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The
embattled company named Stephen Girsky, former vice chairman of
General Motors Co <GM.N> and a member of Nikola's board, as
chairman, effective immediately.
Short-seller Hindenburg Research said in a scathing report
earlier this month that it had gathered enough evidence to show
that Nikola and Milton made false claims about company's
proprietary technology to form partnerships with large
automakers.
"The focus should be on the Company and its world-changing
mission, not me. So I made the difficult decision to approach
the Board and volunteer to step aside as Executive Chairman,"
said Milton, who owns about 20% of the company.
"I intend to defend myself against false allegations leveled
against me by outside detractors," he said in a tweet.
Hindenburg also alleged that Milton appointed his brother,
Travis, to lead the a unit in the company despite not having any
substantial experience related to the sector. (https://reut.rs/3mFQ6mM)
Nikola has rejected all the accusations and threatened to take
legal action against Hindenburg. The U.S. Department of Justice
and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have been
probing the claims made in the report, according to reports last
week.
Hindenburg's report came soon after Nikola sealed a partnership
with GM, which took an 11% stake in the company for about $2
billion and agreed to work together to make electric pickup
trucks to take on Tesla Inc <TSLA.O>.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is probing
Nikola to assess the merits of short-seller Hindenburg's
allegations, according to a Bloomberg News report last week.
Nikola has said it has briefed the SEC on concerns pertaining to
the report.
(Reporting by Rama Venkat and Ayanti Bera in Bengaluru; Editing
by Shounak Dasgupta)
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