A 2nd woman has reportedly accused Nikola Motors founder Trevor Milton of sexual assault

Nikola chairman Trevor Milton with CNH Industrial CEO Hubertus Muhlhauser at an event in Italy
Trevor Milton resigned from Nikola amid fraud allegations.

A second woman has come forward with a sexual-assault allegation against Nikola Motors' founder, Trevor Milton, CNBC reported on Monday.

The woman's lawyer, Craig Johnson, told CNBC she was assaulted in 2004 when she was 15 and Milton would have been 22, after he hired her as an office assistant for a security company he ran in St. George, Utah.

"The allegation by my client is that he digitally penetrated her vagina with his fingers, which under Utah law constitutes object rape, and that is the charge the police will be investigating, in addition to forcible sexual abuse, which includes any ancillary touching of the vagina during the assault," Johnson said, according to CNBC.

The first woman, Aubrey Ferrin Smith, who described herself as Milton's cousin, came forward with a separate allegation on Twitter last week that he had groped her breasts when she was 15 and he was 18. Ferrin Smith later spoke with The Wall Street Journal about her allegations, and the newspaper corroborated that she was his cousin and said it spoke with two people who said she described being assaulted months after the alleged occurrence. A police complaint was filed in Holladay, Utah, on Saturday.

"Mr. Milton strongly denies these false allegations. At no point in his life has Mr. Milton ever engaged in any inappropriate physical contact with anyone," a representative for Milton told Business Insider in an emailed statement.

The St. George Police Department and the Unified Police Department of Utah did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Milton stepped down as executive chairman of Nikola earlier this month amid fraud allegations surrounding the company and his own past business dealings.

The announcement came one week after the short-selling firm Hindenburg Research accused the startup of lying about its products and deals with other companies. The research firm called Nikola's business an "intricate fraud." Both the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice are said to be investigating the claims. Milton has denied the claims of fraud.

On Sunday, the Financial Times also reported that Milton purchased the designs for the Nikola One semitruck, contrary to the company's narrative that Milton came up with the designs "in his basement." Nikola's stock tanked as much as 24% last Thursday after Wedbush analysts led by Dan Ives gave the company its first "sell" rating, citing Milton's departure, among other factors.

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