Two women file sexual assault complaints against Nikola founder Trevor Milton claiming he groped them when they were 15 and then 'boasted about it to a friend' - after the billionaire resigned from the car firm amid fraud allegations and an SEC probe

Two women have filed sexual assault complaints against Nikola founder Trevor Milton claiming he groped them when they were 15 and then 'boasted about it to a friend'.

Milton's cousin Aubrey Ferrin Smith, now 36, and an unidentified woman, who is now a 32-year-old lawyer, both formally accused the 38-year-old entrepreneur of sexually assaulting them when they were teenagers in complaints filed with Utah authorities last week.

Ferrin Smith accused Milton of groping her breasts at her grandfather's funeral when she was 15 and he was 17.

The other alleged victim, who has spoken out for the first time, claimed he penetrated her vagina with his fingers when she was his 15-year-old office assistant and he was her 22-year-old boss in the movie room at his company office building.

The latest allegations against the billionaire come days after he resigned from the electric car firm amid a swirl of fraud accusations and an SEC probe.     

Two women have filed sexual assault complaints against Nikola founder Trevor Milton claiming he groped them when they were 15 and then 'boasted about it to a friend'

The fresh claims from the unidentified woman were filed in a complaint Friday. 

The alleged victim accused Milton of abusing his position of power to assault her when he was 22 and she was 15. 

She said the abuse took place in 2004 when she was working as an office assistant at St. George Security & Alarms, the security company Milton founded that year, according to CNBC.

The woman told the outlet how Milton invited her into the movie room in the office in St. George, Utah, one night after work and she agreed because he was paying her by the hour and she needed the money.

Milton then allegedly started groping her, touching her breasts before putting his hands down her pants. 

She told how she 'just froze' during the alleged assault.

She said she felt at 'his mercy' and was unable to get away because she was relying on him to give her a ride home from work. 

'He was in a position of power and he would give me a ride home from that job and this happened at the end of one of the days that I worked there and I was somewhat at his mercy because I couldn't even go home until he was going to give me a ride home,' the woman told CNBC.

The woman said she didn't tell anyone what happened at the time, quit her job at the firm soon after and tried to forget what had happened.  

'I kind of put that whole scenario of memory in a dark place, locked it up and tried to just forget about it,' she told CNBC.

Pictured Craig Johnson, a former prosecutor who is representing the two alleged victims. The unidentified victim, who has spoken out for the first time, claimed he penetrated her vagina with his fingers when she was his 15-year-old office assistant and he was her 22-year-old boss in the movie room at his company office building

Her abuser then allegedly bragged about taking 'her virginity in the theater room' and blackmailing the victim to a friend years later. 

Tyler Winona, a former friend of Milton's, told CNBC he boasted of the assault around two years after it took place when they were living together.

Winona said he and Milton bought a Lotus car together in 2006 and were driving it back to St. George when Milton allegedly told him what had happened and said he likes virgins 'because they are naive'.

'I still remember, where we were at on the road, almost back to St. George, he told me when worked for him, he blackmailed her for ditching school and into watching a movie in the back and cuddling with him,' he told CNBC, adding Milton said he 'took her virginity in the theater room.' 

'He told me he fingered her,' Winona said. 

'He kept going on, saying I like young girls and I like virgins because they are naive.'

Milton and Winona later had a bitter fallout over his then-girlfriend with Winona's mother allegedly calling the cops on Milton and Milton framing him for stealing a $1,500 radar detector, Winona told CNBC.

A friend of the alleged victim also said she knew Milton had made sexual advances on her friend and said the businessman had tried to cuddle and kiss her too, including inviting her on a trip to Puerto Rico.

'I don't think I knew the details, but I knew that he had sexually made moves on her,' the anonymous friend told CNBC.

She said Milton asked her parents if he could take her to Puerto Rico and spoke 'about taking bubble baths together' there so she refused to go.

Milton's cousin Aubrey Ferrin Smith accused Milton of groping her breasts at her grandfather's funeral when she was 15 and he was 17. She filed a complaint with Utah police Friday after making the allegations public on social media this month 

Craig Johnson, a former prosecutor who is representing the two alleged victims, called for object rape and forcible sexual abuse charges to be brought against Milton in relation to the second woman. 

'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 told CNBC.

He added that the statute of limitations should not apply in her case or Ferrin Smith's.

St. George Police confirmed to CNBC that a complaint involving a minor was filed there Friday, but provided no further details.  

Ferrin Smith filed her formal complaint Saturday with Holladay police in Utah, where her cousin Milton allegedly assaulted her at the family funeral back in September 1999, reported CNBC.

She claimed they were both at her uncle's home outside Salt Lake City for her grandfather's funeral when they were left along watching TV together in one of the rooms. 

At the time, she was 15 and he was 17 and they had both grown up in a large Mormon family, she said. 

Ferrin Smith said Milton then told her he had been taking a massage class in school and told her to take her top off for a massage.

The alleged victim said he then undid her bra and reached around her body, groping her breasts.  

'He undid my bra like completely without my consent, and I froze,' she told CNBC. 

'It just didn't compute, because I was like, this is a family member, he has the priesthood, he was going on a mission soon, which he loved to talk about... I didn't even think, I just trusted him.'

Back in 2017 during the height of the #MeToo movement, she also shared a social media post about being assaulted at 15 but did not name her attacker

Ferrin Smith told her best friend Libby Cannon Miller what had happened at a sleepover a few weeks later and also confided in her mom and a local bishop, she said. 

Both Cannon Miller and Ferrin Smith's mom confirmed the alleged victim's version of events to CNBC. 

Ferrin Smith's formal complaint came days after she publicly accused him on September 21 in a social media post.   

'Trevor Milton is my cousin. On September 12, 1999--the day of our grandfather’s funeral--Trevor sexually assaulted me. I was 15 years old, and he was 17,' the post began.

She went on to say that she confronted him years later and he told her 'he was only apologizing because he was my cousin.' 

The latest allegations against the billionaire come days after he resigned from Nikola on September 21

Back in 2017 during the height of the #MeToo movement, she also shared a social media post about being assaulted at 15 but did not name her attacker.

'When I was assaulted I was 15. I didn't want to tell anyone, because I figured I should have known better,' she wrote at the time. 

Brandon Messina, a spokesman for Milton, told CNBC his client 'strongly denies these false allegations'.

'At no point in his life has Mr. Milton ever engaged in any inappropriate physical contact with anyone,' he said.   

The sexual assault allegations going back more than 15 years mark the latest in a string of recent controversies for the billionaire businessman.  

Milton stood down as executive chairman of Nikola on September 21 after Hindenburg Research published a bombshell report claiming he lied about the company's technology.   

The report accused him of 'misleading partners into signing agreements by falsely claiming to have extensive proprietary technology.' 

Hindenburg claimed to have 'extensive evidence' that the Nikola's proprietary technology was purchased from another company. 

Hindenburg also alleged that Milton appointed his brother, Travis, to lead a unit in the company for which he did not have any substantial experience related to the sector.  

Milton stood down as executive chairman after Hindenburg Research published a bombshell report claiming he lied about the company's technology. The report sparked an SEC and DOJ probe 

The shock announcement sent shares plummeting and sparked investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department into the company. 

Milton stood down from the firm days later.  

'The focus should be on the Company and its world-changing mission, not me,' Milton said in a statement at the time.

'I intend to defend myself against false allegations leveled against me by outside detractors.'

The claims came just two days after General Motors announced it would be investing $2billion in the company and providing Nikola with hydrogen fuel cells and batteries for its vehicles in exchange for an 11 per cent stake in the firm.

Nikola went public in June making Milton a young billionaire, despite his truck start-up yet to make a single vehicle.