PORTLAND – A Boothbay supermarket clerk-turned-commodities-trader accused in a $6 million fraud scheme pleaded guilty to wire fraud Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

Edward W. Knipping, 55, lied to 1,200 people in 40 states, Canada and Australia about investments he was supposedly making in the commodities futures market.

Knipping, who had no formal education or experience in the financial world, founded Time Traders Inc. and Time Traders Investment Group in 1999 and began soliciting investments. The government says his last job was as a supermarket stockroom clerk.

Prosecutors said he collected about $6 million, of which he lost about $1.3 million in investments, kept about $1 million in Maine bank accounts and paid about $1.3 million. The rest is unaccounted for.

The government wants more than $6 million that the defendant derived from the fraud, including the $1.1 million already seized from Knipping’s accounts, property in Texas and a Pontiac Grand Prix.

Knipping faces up to 30 years in prison and fines.

Prosecutors said this was the second biggest case of investment fraud in Maine history. In 1999, Catherine Duffy Petit was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for masterminding an investment scam in which 140 Mainers lost nearly $8 million.