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Press Release

U.S. Department of Justice Announces Distribution of over $15.5 Million to Compensate Victims of Massive Global Securities Fraud Scheme

Monday, March 2, 2026

Share For Immediate Release Office of Public Affairs The U.S. Department of Justice announced today that the Roger Knox Remission Fund has begun distributing more than $12.4 million in funds forfeited to the United States from Roger Knox and his co-conspirators to over 8,000 victims. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also distributed an additional $3.1 million related to the securities fraud scheme to these victims.

Knox, with others, operated the Swiss-based asset management firm Silverton, which was later renamed Wintercap. Through the business, Knox facilitated 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-dump schemes — totaling over $137 million between 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.

In January 2020, Knox pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to charges that he engaged with others in a massive global securities fraud scheme. In October 2023, Knox was sentenced to 36 months in prison, and in January 2024, he was ordered to pay over $58 million in restitution to more than 8,000 victims.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Carol E. Head for the District of Massachusetts prosecuted the case.

The Department of Justice, through the Asset Forfeiture Program, works diligently to compensate victims of crime. Since 2000, the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section (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 compensation process.

Updated March 2, 2026 Topic Financial Fraud Components Criminal Division Criminal - Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section USAO - Massachusetts Press Release Number: 26-208

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