Trevor Milton, as he appears in a documentary about how he's totally innocentRemember Trevor Milton, the guy who put semi truck manufacturer Nikola on the map? That was, of course, before he left the company in disgrace, was convicted of defauding its investors, and eventually had to be bailed out by the President of the United States himself in the form of a federal pardon. Well, Milton and some of his Nikola cronies are back, this time with a jet that's totally, definitely 100% real.Milton spoke with the Wall Street Journal to help launder a new scam to new wealthy marks. In the piece, he talks about how his new SyberJet venture will definitely for sure produce real planes that people can buy — and how those planes will be powered by AI, in order to jingle the current set of keys that get investors hard. Milton seems to be betting he can jump from his last scam (where, again, he was convinced and sentenced for lying to investors) to a new market, bank on "experience" in automobiles with Nikola and add in the new buzzword of artificial intelligence, and make off with a ton of cash. Do not believe his liesMilton claims this new nine-seat jet he's supposedly working on will fly from Los Angeles to New York without stopping for fuel. He says that he's working towards full aerial autonomy with AI. He says SyberJet will be the go-to partner for other companies to leverage AI in their own gets, with the company becoming a service provider. He says SyberJet is working on autonomous jets for the military, too. He also says that he did nothing wrong at Nikola, that he was wrongfully convicted, and that actually all that "fraud" business only made him better at running companies. Trevor Milton has proven, through Nikola, that he is willing to lie to investors. He's proven that he's willing to use political lobbying dollars to buy a get-out-of-hail free card. But most of all, he's proven that he wants to transfer investor funds to his own pocket and get out of Dodge safe and sound. To the Wall Street Journal, Milton likens this post-pardon era of his life to a "comeback story," "like Secretariat." If I were a betting woman, I wouldn't put my money on SyberJet's horse. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox, and add us as a preferred search source on Google.
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