I think Trevor was counting on people not being able to tell the difference. They named their Tesla-competing company “Nikola,” which is a bit astounding when you think of it.
Trevor does have some 30+ million dollar ranch in Utah though so I guess he did a better job of it.
In Holmes case I genuinely think it didn't start as a fraud, but became one when they started lying. Not sure about Nikola.
Anyone thinking you can do statistically accurate blood testing from one drop of dirty fingertip capillary blood without having already made a major scientific breakthrough is certainly not thinking straight, if not outright being fraudulent