Trevor Milton assembled a high-powered legal team to defend himself against federal fraud charges. At the same time, whistleblowers and Nikola executives were ready to testify against him. In our season finale, we go inside Milton’s trial and s

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The Unraveling of Trevor Milton, Ep 5: “Trouble for Troublemakers”

Nov 4th, 2022 43m 15s

As investors and General Motors bet on Trevor Milton’s vision, the short sellers at Hindenburg Research revealed that the company he founded, Nikola, wasn’t all that it seemed. The allegation that Nikola rolled its truck down a hill for a promo

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The Unraveling of Trevor Milton, Ep 4: “Not Appointed Us to Wrath”

Oct 28th, 2022 44m 15s

After it began trading in 2020, Nikola was a hot stock—and Trevor Milton was a newly minted billionaire. But in the background, people from Trevor’s past were finding each other and sharing their experiences. In this episode, we talk to the unl

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The Unraveling of Trevor Milton, Ep 3: “Paul Echo Mango”

Oct 21st, 2022 49m 34s

A jury has convicted Nikola founder Trevor Milton in his federal fraud trial. To better understand what led up to this moment, we hear from some of the engineers Nikola hired to help make Trevor’s idea of a zero-emissions semi truck a reality.

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The Unraveling of Trevor Milton, Ep 2: “No Good Deed”

Oct 14th, 2022 40m 28s

Trevor Milton had a knack for pitching people to invest in his ideas. He raised millions for his early business ventures by making big promises, often to inexperienced investors including friends and members of his church community. In this epi

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The Unraveling of Trevor Milton, Ep 1: “Hey, Buddy”

Oct 7th, 2022 39m 8s

Trevor Milton sold a promise—a zero-emissions semi truck that could revolutionize the trucking industry. He also sold himself as the visionary founder capable of delivering on that promise. In this episode, we take you back to Trevor’s early ye

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Introducing Bad Bets Season 2: The Unraveling of Trevor Milton

Sep 16th, 2022 2m 47s

Bad Bets, a podcast series from The Wall Street Journal that unravels big-business dramas that have had a big impact on our world, is back for Season 2. This season, we delve into the story of Nikola founder Trevor Milton. He took his company N

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Enron, Ep 8: Vigilance and Skepticism

Nov 30th, 2021 31m 53s

Enron was a giant, and its collapse was historic. The company's downfall disrupted energy markets, pushing other power companies into bankruptcy. It prompted hearings by nearly a dozen congressional committees, and it inspired major legislation

Enron, Ep 7: The Trial

Nov 23rd, 2021 47m 38s

After years spent building its "lies and choices" case, the Department of Justice's Enron Task Force took Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling to court. In this episode, the unprecedented trial that became something of a litmus test fo

Enron, Ep 6: Lies and Choices

Nov 16th, 2021 37m 35s

Enron CEO Ken Lay was practically the company's founding father. But when federal authorities began investigating Enron after its collapse, prosecutors had a hard time connecting Lay to anything illegal - and Lay himself insisted that he was in

Enron, Ep 5: The Enablers

Nov 9th, 2021 37m 8s

After Enron's collapse, a congressional probe and a Department of Justice task force began investigating not just company executives - but also the auditors and banks that had enabled the company's business practices. In this episode, the group

Enron, Ep 4: The Downfall

Nov 2nd, 2021 39m 6s

The biggest problem for Enron wasn't that former CEO Jeffrey Skilling suddenly quit, or that former CFO Andy Fastow was enriching himself. It was that Enron's success was dependent on an image that was partly a facade. After Wall Street Journal

Enron, Ep 3: The Fixer and the Whistleblowers

Oct 26th, 2021 40m 25s

Enron's stock price rose astronomically in the late '90s, buoyed by investor confidence in former CEO Jeffrey Skilling-and by earnings reports that seemed to show Enron's profits growing by leaps and bounds. But as we now know, those numbers we

Enron, Ep 2: The Visionary

Oct 19th, 2021 36m 9s

Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling was arguably the face of Enron's meteoric rise in the 1990s. He took a sleepy energy company and turned it into one of the most innovative corporations in the world. By the end, Enron had its fingers in all kin

Enron, Ep 1: Potemkin Village

Oct 12th, 2021 28m 6s

In 2001, energy company Enron was at the height of its power. Then, out of the blue, CEO Jeffrey Skilling resigned-just six months after he took the reins of a company he had helped turn into an innovation machine. Why? In this episode, we dive

Trailer

Introducing: Bad Bets

Oct 1st, 2021 2m 42s

Introducing Bad Bets, a new podcast series from The Wall Street Journal that unravels big-business dramas that have had a big impact on our world. We begin with the Enron saga. In the 1990s, the U.S. energy company was a darling of Wall Street.