The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it obtained final judgments against Roger Knox and an entity he controlled for their role in an international scheme that generated more than $165 million of illegal sales of stock on the U.S. markets in at least 50 microcap companies. The final judgments impose multiple injunctions against Knox and his entity Wintercap SA and find them liable for over $6 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest.

According to the SEC's complaint filed in October 2018, Knox and Wintercap helped microcap securities holders evade federal securities laws that restrict sales by large shareholders. The complaint charged that Knox and Wintercap helped sellers conceal their stock ownership and provided anonymous access to brokerage accounts to sell the shares on the U.S. markets. In a parallel criminal action brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, a federal grand jury in Massachusetts indicted Knox on one count of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Knox pled guilty in January 2020. His sentencing remains pending.

The SEC's complaint also charged Michael Gastauer for aiding and abetting the fraud by establishing several U.S. corporations and allowing Knox to use their bank accounts to disburse the proceeds of his illegal stock sales. The complaint named as relief defendants two family members of Gastauer and a U.K. entity Gastauer controlled. After the SEC filed the case, the court entered a preliminary injunction and continued an asset freeze against Knox, Gastauer, and the entities they used in the scheme. In March and June 2022, the court entered final judgments against Gastauer and against various entities he controlled, imposing injunctions against them and ordering them to pay over $30 million in disgorgement and civil penalties. In October 2022, the court entered a final judgment against relief defendant Raimund Gastauer, ordering him to pay $3,920,144 in disgorgement and prejudgment interest. Raimund Gastauer's appeal of that judgment remains pending. And in December 2022, the SEC filed a motion to dismiss its claims against relief defendant Shamal International FZE.

The final judgments against Knox and Wintercap SA permanently enjoin them from violating the antifraud and registration provisions of Sections 5 and 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, from violating the antifraud provisions and broker registration provisions of Sections 10(b) and 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and from participating in any offering of penny stock. The final judgments also find Knox and Wintercap SA jointly and severally liable for over $6 million in disgorgement and prejudgment interest and deem those sums satisfied by payment of previously frozen assets in the amount of $891,235 and the orders of forfeiture in Knox's criminal case totaling approximately $11 million.

The SEC's case against Knox, Gastauer, and others has been handled at various stages by Trevor Donelan, Kathleen Shields, J. Lauchlan Wash, Jonathan Allen, David Scheffler, Nita Klunder, and Amy Gwiazda in the Boston Regional Office.