The legal woes of Evan Knoll just got exponentially worse. The superseding indictment that we reported about two weeks ago was filed in US District Court yesterday and it appears the government has leveled the big guns at Knoll. The feds added nine charges to an already heaping load and they include seven counts of making false claims against the government, one count of mail fraud, and one count of financial institution fraud. 

While he was staring down the barrel of some heavy time earlier, the new charges change the game somewhat. Specifically the mail fraud charge. By charging him with mail fraud, the government is accusing Knoll of not simply claiming refunds he should not have gotten, but instead they are saying that he created an entire scheme to drain millions from the federal government. In all, his company was paid out some $68 million dollars when they should have received about $492,000 over a two year period between 2006 and 2008.

The amount of time Knoll may have to serve if he is convicted on all counts (and found mentally competant to stand trial) is 55 years. Thirty of which would be for financial institution fraud, which he committed by showing all of the allegedly ill-gotten government money on his company balance sheets to get an additional $15-million in loans from Chemical Bank and Comerica Bank.

As we have said before, if this thing goes to trial, lots of high ranking and familiar drag racing names will be drug into court and probably through the mud. We have a distinct feeling that a settlement/plea will happen long before a trial, but who knows.

As the story evolves, we’ll keep you up to date with the details!

Link: Knoll Faces New Charges in Fraud Case