Restitution checks mailed to pyramid scheme victims

PORTLAND – Restitution checks have been mailed to 1,038 people who lost money in a pyramid investment scheme orchestrated by a supermarket clerk-turned-commodities trader.

Checks totaling more than $1.3 million have been sent to victims in 48 states, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Sweden and Ghana, according to the U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby.

The payouts stem from a multimillion-dollar pyramid scheme run by a Boothbay man that promised investors financial returns of up to 10 percent a week.

Edward Knipping, 56, pleaded guilty a year ago to federal charges of wire fraud. He was sentenced to 70 months in prison and ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution.

The restitution checks came from the money that remained in Knipping’s trading accounts at the time of his arrest, along with additional money that was raised through the sale of his car and real estate he owned in Texas.

Knipping marketed his company, Time Traders Inc., over the Internet and lured recruiters by telephone, fax and e-mails.

He offered private membership open by invitation only and encouraged investors to recruit others with promises to share up to 40 percent of any profit. Of the more than $6 million raised from investors, only $1.1 million remained in Knipping’s accounts when he was arrested.

Knipping, who had no formal investment training, had previously worked in sales and marketing. Prior to his arrest, he had worked as a stock room clerk at a supermarket.

Prosecutors said Knipping’s arrest was Maine’s second-biggest case of investment fraud. The biggest involved Catherine Duffy Petit, who was sentenced in 1999 to more than 15 years in prison for masterminding an investment scam in which 140 Mainers lost nearly $8 million.