A 32-year-old Hellertown woman pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to her role in a $54 million green energy and real estate-related Ponzi scheme authorities say bilked money from numerous investors, according to court paperwork cited in a Channel 69 News report published on WFMZ.com.
Amanda Knorr was charged last year with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud and wire fraud in an indictment that alleged she made false representations and material omissions in an effort to lure potential investors, the article indicated.
Knorr was chief operating officer and president of Bala Cynwyd-based Mantria Corporation and was previously a defendant in a Colorado civil suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which sought a $6.05 million class action settlement on behalf of people allegedly defrauded by the company, the Philadelphia Business Journal reported two years ago.
The journal article states that Knorr founded Mantria with a fellow Temple alum, Troy Wragg, 34, and along with him and other parties was the subject of a $135 million civil judgment ordered by U.S. District Judge Christine Arguello in Denver in 2012.
In June 2014, Knorr, Wragg and the others denied that they knew their business was a Ponzi scheme or were complicit in such a scheme, the article indicated.
Wragg, who was Mantria’s chairman and CEO, was arrested on the same charges as Knorr in Georgia last year, where he moved from Bethlehem in 2014, according to an Express-Times article published last September.
Another man, Wade McKelvy, 52, of Colorado, was also indicted on those charges at that time, the article noted.
Knorr is scheduled to be sentenced in November.
