This Week In Blunders – Sept. 6-12
“Is there no place left for repentance, none for pardon left?” – John Milton, “Paradise Lost.”
Investors lost millions buying stock of electric-truck startup Nikola. Founder Trevor Milton was sentenced to four years in prison for defrauding them. But President Donald Trump granted his freedom with a full pardon in March 2025.
Milton thinks it’s a free pass to stiff his investors.
On Wednesday, a judge ruled otherwise.
Now Milton will have to face a potentially costly investor lawsuit.
He’s failed to overturn a $167.7 million arbitration award that Nikola won against him, much of it stemming from the company’s 2021 settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And on Thursday, another judge rejected his attempt to use the pardon to salvage the nearly $70 million claim he filed against Nikola in bankruptcy court.
Contrary to some viral claims online, Trump is not Jesus. And not even Jesus’ forgiveness suspends the earthly consequences of one’s actions. Did this fraudster actually think he was going to Trump heaven?
Milton had some well-connected help. His trial lawyer was Brad Bondi, brother of ousted Attorney General Pam Bondi. Milton and his wife also contributed more than $1.8 million toward Trump’s 2024 reelection effort before the pardon.
You know what the preachers say: Give and you shall receive. Trump’s pardon wiped away any criminal restitution he might have been ordered to pay his investors. Prosecutors had sought more than $660 million. The only prayer investors have left for recovery is to sue.
For all the courtroom wrangling, the argument that a pardon cancels all civil liabilities requires some magical thinking. Can Jan. 6 rioters call Visa and argue they don’t have to pay the credit card tabs they ran up traveling to Washington that fateful week because they got a pardon? Should Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon and Roger Stone stop paying their mortgages or their tabs at Mar-a-Lago? Maybe a Trump pardon is also good for parking tickets, alimony and overdue library books.
Here’s what Trump had to say about Milton:
“They say the thing that he did wrong was, he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president. He supported Trump. He liked Trump. I didn’t know him, but he liked him.
“They persecuted, they destroyed five years of his life. He ... fought for five years of his life, and he did nothing wrong.
“And he’s a good person.”
Milton built Nikola into one of the hottest stocks of the electric-vehicle boom with grand claims about its technology and trucks. In one infamous promotional video, a Nikola One semi appeared to be cruising down a highway under its own power. It was towed to the top of a hill and sent rolling down a stretch that looked flat from the camera angles.
Nikola filed bankruptcy in February 2025 and liquidated substantially all its assets. For a zero-emission company, Nikola left one hell of a stain.
Milton has tried to use his pardon as an industrial-strength stain remover. He even put out a press release to wrap himself in everyman patriotism and attack the justice system:
“This pardon is not just about me – it’s about every American who has been railroaded by the government, and unfortunately, that’s a lot of people.
“It is no wonder why trust and confidence in the Justice Department has eroded to nothing. I wish judges would stop believing whatever the prosecutors feed them so Americans could trust the justice system again. Until that happens, our justice system will continue to erode until there is nothing left.”
Blaming the world for your own downfall is an old story.
Another Milton wrote it nearly 360 years ago.
He called it “Paradise Lost.”
Not so Luckey
Shiloh Luckey bought herself a house in Inglewood, California.
She bought a Tesla.
She had a wedding on the Caribbean island of Anguilla.
Not a bad lifestyle for the founder of a tax-compliance startup.
There was just one problem: Luckey was allegedly paying for it with money she took from her investors, according to prosecutors.
Luckey, 42, raised at least $13.3 million for ComplYant, a startup she founded to help small businesses navigate tax regulations. Prosecutors say she lured investors with inflated claims about the company’s revenue, customers, subscriptions and cash reserves.
She also allegedly claimed she was a licensed CPA with deep experience in tax management and accounting. She wasn’t.
The company ran into financial trouble and shut down in 2023. Investors lost their entire investments. But don’t cry for the investors. This was the smart money being really dumb.
ComplYant’s investors included prominent venture firms Craft Ventures, Mucker Capital, Slauson & Co. and Techstars.
Craft, co-founded by investor and Trump adviser David Sacks, led a $5.5 million funding round in 2022.
Said Michael Tam, partner at Craft Ventures:
“Shiloh is a domain expert with a keen product sense on a mission to empower all types of business owners with fiscal guidance. This is the strong combination we look for as investors and we found it in spades with ComplYant.”
Found what in spades? Her CPA credentials? Seems like something a crack VC due diligence team could have checked before handing over millions.
A federal grand jury charged Luckey with nine counts of securities fraud, three counts of wire fraud, bank fraud and two counts of money laundering, prosecutors announced on Wednesday.
She was arrested Sunday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where she was trying to board a cruise ship.
An un-Luckey break. Just when her ship had come in.
The 34-cent bankruptcy
A Chantilly, Va., man filed for bankruptcy claiming he had just 34 cents in financial assets.
Thirty-four cents.
Was that before or after he hired a bankruptcy lawyer? And geez, did he save anything for the parking meter outside the courthouse?
Federal prosecutors say Jihoon Park, 52, persuaded people to entrust him with their savings and retirement money, promising safe investments and high returns. Then he transferred more than $2.5 million of their money to himself, using some of it to buy a house and cryptocurrency.
Then poof. He was down to his last 34 cents. You can’t sue me.
A federal jury in Alexandria didn’t buy it.
On Tuesday, the panel convicted Park of three counts of wire fraud and two counts of bankruptcy fraud. He faces as much as 20 years in prison on each wire-fraud count and five years on each bankruptcy-fraud count when he is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 10.
The good news? If Park gets a solid prison job, he could double his life savings in about three hours.
It’s not really lonely at the top
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So, did Milton put in a request for the still-questionable 'Weaponization' compensation fund?