In early September, three people were charged with running a $54 million Ponzi scheme that promised green-energy technology, according to the U.S. News and World Report. The alleged scheme, which ran from 2005 to 2009, claimed that green technology would turn trash into fuel for “carbon-negative” housing developments, which had not been fully developed yet, federal prosecutors told U.S. News.


Amanda Knorr, 32, of Pennsylvania; Wayde McKelvy, 52, of Colorado; and Troy Wragg, 34, of Georgia were charged with wire and securities fraud and conspiracy.


Even after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil lawsuit against Knorr and Wragg’s Mantria Corp., the scheme continued. In 2012, they were ordered to pay $37 million each. But Knorr, McKelvy and Wragg continued to lie that their “biochar” technology and carbon-negative housing in Tennessee had made millions. In reality, they had very little earnings.


Mantria had a biochar testing site in Dunlap, Tenn., but the company never had a patent for the technology to sell these systems and lied about how much it was producing, prosecutors told U.S. News. The housing development that Mantria used as collateral wasn’t finished. The company promised investors returns of more than 500 percent based on trash-to-fuel technology.


McKelvy allegedly assured investors that Mantria was “the next Microsoft and was on the cusp of a revolutionary technology that’s going to change the world,” according to U.S. News. 


McKelvy was never licensed to sell securities. He raised money for the scheme through Speed of Wealth seminars in Colorado and Las Vegas.


Investors received about $6 million in June as part of a class-action lawsuit against former Mantria employees, the magazine reported. Knorr and Wragg weren’t involved in this part of the suit.


“The scheme alleged in this indictment offered investors the best of both worlds—investing in sustainable and clean energy products while also making a profit,” said U.S. Attorney Zane Memeger, in a Sept. 3 news release. “Unfortunately for the investors, it was all a hoax, and they lost precious savings.”