Evan Knoll, the one time drag racing magnate plead guilty today to Federal charges that have the potential to send him to prison for 70 years and cost him upwards of $100-million in fines. That sound you just heard was the drag racing world breathing a collective sigh of relief. If this case had gone to trial and many of the sport’s biggest names were brought to testify, it would have been injurious to the sport of drag racing in ways that probably cannot be put into words sufficiently. The plea comes as a slight surprise to us, seeing as how vocal Knoll had been regarding his innocence, lack of mental capacity at the time this was happening, and normally verbose attitude. Even he must have seen how mountainous the evidence was against him.
According to news reports, Knoll stood before a judge today and took 100% blame and responsibility for the scheme that bilked the government vis-a-vis the American taxpayers out of $89-million dollars. Through that scheme he also managed to collect some $15-million in bank loans based on that false income. He had multiple homes, an airplane, lived an extravagant life, and according to what he said today, knew it was all based on money he was stealing…in huge volumes. At base, the scheme was collecting excise taxes back from the government for racing fuel his company was making, as off highway fuels do not incur the tax. The problem was that his company was not producing the fuels in nearly the volume he was stating that they were.
Knoll will be sentenced in November and faces what will amount to life in prison and fines that could total $100-million. There’s no word on how much the government plans on trying to recoup. They have already gotten a couple of million back through the sale of seized properties, including a vacation home on a lake.
Knoll’s meteoric rise and fall in drag racing was on a scale that no one had ever seen. He funded cars from the lowest sportsman classes all the way up through the top levels of the IHRA and NHRA. His Torco company could be seen sponsoring national events, and even classes in the IHRA and NHRA. It all ended as quickly as it came though, when the government raided the Torco offices and the long process of information gathering began. That process has now come to the end that many of us suspected that it would all those years ago. Evan Knoll was and is a fraud.
His participation in the sport was funded by money stolen out of the pockets of the American people. Had this actually gone to trial, the sport of drag racing may have suffered a public relations disaster so severe that they wouldn’t have recovered. The money was so pervasive and so free flowing that there was nary a team that didn’t get a piece. Knoll’s often bizarre decision making (remember the short lived line of “Divorce Gear” clothing?) belied the real him. A Michigan huckster. His massive wealth and apparent business success earned him awards and accolades, most notably, the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2007. Hopefully their selection process has tightened up since then, because the irony is unparalleled.
I, like virtually everyone else in the sport during those years saw some benefit to the largess of Knoll. Mine was a nice dinner after a weekend announcing a race in San Antonio with one of Evan’s employees. Others gained substantially more than a dinner, this I know for a fact.
With the country’s political climate and the fact that Knoll will be sentenced in November, we think that he’s going to get the book thrown at him, and in our belief, rightfully so.
Brian, THANK YOU… for using the correct term: “plead” is indeed the past tense of “plead”.
It is not “pleaded”, even if lots of print media-types think it is.
And for those of you whining that “pleaded” is in the dictionary, which it is, you’re still a fargin’ dork if you say it that way.
And now I’m going to plead for our BS sponsors to give me a big block too.
Damn, every thing hit’s the fan , and could end a sport a sport we all love and the only comment is to give a F%#@ing english lesson !
Well its kind of funny that they will “throw the book” at Knoll yet bankers that bilked BILLIONS are still getting yearly bonuses that must of us could easily retire on.
Have you even bothered to read the above story which precedes this comment thread??????
2nd paragraph says,
“Knoll stood before a judge today and 100% blame and responsibility for the scheme that bilked the government vis-a-vis (?) the American taxpayers out of 89 million dollars. Through that scheme, he also managed to collect some 15 million dollars in bank loans based on that false income.”
It has zero, nothing to do with the bankers bilking billions. Different story. Knoll plead guilty and admitted what he did. Big difference, genius.
The thing that irks me almost as much as what Knoll did is there was apparently no good system of checks and balances in place to prevent this human piece of crap from stealing as much as he did before he was found out.
Knoll hurt a lot of people by causing them to lose their businesses, vocations and in many cases, their net worth. Many of these people were lifelong ‘friends’ of Knoll. Shame is upon him and he deserves whatever he gets and then some.
knoll hurt a lot of people, racers, banks, taxpayers and employee’s, he very seriously hurt an employee who was with him when his viper went out of control and stuck a large tree, mr Knoll also hurt himself and family..
I cannot believe a lot of these knoll supporters thinking he’s innocent.. The man plead guilty to commiting the crimes…it’s not like the jury made a mistake & found him guilty.. mr. knoll admitted full responsibility for ripping off the irs & banks over 100 million dollars… What more do you knoll supporters need?
Heres a link that explains it all … How mr. knoll came up with a scheme to rip off the U.S. Goverment.. I like the blood soaked sock in the pics but with a guy claiming severe head injuries I sure don’t see any marks or blood on his face or head at all, I see no injuries except the sock looked injured..lol
http://www.fox17online.com/news/fox17-man-steals-80-million-dollars-from-the-irs-20120725,0,7706726.story
Maybe Ernst and Young, the massive accounting firm, should do a bit of accounting before handing out awards.
“Well its kind of funny that they will “throw the book” at Knoll yet bankers that bilked BILLIONS are still getting yearly bonuses that must of us could easily retire on.” +1 on that Robert!
all the bankers… the solar panel companies ….ect they all stole money from the american tax payers …… they should all be locked up as well as a bunch of our political leaders
He owes my employer over $50,000 for graphics and promotional items
This punk, Evan Knoll, screwed over a lot of decent, hard-working, honest folks AND he plead GUILTY, probably on the advice of lawyers rather than CPA’s and accountants, because if he’d gone to trial and was convicted, they certainly would have “thrown the proverbial book” at him. It’s rather obvious by Knoll pleading guilty, he’s throwing himself at the mercy of the court and hoping for a reduced sentence. Hell, he’s probably hoping for work-release and probation. Not gonna’ happen. I hope someone makes him pick up the soap in the penitentiary showers.
So by agreeing with the logic of “+1 on that Robert”, you guys are implying because someone got away with billions, with some degree of impunity, Knoll should be allowed to walk as well. So, two wrongs make it alright?. Mother had him, mother f%#k him.
He had his time in the sun with his cars. planes. bikes, mansions and all the other trappings of a millionaire thief. All he deserves now is a 6’x8′ house for the rest of his natural days.
As for the rest of the thieves who steal from the public, they deserve the same or worse, but it’s unlikely they will. Sad state of affairs.
Who did he ‘screw over’ Craig? I’ve never met Evan, am not a racer and have no skin in the game but it seems to me he handed out a lot of money he had no rights to as sponsorship money to race teams, which they spent on race cars. Pretty naive and he’ll pay a heavy price for that, but the only people he ‘screwed over’ are the Feds so far as I can see, correct me if I’m wrong.
You completely misunderstood my ‘+1’ above. I think the crimes the evil doers on wall street are perpetrating are far more serious than a crazy race car enthusiast and they should be bought to book just as Evan is. They’re not. They are continuing to drive our economy off a cliff. This makes me very angry…
This article by journalist Matt Taibbi on Bank of America is the type of thing I’m mad about.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/bank-of-america-too-crooked-to-fail-20120314
He hurt alot of the racers, banks, tax payers, employees, seriously injuring a guy that was in the car accident with him and his friends & family … thats all Ollie
http://www.wwmt.com/shared/newsroom/top-stories/stories/wwmt_vid_3224.shtml
I never met Knoll either, but I will defend to the end, friends and people whom are victimized by hustlers like Knoll.
I have a close friend who was a boyhood buddy of Knoll’s and gave up his livelihood in one state, uprooted his family and moved back to Michigan, where he grew up, to take a position at Torco with Knoll.
My friend invested thousands and thousands of dollars in Knoll’s endeavors and traveled the country, solo, and with Knoll, as a representative of Torco and Knoll’s other business interests.
My friend, along with racers, track owners, investors, Torco employees and even the federal government believed for years Knoll was a self-made man who worked hard, with honesty and integrity and gave some of the financial rewards of his business savvy back to a sport he seemingly loved and wanted to make better.
Knoll was a slickster, who covered his tracks well, and my buddy and his family, none of whom I would classify as dumb or naive, were taken in by his (charade) vision.
Knoll was named the small entrepreneur of the year in 2007, and as above the article states, “his massive wealth and business success earned him awards and accolades”. Clearly, he was a man on top of his game of smoke and mirrors for a few years until it all imploded on him.
My friend (and many members of of his family) worked for Knoll and saw a man they’d known since childhood, whom they believed was a successful, generous businessman. My friend told me he (thought) he saw the inner-workings of a great company that was on the fast track and he never saw or suspected anything underhanded was going on until the Feds came crashing in.
I’ve not read the indictment against Evan Knoll and I don’t know if there are any co-defendants named or not, but I sure haven’t seen anyone else involved.
I can tell you my friend had to defend himself to Federal investigators and prove his assets were his and gained through lawful means, such as selling a business and having brought out-of state equity to buy his cars and home and furnishings in Michigan. My friend was not indicted with Knoll.
So, who else did Knoll screw over??????? How about the countless people in Decatur and elsewhere who worked for Knoll’s companies, received a paycheck from Knoll’s companies and subsequently lost those paychecks when the truth was discovered. Were they naive to have belief in a steady job and paycheck which Knoll offered them? Were they screwed when the paychecks came no more and they could not buy groceries, gasoline, meals out?. Yeah, I think they were.
How about the small time and big-time racers who were recipients of Knoll’s largess? Why would they have any reason to doubt Knoll or Torco’s legitimacy in the drag racing game. He made a name for himself, just as Lucas Oil, Pennzoil, STP, Sunoco and others have had for themselves for years and years. Have you, in your mind, ever questioned whether these companies are on the up and up?. I’m sure none of the racers did either. They probably had no reason to do so. This guy was established, a major sponsor of many successful events and many racers. At the surface there was nothing unorthodox about what Knoll was doing and even the biggest race team owners (John Force Racing, etc.) accept huge amounts of financial sponsorship and bonuses from companies for both using their products and winning their sponsored events. When teams lose sponsorship dollars, they are affected too. Maybe a crew member loses his job, Maybe they cannot afford to travel to the next race, etc. All the turds roll down hill.
Knoll had lobbyists getting bills to legislature which were “tailored” for Torco and Knoll to step around tax issues and have lower taxes assessed on their fuel products. The tailoring was acknowledged by State Rep. Lisa Schuitmaker (maybe her last name ought to be spelled with the letters “c” and “u” removed).
Not only did Knoll knowingly screw over a lot of people, he then claimed he was mentally incompetent and while awaiting his day in court, rode around Decatur on his motorcycle, thumbing his nose at people he “screwed over”.
Knoll lost his bid for incompetency and had to stand, on his own, for his greedy, egotistical actions AND all the people he “screwed over”. He was surely hoping being judged incompetent would get him a short stay in a mental health setting and maybe some probation and when that failed, he must have realized a trial was going to sink him for sure. Sometimes the evidence of wrongdoing is too much for the accused and they realize they have not a chance in Hell. better admit guilt and hope for mercy.
You said I should correct you if you’re wrong. Well, you’re wrong. You’ve been corrected.
Also, the article and the comments here are about Knoll and what he’s done, like it or not. If you want to be mad or make a point about Wall St, or Bank of America, maybe you ought to seek out a more proper forum to address such as a Wall St or B of A forum.
A close friend of mine worked at the company also,I know of your story & know that what You write to be the truth, Others like Your friend have uprooted themselves some with family & moved to Decatur & when the bottom fell out lost their income, business’s and one almost lost their home, I’m sure others did as well.
Some were traveling out of town working on Torco business deals when their credit cards were suddenly stopped and were stranded several miles away from home, Another has lifetime injuries and medical bills from the vehichle accident that He cannot pay, Others have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of racecars,parts & tools that they cannot pay for and with them not being sponsored by TRF any longer are making little or no income at all. Some i have heard of had their racing equiptment cars, parts ect repossed…
Don’t drop the soap big boy….
Ok, Evan got caught and will pay the price. But what about all the accountants and CPA’s, his own and the governments, that blindly entered all the false numbers ? He couldn’t have done something of this magnitude on his own yet he seems to be taking all the blame. Aren’t there at least yearly checks and balances in place to keep this from happening ? These type of crimes are happening way more these days, yet it takes years for the crimes to be brought to light.
A hundred mil? No problem. Will you take a third party, out of state bad check?
Could there be someone else out there right now throwing huge amounts of money into every type of motorsport, from fuel cars to stocks, from monster trucks to boats, you name it it’s being helped. If there is someone doing exactly the same thing, kiss those sports goodnight. And what if foreign money dried you and went away, can you imagine who would be hurt right now?
Very few high rollers out there made it honestly, in my experience. Morality has become a word in the dictionary apparently.
i have Never had to jump through hoops before on this site as i just experienced when i tried to post. my comments have been omitted. not for vulgar response. not for bad spelling. perhaps my views regarding the direction and growth towards Drag Racing. perhaps i am of an Age Group that cannot be heard as to the level of brainwashing that exists Today.
This guy sounds like two guys in Spokane Washington by the names of Orville and Troy
To me …Evan is still my friend…there is much more to this storytelling than apears
Evan is still my friend…more to the story than is being told!