Evan Knoll, the one time “king” of drag racing and the man who plead guilty to a multitude of federal tax-fraud charges was arrested on November 8, 2012 for violation the conditions of his bond. According to a story posted on MLive.com, Knoll was intimidating a government witness and then sought to regain possession of firearms he owned that were being held by a local person on his behalf. As a condition of his bond, Knoll is not allowed to possess firearms or dangerous weapons of any kind. US Marshalls carried out the arrest.
In a three page court document, Knoll is accused of threatening to inflict physical harm on a unnamed government witness. According to the MLive.com piece, federal prosecutors learned about this on October 17th and contacted Knoll’s attorney with the instructions that the threats stop immediately Little more than a week later, prosecutors were again contacted. This time it was by a federal probation officer who told them that a local friend or acquaintance of Knoll’s had contacted the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office to let them know that Knoll had asked for his firearms back as he had found someone to buy them. Acting on this, Knoll was remanded into federal custody and remains in jail. The US Magistrate who presided over the hearing, Ellen Carmody ordered Knoll to be held in custody “pending further proceedings in this matter”.
Click here to read the MLive.com story
Knoll is going to be sentenced later this month on one count of bank fraud and three counts of filing a false claim against the government. Those charges could see him imprisoned for more than 50 years and up to 70 if the maximum penalties are handed out.
While it is impossible to know if Knoll was planning on selling the weapons or using them to further intimidate the witness that he was harassing, law enforcement officials didn’t want to take a wait and see approach and acted quickly. Obviously, with the specter of facing the rest of his life in prison Knoll is in a precarious position.
Thanks to Ed for the tip!
Stay tuned to BangShift for any updates or new information on this story. We’re trying to get more information on the person that was being harassed to find out if they are a part of the racing community or were involved in Knoll’s drag racing sponsorships while he was involved with the sport.
Sounds like they are really “stacking” on this guy. Gotta wonder why.
Why? really? this guy stole millions of dollars from us – the US Taxpayer .. maybe you need to read up on this guy .. throw him in jail and pitch the key, let him rot ..
Using that logic John, they should arrest OBongo and his wife for all the Tax Payer’s money they stole and used on 17 vacations in 4 years !
GW Bush racked up more vacation days than any president since Herbert Hoover. In his first three years in office Obama racked up 78 vacation days, Bush 180, and Regan 112.
All total Bush spent 1020 days on vacation in his 8 years in office. That works out to 2.8 YEARS of his presidency spent on vacation.
If you don’t like Obama that is fine. But dislike him for real, factual reasons, not BS.
with the weopens maybe the feds thought he might take the easy way out…..
Brian You posted that He has Three Counts of bank fraud, I believe it is Eight or did they drop more charges? He originally had 17 total charges, last I read eight counts bank fraud, Seven Counts Financial fraud & One mail fraud.
Then i believe they dropped it down to eight counts false claims to the Govt & One count Financial fraud..
Maybe they wont charge him for the threats & firearms charges, Maybe just want to get him off of the street before He hurts himself or someone else..
Anyways He’s screwed.