Three top Nikola Corp. executives threatened to resign in 2020 if the electric vehicle maker’s founder, Trevor Milton, didn’t step down as executive chairman, according to a filing in the federal fraud case against him.

Nikola Corp.’s chief executive officer told a jury he learned only after joining the company that its debut electric truck had neither a gas-powered turbine nor a fuel cell when founder Trevor Milton unveiled it.

A Nikola Corp. prototype of the electric vehicle startup’s planned Badger pickup truck was made partly of components from a Ford Motor Co. F-150 Raptor, the jury in the criminal trial of Nikola founder Trevor Milton was told.

A former Nikola Corp. contractor whose allegations of fraud at the electric truck company helped spur a criminal investigation told a federal jury he made $600,000 off a short seller’s report on Nikola.

Nikola Corp. won a court order preventing founder Trevor Milton from using certain company communications in his defense against criminal charges that he lied about the company’s products to mislead investors and prop up the stock.

Nikola Corp. founder Trevor Milton, who is scheduled to go on trial next month on charges he misled investors about the company’s business prospects, was indicted for allegedly defrauding the previous owner of his Utah ranch, which Milton used as collateral for his bail.

Nikola Corp. founder Trevor Milton claims federal prosecutors refused access to the company’s vehicles and equipment he says are crucial to his defense against fraud charges.

Nikola Corp.’s founder sold his biggest batch of shares since the U.S. charged him with securities fraud, bringing the total he has disposed of since August to $284 million.

Trevor Milton has more in common with Elon Musk than starting a prominent electric vehicle company named after inventor Nikola Tesla. He’s now hired the same lawyers to defend him.

Trevor Milton has voluntarily stepped aside as executive chairman and board member of Nikola Corp., the electric truck company he created, it was announced Sept. 21.