Mark Pugsley

Attorney specializing in financial fraud, Ponzi schemes and whistleblower cases. #whistleblower

[Mark Pugsley @Utahsecurities]

He ain’t wrong about this.

[Codfish Johnny @CodfishJohnny]

I'll keep going with both the whistleblower work and advising and representing short activists, something that keeps the lights on and keeps the engine of finance, relatively, honest. Government has given up on fighting fraud in the markets. It's up to you: Muddy, Grizzly, Blue Orca, Fuzzy Panda, Morpheus, Callisto, Jehoshaphat, Culper, and all of the others - including the one man shops.

But what the fuck am I even doing as a whistleblower lawyer? For some of my cases, I have to tell clients the Trump administration simply doesn't care. For others I have to tell them they'll never see an award because the SEC no longer does corporate fines. For still others I have to tell them the SEC's Claims Review Board will fuck them in the ass when it comes time to get paid. For still others, I have to explain that the CFTC might as well not exist and that the DoJ has never taken its own program seriously. And for a few I have to explain that Presidential pardons mean all of the time, effort, and personal risk have been wiped away by the swipe of a corrupt pen.

Fraud - the widespread theft and misallocation of capital - hurts us all. It destroys faith in the rule of law and in capitalism itself. Want AOC or Bernie as President? Then you should love this administration because its gross corruption makes that much more likely.

[Mark Pugsley @Utahsecurities]

This is a great summary of what is happening at the SEC and why whistleblowers are more important than ever.
#whistleblowers

https://t.co/YnqtnQiorj

[Nate Anderson @NateHindenburg]

I am Nate Anderson, the founder of Hindenburg Research referenced repeatedly in this bizarre and fantastical interview. During my career, I helped expose numerous financial scams, including over a dozen Ponzi schemes and numerous instances of public companies lying to and stealing from investors: https://t.co/a40Lw3zTMp

I am immensely proud of that career including our work on Nikola Motors referenced in the interview.

Trevor Milton is a convicted fraudster held criminally responsible for the incineration of hundreds of millions of dollars in retail investors’ hard-earned money. As should be unsurprising, Milton in this interview seems to just fabricate key events and information out of thin air – unfortunately with zero critical questioning or pushback from Tucker.

For starters, contrary to Trevor Milton’s implications that his prosecution was some sort of Biden administration conspiracy, conveniently neither Milton nor Tucker share that the investigation into Milton was started and disclosed in September 2020 – under the first TRUMP administration and well before the 2020 election.

There were numerous inaccuracies throughout the interview. The claim that Hindenburg paid employees for inside information is patently absurd. The key whistleblower discussed in the interview was only briefly a contractor for Milton. He was so horrified by what he viewed as Milton’s repeated false claims that he did a tremendous amount of research on his own, unraveling numerous additional suspected lies that Milton peddled to the investing public.

Further, Hindenburg didn’t “coordinate” anything with media or the DoJ. Such entities ran their own investigations for their own purposes unconnected to us. There was ample evidence that Milton misstated numerous aspects of his business, as the company itself later acknowledged.

It would take hours to write about all the other absurdities, half-truths, innuendos and false statements in this interview but in the interest of correcting some of the record, here’s a handful:

- Milton waxes on about his pardon, but no one mentioned that Milton’s lawyer was Brad Bondi—the brother of AG Pam Bondi. Nor did anyone mention that Milton donated $900 thousand to Trump in October 2024, less than a month before the recent election—strategically timed well after his criminal conviction and immediately prior to the presidential election. Trump acknowledged he had never heard of Milton before being asked to pardon him but relied on others for the recommendation.

- Milton failed to mention that immediately prior to his resignation from his company, beyond the extensive allegations of fraud, he was also publicly accused of multiple instances of sexual assault, including by his own cousin, who went on-the-record with her allegations.

- I can only wonder what kind of investigation Tucker undertook of the fraud allegations against Milton before having him on. Milton literally video-taped a truck rolling down a hill implying that it was driving under its own power. He also went up on stage and said a truck that didn’t work “fully functions and works.”

- Waxing poetic about hydrogen in the interview echoes Nikola’s lies to retail investors that it successfully produced hydrogen at a cost ~81% lower than anyone on earth, a feat that would have upended the entire energy industry had it been remotely true. Nikola’s head of hydrogen production, presumably in charge of this world-changing scientific breakthrough, turned out to be Milton’s own brother, who had no scientific background and previously did odd construction jobs in Hawaii.

- These weren’t one-off misstatements—there were dozens of examples like these. As the DoJ said – and proved in court – Milton “made false claims regarding nearly all aspects of Nikola’s business.” The company itself admitted to many of these false statements, agreed to a $125 million fine, and won an arbitration against Milton holding him personally liable for his conduct.

- Milton claimed that Hindenburg made $30m-$100m on our Nikola investment—this isn’t even close (we made a fraction of that). Trevor seems to just be making these numbers up out of thin air.

Hilariously, Tucker opened by suggesting that short selling was illegal until 2007, a claim that is completely false. After confirming that he knows nothing about the subject, he went on to suggest that short selling should be criminalized outright.

Short selling has existed for hundreds of years, and for good reason. Short sellers play a critical role in the functioning of healthy markets, similar to the role of investigative journalists, (which I presume Tucker considers himself akin to).

Most companies are a force for good and economic growth. However, some companies lie and engage in fraud. Short sellers have exposed nearly every major corporate fraud in the past several decades because just as there is an economic incentive for identifying the good companies, there is also an economic model for identifying the scams. This is how free markets and free speech works—helping weed out the bad companies and those stealing from investors so good companies have more room to thrive.

Claiming to be a free speech advocate while casually advocating for the imprisonment of anyone who dares to speak critically about public companies is a contradiction of the highest order.

In short, Tucker, I highly suggest you actually vet the people you welcome onto your platform. If you find yourself staring, mouth agape at your interviewee, repeatedly saying “Wow! This is unbelievable!” it may in fact be because it’s unbelievable.

You reach a lot of people and this one was an avoidable miss. Good day.

[Mark Pugsley @Utahsecurities]

Utah father, son at center of $300M oil scam case now facing terrorism charges for links to Mexican cartel https://t.co/p9ymdW4Kax

[Codfish Johnny @CodfishJohnny]

Not a word of this regarding Trevor Milton’s case bears even a passing resemblance to the truth.

[Acyn @Acyn]

Reporter: What was your reason for pardoning Trevor Milton?

Trump: I don't know him, but they say it was very unfair, and the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president.

[Mark Pugsley @Utahsecurities]

@NateHindenburg Maybe he should focus on paying his obligations instead of wasting his money on a puff piece documentary.

[Mark Pugsley @Utahsecurities]

@CodfishJohnny What would be the proper use of the term insufferable?

[Mark Pugsley @Utahsecurities]

Another Utah investment scam. Why do people keep falling for these?
#scam

[Hindenburg Research @HindenburgRes]

NEW FROM US:

Aaron Wagner And Wags Capital – From Pro Football To Utah's Latest Disgraced Financial Influencer

Last week, Wagner was arrested and charged criminally with wire fraud.

We began investigating in Aug. '23 with the help of whistleblowers.

https://t.co/oTYXyiIKRb

[Mark Pugsley @Utahsecurities]

"With today’s announcements, we are telling employees: If you are aware of criminal misconduct at your company, now is the time to come forward to the Criminal Division.” (*And you can get paid) #whistleblower https://t.co/cdEvj7lNaw

[Mark Pugsley @Utahsecurities]

@jarvis_best Sure whatever. Please don’t come and visit the 5 national parks in our state, they’re only uninhabitable deserts. And don’t come skiing here either, we’re already overrun with tourists - they’re crowding out us degenerates.

[Codfish Johnny @CodfishJohnny]

Founder and former CEO and Chairman of @LordstownMotors Steve Burns gets hit with an individual securities enforcement action for donning his hard hat on tv and lying to investors about the company's pre-orders.

Been a long time coming. SEC settled with the company last month.

[Mark Pugsley @Utahsecurities]

Wow. Pro Publica is taking on the well-respected Primary Children's Hospital here in Utah where it says "pediatric surgeons are taking controversial risks with how they care for kids with cleft lip and palate." And parents aren’t told!

https://t.co/TNnAeNgS8P

[Mark Pugsley @Utahsecurities]

Utah Man Charged in $2.8 Million Wire Fraud Scheme where he impersonated a federal agent promising he could acquire exotic cars, planes and vessels that had been seized by the U.S. government through forfeiture. All fake. https://t.co/7plbKRjgG5

[Brian S. King @KingForUtah]

“The goal is to veto nothing.” -Gov Cox

Some things NEED to be vetoed.

#KingForUtah #ForTheBetter

[Nate Anderson @NateHindenburg]

Brace yourselves: We’re about to learn that SBF is one-quarter Navajo

[Mark Pugsley @Utahsecurities]

@sltrib How exactly is "not buying into the scarcity mindset" going to save the lake @GovCox?

[SEC Chair Gary Gensler Archive @GenslerArchive]

If you're considering an investment involving crypto assets, be cautious.

Crypto asset securities may be marketed as new opportunities but there are serious risks involved.

Read @SEC_Investor_Ed's Director Take:

[Mark Pugsley @Utahsecurities]

Federal law-enforcement officials are focusing on "affinity frauds" which target close-knit communities. This is the most common type of fraud among members of the Mormon church. https://t.co/ydJtbVXXLQ via @WSJ

[Mark Pugsley @Utahsecurities]

He lied to a federal judge at his sentencing hearing when he claimed to be 1/4 Cherokee? True to character I guess. #trevormilton $NKLA

[Hindenburg Research @HindenburgRes]

On Dec. 18th, disgraced Nikola founder Trevor Milton was sentenced to 4 years in prison for a securities fraud scheme we referred to as an “ocean of lies” in September 2020.

But it appears that, right up to his sentencing for fraud, Milton repeatedly lied to the judge.

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