Bad Bets

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Latest Episodes:

The Unraveling of Trevor Milton, Ep 6: “The Truth and the Whole Truth" Nov 11, 2022

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 speak to some of the jurors who held his fate in their hands. Plus, we hear the revelations in a secret recording where Milton talks about his future.

Ben Foldy is the host of this season of Bad Bets. Bad Bets is a production of The Wall Street Journal. This season is produced with Jigsaw Productions, in collaboration with Story Force Entertainment.

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The Unraveling of Trevor Milton, Ep 5: “Trouble for Troublemakers” Nov 04, 2022

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 promotional video made Hindenburg’s report a sensation. In this episode, we’ll hear how Trevor Milton, investors and the U.S. government responded to the report—and how its authors ended up in a game of Spy vs. Spy with shadowy private investigators.

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The Unraveling of Trevor Milton, Ep 4: “Not Appointed Us to Wrath” Oct 28, 2022

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 unlikely group of whistleblowers and short sellers who teamed up to find the cracks in Nikola’s facade and expose them to the world.

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The Unraveling of Trevor Milton, Ep 3: “Paul Echo Mango” Oct 21, 2022

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. In this episode, they tell us how Trevor’s statements about the Nikola One increasingly outpaced what they had actually managed to build.

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The Unraveling of Trevor Milton, Ep 2: “No Good Deed” Oct 14, 2022

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 episode, we talk to some of these investors, who say they suffered life-changing financial losses as Trevor’s star continued to rise.

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The Unraveling of Trevor Milton, Ep 1: “Hey, Buddy” Oct 07, 2022

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 years as an entrepreneur, and you’ll hear from some of the people who helped him build the businesses that came before Nikola.

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Introducing Bad Bets Season 2: The Unraveling of Trevor Milton Sep 16, 2022

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 Nikola to dizzying heights on the promise of a zero-emissions semi truck. At its peak, Nikola’s publicly traded stock was worth more than Ford—until a ragtag group of whistleblowers and short sellers revealed that Nikola and its truck wasn’t all that it seemed. This season on Bad Bets, Journal reporter Ben Foldy will tell the inside story of Trevor Milton’s rise and fall. You’ll hear exclusive interviews and recordings, and details from secret documents. And we’ll take you deep into Trevor Milton’s federal fraud trial, where he’s fighting the charges against him.

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Enron, Ep 8: Vigilance and Skepticism Nov 30, 2021

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-the Sarbanes-Oxley Act-to improve the conduct of corporations and their watchdogs. But were the changes enough to prevent a similar scandal? Could there be another Enron debacle looming?

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Enron, Ep 7: The Trial Nov 23, 2021

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 for all of corporate America. How much did Lay and Skilling know about the crimes that occurred at Enron, and when did they know it?

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Enron, Ep 6: Lies and Choices Nov 16, 2021

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 innocent. Until: prosecutor John Hueston joined the team, two years into the investigation. In this episode, how the Enron Task Force built its case against Lay.

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Enron, Ep 5: The Enablers Nov 09, 2021

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 groups that facilitated Enron's rise.
John Emshwiller hosts. The original reporting on which this season is based was done by him, Rebecca Smith and other reporters in the WSJ newsroom. Bad Bets is a production of The Wall Street Journal. This season was produced in collaboration with Neon Hum Media.
Correction: Senator Byron Dorgan represented North Dakota. A previous version of this podcast incorrectly said that he represented South Dakota.

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Enron, Ep 4: The Downfall Nov 02, 2021

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 reporters pulled back the curtain, it all came tumbling down. In this episode, how Enron fell from Wall Street darling to bankruptcy in just a matter of weeks.
Questions about the making of Bad Bets? Join John Emshwiller and Rebecca Smith for a live Q&A on Thursday, November 4th at 2 p.m. EST. Sign up at wsj.com/live-qa. We'd love to hear from you.
John Emshwiller hosts. The original reporting on which this season is based was done by him and Rebecca Smith. Bad Bets is a production of The Wall Street Journal. This season was produced in collaboration with Neon Hum Media.

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Enron, Ep 3: The Fixer and the Whistleblowers Oct 26, 2021

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 were engineered by a man named Andy Fastow, Enron's chief financial officer at the time. In this episode, we take a look at Mr. Fastow and hear from the whistleblowers who exposed him and Enron's financial engineering.
John Emshwiller is the host of this season of Bad Bets. The original reporting on which this season is based was done by him and Rebecca Smith. Bad Bets is a production of The Wall Street Journal. This season was produced in collaboration with Neon Hum Media.

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Enron, Ep 2: The Visionary Oct 19, 2021

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 kinds of projects - including America's nascent broadband networks. In this episode, how Skilling's rise set the stage for Enron's fall.
John Emshwiller is the host of this season of Bad Bets. He and Rebecca Smith did the original reporting on which this season is based. Bad Bets is a production of The Wall Street Journal. This season was produced in collaboration with Neon Hum Media.

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Enron, Ep 1: Potemkin Village Oct 12, 2021

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 into the first cracks in the Enron facade.
John Emshwiller is the host of this season of Bad Bets. The original reporting on which this season is based was done by him and Rebecca Smith. Bad Bets is a production of The Wall Street Journal. This season was produced in collaboration with Neon Hum Media.

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Introducing: Bad Bets Oct 01, 2021

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. But after the Journal uncovered monumental corporate fraud at Enron, the company quickly descended into bankruptcy, compromising tens of billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. Now, on the 20th anniversary of Enron's collapse, this story is as relevant as ever. This season on 'Bad Bets', Journal reporters John Emshwiller and Rebecca Smith talk to key players who witnessed Enron's downfall from the inside, including a whistleblower who speaks on the record for the first time.

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