Boards, Bills, and Pardons

Boardroom Governance Newsletter #63 | April 13, 2025

A Look at Recent White-Collar Pardons

On March 27–28, 2025, President Trump issued pardons to several high-profile white-collar offenders, reigniting debate over executive clemency and corporate accountability. I’ve covered most of these cases in past editions of this newsletter, and the list is striking:

1. Trevor Milton, founder and former CEO of Nikola, was convicted in 2022 by a federal jury in Manhattan on one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud. He was sentenced to four years in prison but remained free pending appeal and was fined $1 million. Trevor Milton had resigned in 2020 after Hindenburg Research published a report accusing him of making numerous false claims, including releasing a video that showed a truck rolling downhill to give the misleading impression that Nikola had developed a working prototype. At its peak in 2020, Nikola Corporation was valued at $30 billion. In 2021, it paid $125 million to settle fraud charges with the SEC. The company filed for …