Nonetheless, according to testimony, Mr. Milton said on Twitter and other forums that Nikola was responsible for “100 percent” of the technology in the Badger, portraying G.M. as little more than a supporting player. G.M. pulled out of the partnership soon after the Hindenburg report, and the Badger was never produced.
Other Nikola executives including Mark Russell, the chief executive, and Kim Brady, the chief financial officer, warned Mr. Milton repeatedly that his statements could backfire, prosecutors contended. The executives even staged an “intervention” where they tried, unsuccessfully, to get Mr. Milton to hew to the truth, according to witnesses.
Mr. Mukasey, the defense lawyer, pointed to internal Nikola emails in which the executives praised Mr. Milton’s media appearances. “They were telling Trevor what a good job he was doing,” Mr. Mukasey said.
The convictions include a charge that Mr. Milton defrauded a man who sold him a ranch in Utah. Mr. Milton paid for the ranch in part with Nikola stock options that proved to be worthless.
The acquittal on one of the securities fraud counts offered Mr. Milton a bit of relief. A conviction on that charge would have exposed him to a maximum sentence of 25 years.
Nikola, based in Phoenix, continues to operate, producing a limited number of battery-powered trucks in cooperation with established companies including IVECO, an Italian truck maker that is manufacturing Nikola vehicles in Germany. Michael Lohscheller, an auto industry veteran who was previously the chief executive of the German carmaker Opel, was named president of Nikola in August. .
Stefan Hartung, chief executive of the German electronics maker Bosch, said in an interview this month that he still believed in Nikola. Bosch, one of the world’s largest makers of components for the vehicle industry, is supplying fuel cell technology for Nikola trucks being developed.
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