plunked down over $3 billion. If you got a story, most well-heeled Harvard MBAs will buy just about any bullshit.
what metric do you use?
Definitely more research than GM did before investing.
😂😂😂😂
How those major corporations got duped by a "snake-oil" salesman is almost amazing.
And yet their FCEV just pulled 84,000lbs for 200 miles up 6000ft of elevation on Hydrogen.
@@jackbenimble9722fake till you make it.. Only turned around when actually intelligent people took over
@@jackbenimble9722 Yeah, once.
@jack, is that you Trevor? Run out of dough yet?
So true! The lack of basic due-diligence is astonishing. They're amateurs.
I remember when Nikola surpassed Ford without ever selling anything; that was hilarious and my favorite part of this story.
And this is why I have a hard time trusting the stock market. I feel like we are in another gigantic tech bubble.
@@justin2956It's unfair to think like that (and perhaps to yourself, because you will miss out the good companies). I mean, Nikola made a video with a moving electric truck, only to be revealed later that it running downhill without power haha. I mean the guys were just fraudulent. Theranos knew the machines will not work, yet they acted as if they will. Now, NVidia and Microsoft do not knowingly deceive investors. Maybe the AI proves a bubble, maybe not, but it will not be the companies' fault. For now, the AI seems to be working and improving profits (for the companies).
@@justin2956Good point. Even this video producer, Dagogo messed up when he says to call this truck fully functioning was, at the very least, a bit misleading. A "bit" misleading! A bit... just a tad. It's completely misleading!
We are@@justin2956
This is why the efficient market hypothesis is a load of nonsense.
Bro made the most of that one semester studying Sales and Marketing. This has to beat the record for RoI anywhere lol.
but he missed some of the most important courses teaching how to protect his ass in jail when he's caught committing fraud.
@@ufsteropolstero6014 He’ll be producing hydrogen up his ass so he’s well protected. 🤣🤣🤣
When is Elon musk fall next?
@@__________f9433 Based on your incredibly poorly worded question, you seem to think Elon Musk is also a fraud. There are over a million Tesla cars and over 100 Falcon 9 launches, not to mention a constellation of over 1400 satellites that say otherwise.
@@stainlesssteelfox1" Funding Secured at $420!" Was actually securities fraud according to the SEC. So there is your proof. Anyone can verify this tweet exists and he was actually punished for it.
this guy is the embodiment of the phrase "trust me bro"
The ftx dude too
Reminds me of Billy McFarland of Fyre Festival.
@@etcetraetcetra3173 very expensive sandwich, tents and no party.
Or it's cousin "I Got You!" 😅
The investors too
What scares me is the investors not checking what they are funding and the control agencies not doing their work at all
Yea lol some CPA signs off on an audit and values ghost tech at BILLIONS?
Nikola Tesla did not deserve this to be associated with his name.
But he was the next Elon Musk.
@@Arigator2 fair enough
The disgusting thing is that because of how the legal system works, even if he is found guilty and goes to jail for a few years he'll still have enough money hidden away from all this to live comfortably for the rest of his life. Crime does pay.
Even in some places you don’t need to go to jail, you actually might as well break the law. Every criminal who’s honest or even “legit” wealthy person admits crime pays.
White collar crime pays extremely well and is barely punished most of the time.
He definitely has crypto and offshore accounts. Not to mention, physical property that he bought that’s hard to trace. Prosecutors try to repossess everything, but it’s a spiderweb of finances at scale.
@RubiiX im pretty sure that people don't get taxed to the point that they commit crimes to survive because of their tax burden. Tax brackets exist, you know.
@RubiiX If you commit large enough crimes you get locked up in a country club and don't have to be anybody's bitch slave.
The first truck Gravity assisted...Genius!
Downhill only truck!
LMAO I think you're on to something! I'll be your first investor.
It's called gravity assisted drive, GAD, it makes use of Higgs bosons in quantum field, or something, I don't know, I'm making it up
😂😂😂 gravity field tech
Should have called it Gravity One!!!
Never trust a used car dealer.
Watching this has me thinking exactly of what is going on with all the supersonic commercial plane designers right now. No product, big sponsor names, and big purchase orders to be filled with a company that only can offer promises while showing zero dollars of revenue.
no, don't think so. Air industry is very tightly regulated and supersonic planes have been about a long long time now... so the tech standards are well set and very hard to fake anything in aircraft industry. Also nearly impossible to enter or stabilize a new product. Nobody is really willing to jump on a nonexistant aircraft. That's what airshows are all about.. Aircraft manufacturer seriously has to prove his product and be well established before a product is bought.
This guy is the professional version of that guy in everyone's group projects.
😁
Ha ha ha.... Right
Not really, it has a dumb face straight up
Nikola going strong Trevor did a good thing need more guys like him.
Dude you nailed it lol 🤣
I think the biggest factor in him being able to pull this off is Tesla's success and people who missed that boat jumping on anything resembling a "second chance".
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Another concerning question will be how did the auditors not pick this up after such blatant cover ups, a company that is being listed usually has rigorous audit procedures. Also the people doing the valuations of the company, surely they would have done more research into the company before valuing it that much?
There are millions of guys like him. Once in a while one does spectacular frauds. It works again and again.
Pulling this off in 21st century in the age of social media, govt watch dogs, media glare, and significantly learned society is just incredible. Company got listed with $34B valuation- unbelievable !
You think that's something? It's still on the market for billions now. Food for thought. Gm was so jealous of Tesla they even tried throwing billions just cause it was named Nikola, frankly. And I mean it.
Hey, Trump has been screwing over his investors for 40 years now. And got 74 million suckers to vote for him. The country is loaded with suckers.
This story has the potential of being the next "wolf of wallsteet" type movie.
Wait til you see the scams from other people who have huge fan clubs.
Pluto-rats don't like you, they like your money and labor.
That's it.
You are just a useful means to exploit and abuse.
And to stroke some of their egos as they screw you blind... or us blind.
In our current plutocracy fueled idiocracy falling over the rich, isn't new.
It's just come back with a vengeance.
@@jmitterii2 I'm holding around 15 $NKLA stocks. What do I do?
My favourite memory of Nikola was all the fanboys on TH-cam and elsewhere calling me a "hater" for thinking this was all smoke and mirrors. I'm literally howling with laughter now. Ridiculous. Thanks for the video Dagogo.
Link to those old comments? You should go back and laugh at them
As a suspicious, pessimistic, misantrophic piece of shit that I am, I didn't believe all those claims either, while the Fanboys were furious and kept defending the company, until it was "officially over".
Would have LOVED to be proven wrong. The major benefit of being pessimistic is that you can't get disapointed, but you can get suprised with positive crap. Not Nikola tough. I would have assumed they have something. Maybe a Truck Prototype, that is far away from commercial release. Or something like that. But no, they fucking had nothing. Nothing but a fucking Truck without an Engine. Brilliant.
Got into a literal fight with my friend back then. Humans are gullible
@@sagichdirdochnicht4653 was it officially over when the factory got built, and trucks started rolling off the line to expos across the US?
change that word to "killjoy" and you be right
in the end ... nobody cares what this company has or has not done
The engineers at Fred Flintstone's auto dept are proud of Trevor. Using gravity as a propulsion system. They just needed to tow the truck on the hill and let the gravity do the work. Brilliant.
What a lovely voice. Love these videos. Perfect presentation, no generic junk, and perfect pauses in the voiceover.
What really blows my mind is how Bosch, GM, etc. got fooled by this guy. This is why you really need to have senior engineers supervise the MBA types, and not the other way around.
Absolutely. "Management first, facts later" type of administration is akin to "fake it till you make it"!
😅
Engineer are those who know how these works. They should get those big pay checks!
@@fredthe47th its literally a requirement for them to give returns and take care of their shareholders lmao ofc they do it
@@dianaverano7878 Engineers dont take the risk if the stuff fails. Who do you blame if a ford truck fails? the engineers or the company?
This also proves how incompetent GM management is.
Yeah I could see investors falling for a scam like this but I would expect companies as large and experienced as GM to demand to see demos and detailed documents before signing deals. Thats the most surprising thing about this whole case to me.
@@odisclemons9700 Gotta wonder if there isn't some short sellers at GM.
I am an ex-GM software engineer. That company does not deserve to exist. I don’t even know where to begin with my negative stories about that job
@@HickoryJ , Do you think GM will survive?
@@Ottee2 None of them will survive service-on-demand autonomous vehicles. Nobody cares about the brand of cab, bus, or train.
Just came across your channel recently. Wow! Top notch production. Keep up the great work!
"The company was valued at around $13 billion in early August 2020, compared to its revenue in the first six months of 2020 of $80,000 ($36,000 of which was attributed to installation of solar facilities for CEO Milton)"
Amazing!
This is mind-blowing! The most successful truck company that never sold a truck!
And now sueing Tesla. I think they got their inspiration from BO.
Tesla also lying about trucks
@@turbodewd1 got some proof?
@@RomanUnzeitig did tesla ever sold a single truck?
Why do people so often define a company by the value of its stock? They're assets that are fundamentally divorced from reality, and whose value depends on the psychology of those betting on them.
Trevor Milton: “Don’t worry guys, I have a plan.”
**Deletes all his social media**
Plan to escape....
Lol
🤣
Our prime minister has a plan for the climate
they can't trace anything back to you when it's deleted, otherwise it wouldn't be deleted!
This channel is pure gold. Thank you.
20:26 this guy's way of saying "hype" is the best way which should be saved in the worlds memes annals.
How is this dude with a speech impediment a reporter
Nikola was known for Alternating Current but based on Trevor's trickery of rolling a truck down a hill he should have named the company Newton after the person that discovered gravity.
Nikola Tesla was the last honest person dealing with electricity.
2 years later: the remaining people in the company promising stuff has also not come to fruition.
This was a fraud from the beginning, to the middle, to the end.. and tons of the people who perpetrated the fraud have cashed out tons of money and haven't been prosecuted.
The money they cashed out largely belonged to individuals.
It's funny how they gave the stats:
1,000 HP, 2000ftlbs Torque, 1,200 mile range..
Yeah, nice round numbers.. hugely round numbers even.
I can't believe so many investors fell for this scam.. but what's sad is a lot of those investors were investing other peoples money.
Especially the people investing pension money.
at least you have a sense of humor😅
Lie until you get caught. This seems like a trend.
Or lie till you succeed and act like a saint, like most American tech companies do
It helps if you have gangster/lobbyist connections so you avoid jail time. A lot of green printed money dissappears into a lobbyist black hole. "How DARE you?".
"If you're not lying, you're not trying" so testified to congress a CEO of a "too big to fail" institution that then got bailed out. --- or so I remember hearing but can't find to verify right now. It may have been a lie.
Sounds like our current presidential platform...
@@LVLifeguard let's go Brandon!
I love how these fabulous videos on your channel are interupted by scam ads ☺️
Dagogo.......I sooooo appreciate you. An independent producer from Perth: go figure. You do incredible work, my friend , I expect to be informed and educated by you and your team for the next decade going forward. To quote an American homily, thank you for your service ❤❤❤...Chuck Alison
This is what happens when marketing and sales start before engineers talk about possibility.
So...Tesla 2.0.
in a significant amount of projects the sales department is 10% ahead of execution , resulting in a 10% or more financial loss on the project
@@woodennecktie so opposite of toyota
Just like No Mans Sky or Cyberpunk. Let the marketing and interviews get too enthusiastic and you might just make stuff up on the fly, forcing the backlash to be even stronger.
"This is what happens when marketing and sales start before engineers talk about possibility."
OH you have seen the crazies lies musk hands out all the time that will never happen!
This man became a billionaire when he didn’t even sell any of his product and the product doesn’t even work…
That's how scams work.
Yeah, that's what this video is about.
Anybody else see a problem with the system that allows this? When did she economy become the gambling table of the world?
The product was his marketing. The compressed natural gas engines and hydrogen engines were the McGuffins for journalists who don't do any research and recycle a script and PR statement as a news story.
He magnificently sold theories and ideas, and people bought right into them. Just wow.
Between this and Enron, your videos have me wondering what companies are currently getting away with large scale malfeasance
*cough TESLA MOTORS *cough
Grifters love to abuse Nikola Tesla. Both in life and death
I seen a Nikola truck at the port of Baltimore the other day. It was extravagant and elegant af. Loved how fast and quiet it is.
I feel bad for the knowledgable, talented engineers who took over the company who had to start from 6-feet under. The company had all of the boost it needed to be something great if only the CEO had actually done what he was supposed to do. Now that it has changed hands, they can really make something of it. I am rooting for them.
Why on Earth are these people not jailed! If I stole $5 from a bank I'd be hauled away in 2 seconds flat... yet everyone knows these people are lying but are allowed to get away with it! It makes my blood boil.
Damn right man.. I nust drove by this place. He's still up to scamming and deceiving.. and he owns thousands and thousands of acres of land...
Why? Because you're not one of the elite so for you, justice has to be seen to be done. For them justice has to be seen to be believed!
He has a lots of money 💰 to hire the Best Attorney to helps him.
Cause they are making some of people - to "dry-wash" their money by others hands!
Simply, perfect, also they could just "paid" a trial, so they will be free right a next day.
that's the secret, if you steal money it is criminal and people knock on your house with handcuffs.
but if you fool people in giving your company money, they need to check if the company truly fooled people and then who in the company was really at fault... and then if you fooled enough people, you now have money to make the whole thing last for years if not decades
"Oh, but when NASA does gravity assisted launches, they get praise! When I do it with my truck, I get indicted!"
This comment is so underrated, lmao
🤣
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Where did he say that? Time strap please
@@neekononame9900 okay
Pls make a video on recent Hindenburg research and short selling of Adani.
Got Iain Dury's 'Clever Trevor' playing in my head. 😂
Finally, a scandal from Utah that doesn't involve incest-
"a sexual assault allegation from Trevor's own cousin just added to the horrible mess"
-nevermind
Mormons
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
God-fucking-dammit
Ex-mormon here. Mormonism just produces guys like this because they believe they deserve success because they are 'chosen'.
😂
“The Nikola motors IPO was the largest distributed IQ test in history”
SMR
Tesla was successful..... A successful way too squeeze a bunch of FOOLS.
Crypto LOL
Hey, I must be smart.
@@tmo2798 lol how many trillions does the Tesla company need to be worth before you realize it's an actual business?
@@protorhinocerator142 yap jt is. And yes Tesla does sell products and yes they're good. But then again they also promise alot of stuff or, when we talk about people, like this video does, Elon does. Teslabot? Roadster (still not out yet)? Hyperloop? If you believe Hyperloop will ever happen ur dumb
Bitcoins is also worth billions. Depends how you define "worth"
Nice job! Thank you.
Two words - due diligence!
Theranos: Finally, a worthy opponent!
More like "worthless" amiright! Haha!
ENRON starts to look honest.
I think Theranos was valued at 9 billion so......
I thought the same. I mean her dad worked for Enron...
Wework join the group.
If he kept going, this guy would have announced that the trucks can even fly, reducing costs and save the environment
it's the three magic words "saves the environment"
slap it on even an used gum and you'll see people making a line to buy it
Tesla autodriving. Actually i remember at one point Musk claimed Tesla was going to resurrect their Semi to compete with Nikola.
@@cdgonepotatoes4219 the oil company magnates will be spearheading the green movement once the stars align, asserting their control and capital in that arena the same way they did food production and pharmaceuticals
@@elijahgavin6706 It's not going to happen "once the stars align", it's once oil will rise in price due to scarcity to the point breaking rocks and synthetizing biofuels becomes economically viable, and because that won't be enough for them they'll also get into renewables and energy storage, if not starting something of their own through partnerships and later merges.
I have no idea why you're telling me this though, what does it connect with in my cynical comment on how conmen can sell anything to stupid investors as long as they add the 3 words in their marketing?
😂
The ringing in my right ear towards the end of the video was brutal. Loved this piece tho!
19:50 when I heard those words "short selling firm" and "hindenberg" I was like oh boy, here we go xD
Amazing how his story pretty much mirros Elizabeth Holme's. Dropped out of college, started a business they had no experience in, lied to investors, put out a show that had a nonfunctioning product, based on science that did not exist. Changed the focus of the inventino midstream. And all these big companies just bought into it with zero vetting. What a great video. Thank you.
And they were both named "the next" Steve Jobs (Holmes) and Elon Musk (this guy) by the media. Honestly I roll my eyes when I hear media says someone is the next somebody, because it's such a stupid thing to do and in most cases is just overhyped BS + it's such disrespect to the actual people who actually changed the world.
@@toreadoress I agree with this. Allow someone to create their own legacy.
At least this guy didn't harm people by committing fraud based upon medical testing. It takes a special kind of a-hole to do that
@@PBMS123 true.
What people think MUSK is the only one that can lie to people so they throw at them? PEOPLE ARE SO GULLIABLE!
This is what happens when we stop questioning people, and judging them on what they say they are instead of their merit
Yea, todays trend is "what you say" not "what you do".
weve moved from trust but verify dont believe everything you hear especially when it seems to good to be realistic because history tends to repeat itself and when things tend to be to good to be true especially when it comes to things regarding green energy the technology isn't realistic or fully developed yet or able to be produced in a widescale way yet even if the technology exists its just not ready to be to be a real replacement of fossil fuels yet
People judge others by their looks. This make scammers job easier. They just need to fake it until they make it.
Democrats
@@alexkoparanian5264 very well said
19:30 - New development, prototype Badgers do exist, and HeavyDSparks has two of them.
This video is 2 years old...I am happy that whoever took over the company is making the most of it. I'm rooting for them
Well presented 😊
Wait... investors yoloing in all their money without doing a lick of research???
There's a few crypto-related subreddits that should watch this
Few is an understatement
Everything's a scam.
Ha! Preach Evan...
@@xxtradamxx Highly speculative store of value. That's just about the nicest way to describe crypto "currency." I don't want to think of the consequences to the world economy if it all in fact follows the Nikola business model of fake it till you make it (or you don't).
Like with Bernie Madoff, it's unreal how many people will give up money just based on words...
I believe in German law, creating a separate company with a name that aims to confuse business partners and customers about the entity they are dealing with is illegal and won't let you slip out of obligations.
not in the good ol US of A. Profits and money above people!
If it was for this law, it is a shame Holland isn't occupied by Germany anymore...
@@RM-el3gw "Corporations are people, my friend."
And money is free speech.
Hey, could you elaborate on this legal principle or law, like, what I could google for? That sounds like a reasonable principle to adopt
German companies are built for exports Bosch wants to export a drive system it could have ended up being a GM product many vehicle brand names change hands throughout their development.
Very interesting had no clue thanks
Great video mate
If there’s a successful EV company named Tesla and a dude comes along with an EV named Nikola, you know it’s probably a scam riding coattails
Yep
that was my take.
Same thing China does everyday, and we all fall for it
@@anthonys7534 what do they do?
@@hardrays that why most retail investors end up piling on after a stock reaches its high.
Investors: 'I'm not an idiot. I'm not falling for another Theranos!'
Nikola Motors: 'We're marketing a truck powered by pixie dust!'
Investors: 'Just take my damn money!'
It's SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!
Didn't know Pixies use Hydrogen to fly.
Would make a lot of sense tho.
it is the same phenomenon as Tesla investors have to take the ridicule and heat
Hello Remus :)
😁😁. Another Trevor will surface and investors will fall for him like they did with Theranos
Excellent work.
Please cover the Dale, a 3 wheeled car with high fuel efficiency during the 1973 gas shortages in the USA. Its story has crazy parallels with Nikola.
I never heard about this case. Brilliantly done and absolutely enthralling. It always amazes me how much people can get away with by just spouting lies with confidence.
Just look in the TV , it’s abundant
This is pretty much USA... delusion and confidence is a powerful mix to create illusions.
@@poncepg4991 I don't watch TV, but I found out about it eventually through other means didn't I😁
@@friedricey Whenever I see anything like this I'm always reminded of Enron. Yep, the USA really knows how to do this stuff.
The guy saw Elon Musk and he was successful by throwing lies and futuristic ideas without any follow-up, he thought he could do the same. However, why he failed was that he didn't have any base products to show, unlike Tesla which has his cars. Elon can get away with his lies because he brings up more lies constantly that people forget his first ones.
When people try to point out Elon's obvious lies, others protect him saying "he has a car and a rocket", yes he does, but he only has that, what about all the hundreds of other things he promised? He was able to say to a journalist that his flying car is going to happen, people were skeptical on that one and just say he was joking, no he was not, it was just this time his lie was too big for people to fall for it!
The worst part about this kind of fraud is how it colors people's opinions about ACTUAL science, too much of this and people will start looking at actual breakthroughs and thinking "Oh god not this again"
Who do you work for? How much are they paying you to say this?
Whats to worry. If it didn't work it didn't work. If you think it could work by giving some a lot $$$$ money so it work, then it is not working yet, so its a lie to say its already work
@@robi1885 This is just a fact of human nature. No payment is needed to state a fact. People have a right to be skeptical when media constantly posts what turns out to be scams.
@@justabearbrowsingyoutube4968but who do you work for?
This is how it goes with Moon and Mard exploration
24:31 "Fake it until you make it" implies actually trying to make good of your promises one day, even if you can't at the moment...
Not "fake it and do nothing forever" until you eventually get caught.
It's "fake it til enough people believe it and gives you money for it then you run off with the loot."
@@walden6272 At that point, it's still fake. It's permanent debt you never intend to pay back, and you aren't going anywhere except jail.
@@KITOMERO The CryptoQueen did just that and she is still out somewhere enjoying the Billions of dollars she scam.
6:28 that’s a really outlandish claim, how did he convince anyone of this?
This brings back some fun memories. I wrote an article in the summer of 2020 against some of Milton's claims, which he actually responded to (though not very well). People were sounding the alarm before the report came out, but they were unfortunately far and few between.
Great summary of the whole event.
People also ask: Is Cold Fusion milking this story and is Nikola a fraud too?Apparently a federal jury charged the Nikola scammer "Trevor Milton" with fraud for lying about “nearly all aspects of their ev business”, 07/29/21👌
I don't understand why you think this a Great summary of the whole event when in truth its nothing looking you in the eye on the top of the pyramid scheme looking at George Washington's facebook $1bill☠💀👽🖕
@@raystiles9506 uhhhhhhhhhhhh wut?
@@raystiles9506 lay off the crack dude, it's messing with your brain....
@@animalcol1 Literally, I'm scratching my head like a crack addicts trying to figure out what he's trying to say
@@raystiles9506 say that again, but in English please.
These people were commonly known as grifters before the internet and advances in technology. Technology acts as a multiplier for their lies, and many people are gullible.
100% right on point
Snake oil.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” - Arthur C. Clark
In a way it goes both ways. A grifter can make anything seem possible by claiming some advancement in technology.
Generally agree, but fraud on this scale has always been around. Like the guy who sold the Eiffel tower (twice) Victor lustig or Gregor Macgregor who made up a fake country in south America and sold fake bonds and land to people in England/France. 250 people traveled to this new country only to find untouched jungle and half of them died.
Interesting
There were so many of this Trevors in my business classes. Even if it was a mock presentation for a product, they wouldn't hesitate to extrapolate everything and show it as if it was a fact, not surprising that these people exist in the real world, some just know how to after the money no matter what
great material for a feature film
The parallels of this and Theranos are fascinating. Both had insane dreams pushing crap that pulled in suckers.
And look at the amount of suckers they pulled in????
What amazes me is he wasn't even an engineer. Certainly Intelligent in an evil way.
@@kimthreadgold2755 same for Theranos. Elizabeth had no medical background at all! It's actually crazy what people can achieve if they say whatever confidently enough
Crazy that the "suckers" are all extremely well known/veterans of the business world
@@disf5178 'veterans'...:) This is like next level Theranos...
"Milton claimed that his Nikola one could be driven when in fact the closest it ever came to driving was when a group of Nikola engineers took it to the top of the hill and rolled it down so it could be filmed for a commercial" 😂😂😂
+1 for being so smart..these Nikola engineers took it to the next level when all else fail!!!!
@@babyhermes2965 pun intended?
Should’ve called it newton
This guy is so full of sh*t, take a listen at 14:42 lol It's hilarious, you don't even have to make an actual product, just make up some environmentally friendly b.s. ha-ha-ha
@@todoldtrafford hahaha
Damn, you know when I first saw the unveiling of this truck I was super excited to see new tech in the trucking industry. I never knew it was all a sham.
If you have a vehicle that had zero emissions at a show, a great idea would be to start it up. The fact that no one thought to push why they didn't run the truck at its unveiling was a serious missed chance to expose the fraud earlier on. It seems that as time goes on people are easier to trick and be scammed.
I nearly pissed myself laughing when I found out last year that the footage of the truck pulling a load was done by free wheeling the empty truck down a hill 🤣🤣🤣🤣 sometimes the simplest deception is the most convincing.
under Swiss law they might get away with this: _The offender acts wilfully, in particular, if he uses forged documents, _*_constructs an entire scheme of lies,_*_ prevents the defrauded party from verifying the presented information or knows that the defrauded party will not verify the information due to the relationship of trust between the parties._ so investors not doing _any_ homework might lead to them being liable, again under Swiss law but then there's not as much industry here and people who make a lot of money just moving around the latter are somewhat removed from the _realwirtschaft_ anyway
Same, that was a good laugh and people STILL kept going along with this Ponzi scheme
@@h00db01i Nothing was forged, and making CGI videos for investors to see a prototype before it is built is legal.
It sounded like something from Southpark.
Yup, kinda makes you think of the Tesla floating around in space 🤔
It's fascinating that, with that much capital, he could have genuinely tried to build the necessary infrastructure and go for the real thing.
Instead he just cashed out.
When you don't have the ability to even put a team together that can do the research and development of the technology needed then it was always an impossibility for him to do it. He most likely went in with the intention of defrauding folks to make billions and did just that. Now that the lies caught up to him it's time to give back his pound of flesh.
Our economic system consistently punishes real solutions. Take a quick look at the patent system and see what a disaster that is
He was morally corrupt.
The only sign of action was when he bought the battery company.
But that blew up in his face
They could have spent every penny of that investor money on research and infrastructure and still wouldn't have delivered on his false promises.
He could never do it, a thief cannot become a real engineer just with money
i remember thinking there was no way anyone could be bold enough to lie that blatantly
This is a sign that people without much understanding of technologies everywhere, including high managers who could be easily fooled, many times full of buzzwords but making dumb decisions coz they dont understand basics, personal experience from Telecom and Banking.
I’m extremely surprised the reporter who interviewed him at the unveiling, in the truck’s cab, didn’t ask him to turn on the engine (I meant motor. Sorry, I shouldn’t have used the term “engine”).
“Before you start recording, don’t ask to turn it on”
Yeah, how the heck did they get away with that? :-/
I mean where they will drive the truck to in stage.
He was part of the drama
He'll probably just say the tank has to be empty if it's indoors and he can't start it.
When I heard him say “to film the commercial they just towed the truck up a hill and let it roll down” I could not stop laughing. 🤣🤣 I just can’t even. Imagine being apart of the crew who had to film the commercial…
@vbddfy euuyt I guess it was not a coincidence and apart from this one, I always liked cold fusion tv, but this is partially a hit piece. Stick to stuff which one can 100% completely back up with actuel evidence
Imagine being the driver lmao.
The trucks have been driving consistently for months now in various conditions, yet you speak on something from more than a year ago, get updated!
@@cdeschrevel5341 this is backed up with actual evidence. The fact that they towed it and let it roll is one of the details that exposed the guy in the first place. It's documented.
@@dushanehylton7983 probably with a v8
I find it interesting that you have all of these companies that run into the market place with out a product and people invest in them. I remember back in the 90’s when there were all of these high tech companies running around selling vapor wear. I would ask my friends who were investing in them after their IPO what there products were and how much had they sold and the answer was they have this great new innovative idea that will revolutionize what ever. Then we had the Dot bomb. When the government is dumping money into the economy it has to go somewhere and that’s when you get the market bubbles.
Also, how did he possibly think he was going to get away with this? Oh yeah because he has a history of getting away with scamming people and no one stopping him.
UPDATE: He was found guilty and will be sentenced in January 2023. He could face up to 25 years in prison.
Great to hear this
I hope he serves every single day
Not enough, lifetime
@@meandmeatmeoverthereima be real with you bro that wasn’t a good joke
@catastrofy Why would you ask for their location, so weird
The "fake it until you make it" is also what Steve Job did in his product announcements in his early days. The difference is that Steve Job eventually made his products work, Nicolas and its peers never bother to make anything work except their frauds.
They produced a very big paperweight
Don't compare him to Jobs . There's a difference between a failure and a fraud .
That’s apples and oranges. Steve Jobs actually HAD a functioning product, it just had some working bugs. Things like when the memory got low the phone would stop working. Also playing a full mp3 would make the phone crash. Also sequential steps would make the phone crash like trying to open your email after opening the browser. However, the phone was actually working and these were software engineering hurdles that needed to be fixed. The equivalent would be if the Nikola had hydrogen fueled trucks, that already worked, but the engine overheated after 100 miles and the car needed to stop for an hour. Then they could retroengineer something to make it work on time. But there was no car. At all, there was just a hull. It’s not comparable at all. That would be like if Steve Jobs did his first iPhone presentation with just an iPhone case and a box, and no actual iPhone.
sounds like a great idea!
with the best intentions !
what could possibli go wong
How could he get that far? How could investors that investigate him at all in any way? It’s amazing. There are more scams than there are.
The world's biggest truck maker, without selling any trucks. Effing genius! This just points out the incompetency of the whole economic system of today.
You should see the faces when i tell my friends that Tesla IS the biggest car maker of the world, by financial measurements.
You don‘t seem to understand how stocks work. You know that a company does not actually have the money equal to the worth the market assigns to its shares, right?
Tells you that the Stock Market is just one giant bubble ready to burst!
@@asatrv At the moment, the ammount of gold futures that is in circulation, in the London stock exchange alone, is greater than the ammount of gold on Earth. It's all a scam.
@@asatrv i didn´t state that Tesla has the biggest pockets, i stated it is worth the most.
The Efficient Market Hypothesis takes yet another blow from reality. "It seems investors have collectively lost their minds" had me laughing for sure.
It is in the same vain as rational customer hypothosis they had 100 years ago. That people would onlt buy in their own interests and naturally go for the best option all the time. Clearly that is not the case and is disproven by people paying over the odds in every market every day.
Why do you think it's not efficient if there's to much money in a market, for a % of it to end up in the hands of shysters? It's an incredibly efficient metric for telling you too much money is pooling in too few hands
Not sure this is really a case of invalidating that
He was just a wicked invidual because he got enough investments to finish all those prototypes but he didn't finish even a single one of them!! Making an electric/hydrogen vehicle isn't hard at all making them both safe and efficient is the real challenge. So perhaps he was never going to invade the market with Nikola vehicles like Tesla did but he could still have a company today and not considered as a criminal. There are millions of people on Earth who could achieve great things but they never do because they never receive any investment while Trevor did the hardest part then wasted it all moronically...
We are so susceptible to vaporware fraudsters because we have been trained all our lives to think that flashy business people are the only places where major innovations come from.
This was so interesting to watch in real-time. Message boards for stocks were filled with trolls, fanboys, and people trying to pump the stock so they could exit their positions, all saying the same thing. All trying to prop him up.
Really dodged a bullet on this one. I remember watching the event. That thing you mention about him focusing more on the tablet instead of the truck was a huge red flag for me. Also, the company had no sales and no history of business. I backed off right away.
Yea l mean a smart Investor would Never invest somthing that didnt even do sales.
@@osmanxxrngxx1369 They had preorders. And it's not stupid to invest in a product before it's ready, as long as you're aware of and accept the risks of that. The problem was the CEO's lies. The product was incomplete, but he told people it was, giving them a false impression of the amount of risk the investment would have.
It'd be like ordering food at a restaurant and they serve it to you raw.*
*Smart-ass comments about Japanese food or cook-it-yourself places are not necessary. In those cases you know what you're getting.
@@MD-vs9ff Name one CEO who doesn't lie. It's their job, it's what they are payed for.
Apple: "This is our best iPhone yet" - sure, what they don't tell you, they already have a 20% faster version in their drawers.
Each and every company uses deceit - be it to gain public interest by over-hyping, or claiming things which aren't real (at least at time of announcement), such as with the "Cyberpunk" debacle
Even when the lady point blank asked the question about is this a working truck he said yes but did a quick deflect and started playing with the screen again. If it was zero emissions why did no one simply ask him to start it up at the venue?
Smart pants 🔥🔥
nice decision 👍👍👍
It was so obvious. The signs were everywhere and I'm definitely an amateur investor. When you want to believe something, you will convince yourself of it's legitimacy.
When a company makes such outlandish promises....AND is called "Nikola", I mean come on that's 1000% a scam.
Agreed. I saw Nikola’s lies from the start.
People were calling it vaporware for years on Electrek comments. It was pretty obvious.
This is just fascinating. He conned all those people who are supposed to have degrees from top tier schools.
The bigger the lie the more likely people will believe it.
It's fascinating to see these frauds. Shows how easy it is to manipulate people. Great video.
It’s unfortunately so true… people by default want to believe.
"Shows how easy it is to manipulate people." Especially true in Trump's megalomania.
@@kennethwong8843 your comment is quite ironic, seeing as the current administration is just as bad if not worse
This is how the world has been working, even US government has been doing this to the public for many years; moon landing, Afghanistan, ... there are so many examples..
i agree. i did not even see one computer programmer or engineer. like if you only see a talking head with no sort of degree or for that matter no sort of videos showing him working on a truck himself then ahhahahahah here is free money give me some of it.
Investors be like: "Although the Engineers with years of industrial experience said it is a bad idea, but this college drop-out clearly knows better. I'm gonna give him millions dollars"
These investors think they know those jobs. They view many workers with such skills as a dime a dozen, easy to replace. Oftentimes, even the workers buy into the system and give more of themselves, thinking, they'll be rewarded. In the end, many end up training their replacement, especially in heavy industry.
@LetzBfriendZ let's go Brandon
@LetzBfriendZ count me in, im not even an american. But we watching the election counting for fun.
What a weird election, especially after pause then suddenly Brandon number go vertical, lmao.
We asian dont like Trump much, but at least he is not as bad as how media said, lmao.
- No WW3
- He try solve conflict in NK, arabs with Israel,
- And we love how he always pick a fight with China 🤣
Better than Bush or Brandon 👍
Which engineers say its a bad idea? who is paying them? hydrogen is the obvious choice in the future the wealthiest governments of the world are prepared to spend billions on it once the technology is available enough.
@@togowack Hydrogen is not a bad idea, trusting a company without the actual technology is the bad idea. I just guess if the investors did any technical due diligence, some engineers must have questioned about the technical issues.
Never heard of that, but interesting video... :)
Lying like that is a form of art.
How could a man look so confident about his achievements while knowing that none of what he was saying was real?
Sociopaths...they're called sociopaths.
Some even become President of the U.S.
he saw Elon Musk and his companies and thought if they can do it we can. lol
they can even become President!
Sociopaths don’t care if you think they are lying. They will lie to you with the straightest face as if they were telling the truth.
@@hawkeyerichardson5026 :))
If there is anything I have learned from watching ColdFusion, it's that the world needs a hell of a lot more critical thinking skills.
I was laughed off in 2008 in when I said that Project Natal (later Microsoft Kinect) was useless for gaming.
watching the news shows this
Knowing this happened, and many smart people were duped, why is it so hard to believe that the heads of NASA and NOAA are lying about temperature increases? All the other organizations use their charts so it seems like everyone agrees. They are erasing the past heat of the 1930’s and cooling of the 70’s. Climate crisis is a scam 100 times bigger than Nikola.
th-cam.com/video/6kUAtt2pXlc/w-d-xo.html
This video explains why I’m so confident about fraud.
@@mcbowler Tony Heller has been described as an "attention grabber" by the skeptic community. Even the climate skeptics says that he made major errors in his analysis.
My question is, did none of these investment companies and motor companies not have engineers to consult them? Like motor companies have engineers, how did they not see the fraud.
Agreed - a 30 minute basic overview of the hardware with some fundamental tests would have caught this fraud
I gotta feeling Carl Icahn will
be CF's next such feature, ...
followed by Austin Russell,
sometime within a year or
two after. . . . :--))