"The entire infotainment system is a HTML 5 super computer," Milton said. "That's the standard language for computer programmers around the world, so using it let's us build our own chips. And HTML 5 is very secure. Every component is linked on the data network, all speaking the same language. It's not a bunch of separate systems that somehow still manage to communicate."
https://www.truckinginfo.com/330475/whats-behind-the-grille-... - April 24, 2019
What skills does he have that I completely lack?
As George Carlin would say, it's a big club, and you ain't in it.
That said, looks like this guy is actually more of a "self made man" as he started several businesses out of college with moderate success. The first was an alarm company (Spoiler, those are generally MLMs and there's 100 of them). Looks like he was just successful enough at it.
It's not shocking to me that someone who starts an MLM ends up in trouble with the SEC.
And it's not shocking that someone from Utah starts an MLM. MLM and other scams seem to be the main industry in Utah.
A non-snarky comment is in my experience the LDS church puts a great deal of emphasis on entrepreneurship, wealth, and "excellence in all things" that leads some to do great things and others to shamelessly steal and cheat.
The truly great founders, CEOs, and investors of our generation have generally been people who could see the difference between articulate and intelligent, and valued intelligence as the driving characteristic of people who built their products.
I'm going to have to disagree. There are many things that make the two Steves different. Woz was just never interested in the same things Jobs was. Woz wanted to make cool shit. Jobs wanted to have his products rule the world.
1. The ability to lie shamelessly.
2. Charisma.
3. Confidence.
The last two (or all three, really) can be combined into ‘salesmanship’, more or less.
The ability to tell tall tales that are completely disconnected from reality. And be able to do so with utter confidence.
Either way, it's maximum corruption.
And we, the people, continue to choose "public discourse" as a mechanism to bring awareness and, perhaps, attend to the issue; yet, the discourse available to the people is limited, both economically and even in social media, algorithmically.
I hate to sound like a decentralization fanatic, but decentralizing power away from centralized actors is the only way we will be able to right these wrongs and essentially bring fairness to society.
We, the people, deserve to reap rewards based on skill and the proper application thereof.
And if you think decentralization brings fairness I suggest you visit some of the more decentralized parts of the world. Decentralization can solve some problems, but that's not one of them.
You'd be amazed how "successful" one can be if willing to lie, cheat and/or steal.
It does not take any special skills to do this. All it takes is having no integrity.
Even this site is maybe a good example. You can apply to YCombinator with little more than a partner, plan, and pitch. The worst that happens is they say no, and if they say yes then you get a $500k funded shot at your idea with lots of advice on top and people trying to help you succeed. Yeah the chances of acceptance are low, but if you've ever read applications for pretty much anything, a ridiculous amount are just complete garbage, so your chances are better than the numbers suggest if you're halfway competent.
At the same time, I think going from mid-6 to 7 figure income is a lot less controversial than 10 figure net worth. It's still unlikely to be related to whether someone is a scaled up version of another, but at what point you consider the reasons for earning that much "fair" tend to go a lot deeper than plain fraud.
(Don't get me wrong there are systemic issues with both of the examples above, but the point is fundamentally there's value in understanding and taking on risks that others might be less willing to take)
One of my favorite is Lordstown Motors / Steve Burns claiming they have all kind of orders and will be delivering soon... meanwhile their handful of prototype trucks they actually have are actively catching fire on the roadway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0Y81M8oWn4
Burns was banned from being an executive and fined by the SEC after the 'orders' stunt turned out to be BS (he still came out way ahead after selling stocks from the vehicle spaces he'd worked in), but IIRC he has moved on to another company, and before that was CEO of Workhorse where he sold the same story about a nearly identical truck and a gigantic flying electric copter.
The Führer is never wrong.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/28/trump-pardons-nikola-trevor-...
1) investors caring that management is lying and being unwilling to invest in known fraud and
2) the United States being a nation of laws.
Both seemed like solid bets as recently as a decade ago
https://hindenburgresearch.com/
But some may find amusing my initial interpretation, that this was an oblique reference to Paul von Hindenburg effectively abdicating to a different government (which has been likened by some to the current USA leadership).
The filing last month noted that “President Trump expressly decided here that Milton is factually innocent, the pardon did, contrary to the debtors’ assertions, wipe the slate clean.”
Absolutely disgusting. Now he's trying to pull 69 million in legal fees from the company.
https://apnews.com/article/nikola-trevor-milton-fraud-trump-...
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/us/politics/sec-trump-cle...
Each of the above guys did the smart thing of buying influence (Milton retained the attorney general’s brother as his lawyer, for example). In the past you’d have to hide that better, but now it’s out in the open.
One of the guys mentioned in the article is now cleared to work on his new crypto venture. Of course.
Edit: not to “both sides” this, but it is interesting and mentioned in that NYT article that Biden pardoned a guy involved in a multi-billion dollar ponzi after serving 10 years (with 10 to go). Found an article from 2008 showing that the Bidens were linked with the firm. Not as direct of a quid pro quo but more the standard back scratching …
https://www.reuters.com/article/business/stanford-reportedly...
One of the most glaring examples of the effect is how in his previous term he led all of all of his supporters to the opposite side of a clear second amendment issue - the summary execution of Breonna Taylor in retaliation for Kenneth Walker's Constitutionally-protected act of night time home defense. This is one of the exact situations the NRA and wider gun lobby always invokes to rally support, and yet they just completely discarded it in favor of cheering on the jackbooted home invaders that came to make those "cold dead hands".
I'm just waiting to see where Trump's current gun control push is going to go. Gun registration/prohibition for "trans, foreign-looking people, liberals, antifa hiding under your children's beds, etc", but really anyone and everyone who might have some semblance of a spine. These cultists really have no values left.
Remember when half this forum was convinced that both parties are equally corrupt, based on their feeling that he will certainly walk?
(That half of it is still convinced they are equally corrupt, but since their guy won and the ends justify the means, they no longer feel the need to articulate reasons for why they would feel that way.)
That's why tips are tax-free!
If the country isn't a petrostate it's certainly cosplaying one to a psychotic degree.
About 17% of the GDP is paid to the federal government in taxes. Nationalizing oil production is equivalent to lowering the effective federal tax rate by 35%.
Bradley Bondi is Pam Bondi's (yes the attorney general) brother.
Outrage fatigue. The actions are so constant and outrageous that it's hard to keep up. There's an item every single week that would've gotten a president impeached 20 years ago.
"It has also been reported that Trevor Milton gave $920,000 to Mr. Trump’s political campaign (or $1.8 million combined with his wife) and was represented in this case by Pam Bondi’s brother."
- Extortion example: Trump in a White House Lawn gaggle interview this week complained at / threatened Australia's ABC reporter and then Australia itself with additional tarriffs, after the reporter asked about loss of freedom of speech relating to FCC complaining & threatening "big stick or little stick, you decide" to ABC/Disney who needed FCC's near-future approval for a pending business-merger, which ABC/Disney then terminated a thorn in the side of the President .. comedian Jimmy Kimmel. It's pretty clear, in my personal opinion, that this was extortion
Again, these are my personal opinions.
Essentially what corporate law is all about. Huge drain on innovation and an accelerant for corruption. We’ve grown so used to it now that we don’t even see it. Agree to terms, move on. Hear about some class-action lawsuit relevant to you, but never get anything from it. Nowadays we don’t even have a right to class-action in most agreements we sign with corporations. The same vultures in corporate law are making their way into public law. It’s like mixing bleach and ammonia.
they're trying. https://theinventors.com / https://theranoslabs.com are up on billboards around LA with 'Elizabeth Holmes Innocent' marketing.
This is a big one, but was settled https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/18/business/tesla-black-worker-h...
“I had to [stay in school]..otherwise I’d get kicked out of the country.” (This is correct.) Then “since I already had my undergrad, I could..get an H1-B visa” yet he had not received a degree in 1995.
"I was legally there, but I was meant to be doing student work," adding to The Post, "I was allowed to do work sort of supporting whatever." - self-admission of violating the terms of his F1 and working illegally.
Snopes has a lot more details, but it's pretty clear that Musk violated the terms of his F1 visa (after entering on a J1, both non-immigrant visas). https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/musk-undocumented-immigran...
yencabulator•3h ago
It's the party of rules for thee, not for me.
lokar•2h ago
estearum•1h ago
lokar•58m ago
overfeed•44m ago
SCOTUS ruled that official actions of POTUS can't be illegal, and can't even be investigated.
twright•2h ago
CamperBob2•1h ago
_DeadFred_•1h ago
rtkwe•55m ago
CamperBob2•51m ago