Judgment Obtained Against Perpetrator of $72 Million International Internet Fraud Scheme

Defendant McKnight, through his company Legisi Holdings, conducted a fraudulent, unregistered offering of securities in which he raised approximately $72 million from more than 3,000 investors in all 50 states and several foreign countries. Offering proceeds were supposed to be invested in various vehicles including foreign currencies, commodity futures, stocks, and real estate, and pay interest of as much as 15 percent per month from the resulting profits. However, less than half of the offering proceeds were invested as promised, and those investments resulted in millions of dollars in losses. The rest was misappropriated for Ponzi payments and for McKnight’s own use. He was sentenced to 15 years of prison in a parallel criminal proceeding.