Embattled electrical truck start-up Nikola is paying $8.1 million in legal professional charges for ousted founder and chairman Trevor Milton, who left the corporate in September following fraud claims by a short-seller that prompted federal inquiries.

That helped drive the corporate’s authorized bills final 12 months to $27.5 million. Most of that, $24.7 million, was spent responding to regulatory probes and different litigation associated to the claims by Hindenburg Research, Nikola mentioned in its annual submitting Thursday to the Securities and Alternate Fee.

About $1.5 million of Milton’s authorized charges had been paid in 2020, in accordance with the corporate. The beginning-up misplaced $384.3 million final 12 months, together with $147.1 million within the fourth quarter, it mentioned Thursday. It is loss on an adjusted pretax foundation was $200.5 million in 2020.

As a part of its earnings, Nikola additionally lowered supply expectations of its first product referred to as the Tre semitruck from 600 this 12 months to between 50 and 100 on account of provider points. Shares of the corporate had been level-to-down throughout afterhours buying and selling after closing Thursday at $19.72 a share, down 6.8% for the day.

“The pandemic has brought on important provide chain disruptions,” Nikola CEO Mark Russell mentioned throughout an earnings name, particularly citing a battery cell scarcity to energy its autos.

A Nikola spokeswoman declined to touch upon whether or not the corporate will try to recoup any of Milton’s authorized charges. In its submitting, Nikola mentioned the charges had been a part of his indemnification settlement with firm. It expects to incur extra authorized prices this 12 months associated to the Hindenburg report, which has led to inquiries by the SEC and Division of Justice.

“Now we have incurred important bills because of the regulatory and authorized issues referring to the Hindenburg article,” Nikola mentioned within the submitting. “The whole price related to these issues will depend upon many elements, together with the length of those issues and any associated discovering.”

Hindenburg accused Milton of making false statements about Nikola’s technology to be able to develop the corporate and associate with auto firms. The report, titled “Nikola: Methods to Parlay An Ocean of Lies Right into a Partnership With the Largest Auto OEM in America,” was launched two days after the company announced a deal with General Motors that despatched each firms’ shares hovering in September. It characterised Nikola as an “intricate fraud constructed on dozens of lies” by Milton.

Nikola has denied and disputed lots of the accusations, nonetheless the corporate confirmed considered one of Hindenburg’s greatest claims — that it staged a video displaying a truck that seemed to be purposeful however wasn’t.

An inner investigation by Kirkland & Ellis LLP has been “considerably accomplished” concerning statements by Milton and the corporate throughout that point, in accordance with the submitting. No conclusion has been made by the Chicago-based legislation agency as as to if any statements which will have been inaccurate when made violated any statute, in accordance with the corporate.