Press Release: 3/3/2026

U.S. Department of Justice Announces Distribution of Over $15 Million for Victims of Global Securities Fraud Scheme

 



Monday, March 2, 2026



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For Immediate Release



 



BOSTON – The U.S. Department of Justice announced today that the Roger Knox Remission Fund distributed more than $12.4 million in funds forfeited to the United States from Roger Knox and his co-conspirators to over 8,000 victims. An additional $3.1 million turned over to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission related to the securities fraud scheme was also distributed to the victims.



Knox, with others, operated a Swiss-based asset management firm called Silverton, and later renamed Wintercap. Through this business, Knox helped facilitate pump-and-dump schemes by selling massive quantities of microcap securities on behalf of undisclosed control groups who secretly owned the stock through nominee entities formally owned by third parties. The shares were generally held by the nominees in blocks of less than 5% of the issuer’s total outstanding shares in order to evade the disclosure obligations and sale limitations in the federal securities laws. To generate investor demand for the shares, the undisclosed control groups simultaneously orchestrated promotional campaigns to artificially inflate the price and trading volume of the shares. Knox then funneled the proceeds of the pump-and-dumps – totaling over $137 million between just 2016 and 2018 – to co-conspirators in the United States and around the world through a complex money transfer system that disguised the source and nature of the funds. The U.S. Attorney’s Office has pursued assets domestically, as well as in the United Kingdom, Malta, Mauritius, United Arab Emirates, Canada, and Switzerland.



In January 2020, Knox pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston. In October 2023, Knox was sentenced to three years in prison and, in January 2024, was ordered to pay over $58 million in restitution to more than 8,000 victims.  




“Illegal pump-and-dump schemes cause financial hardship on countless innocent investors and erode the integrity of our capital markets. Not only is my office is committed to identifying fraudsters like Mr. Knox and holding them accountable,” said United States Attorney Leah B. Foley. “We are fully committed to recovering funds to compensate victims of crime and ensuring that crime does not pay.”




“As Roger Knox whittled away his time behind bars for his role in a staggering global securities fraud scheme that defrauded thousands of victims out of tens of millions of dollars, the FBI’s been hard at work ensuring those victims are compensated for the significant financial and emotional harm they suffered,” said Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division. “The distribution of $15 million is an important first step in making these unwitting investors whole and putting market manipulators on notice that they too will pay a hefty price for their criminal conduct.”



In addition to forfeited funds recovered from Knox, and funds recovered by the SEC, forfeited funds recovered from other related defendants Eric Landis, Richard Targett-Adams and Morrie Tobin were applied to the Knox Victim Remission Fund.    



Previously, in 2022, $1.9 million in forfeited funds were applied to satisfy restitution ordered for over 1,000 victims in a related microchip stock fraud scheme.  



The United States Attorney’s Office will continue to work diligently to recover additional assets for these victims.



U.S. Attorney Foley; A. Tysen Duva, Assistant Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division; and FBI SAC Docks made the announcement. Valuable assistance was provided by the United States Marshals Service’s Complex Asset Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carol E. Head, Chief of the Asset Recovery Unit, handled forfeiture and restitution in the case.



The Department of Justice, through the Asset Forfeiture Program, works diligently to compensate victims of crime. Since 2000, the Criminal Division’s MNF, which oversees the Asset Forfeiture Program’s victim compensation program, has successfully used its specialized expertise to return more than $12 billion in forfeited assets to victims of crime. MNF Attorney Advisor Brittany R. Van Camp with the section’s Program Management and Training Unit is leading the remission process.