Following a fraud accusation by a short firm and potential probe by the US Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), Nikola founder Trevor Milton is stepping down as executive chairman. “Nikola is truly in my blood and always will be, and the focus should be on the Company and its world-changing mission, not me,” Milton said in a statement (via the Financial Times). “So I made the difficult decision to approach the Board and volunteer to step aside as Executive Chairman.”

Former vice-chairman of General Motors and Nikola board member Stephen Girsky will take his place, the company said. GM recently sealed a billion-dollar deal with Nikola to supply it with batteries, fuel cells and other parts. GM will also build the “Badger” hydrogen-powered pickup truck for Nikola.

During Maitre’s time at HTC, the company attempted to boost its VR presence by expanding its Vive Cosmos family of modular headsets, and it even teased its next-gen devices which are said to be more compact. This was followed by the launch of Vive XR Suite to focus its VR efforts on the business sector. The company also eventually released its first 5G smartphone, the U20.

Still, the former Orange executive was unable to turn the company around. Q2 2020 saw HTC’s ninth consecutive quarterly loss, which cost NT$1.83 billion (about US$62 million); and it was also a jump from the previous quarter’s NT$1.68 billion loss (US$57 million).

After a round of layoffs back in December, the company announced further action in June. Though according to sources close to the matter, the latest round of redundancies wasn’t even Maitre’s own doing.

Developing…