False claims and risky trades at the Silicon Valley start-up HeadSpin were part of a pattern of trouble emerging at young companies that lacked controls.
Buying mattresses, clothes and other goods on installment plans has propped up spending, but economists worry that such loans could put some people at risk.
Trevor Milton, who founded the truck company Nikola, will be sentenced on Monday in a fraud case that exposed the excesses in the electric vehicle business.