Katy man who led yearslong, $17 million Ponzi scheme sentenced to federal prison

A Katy resident was sentenced to federal prison for leading a 10-year-long Ponzi scheme that defrauded victims of over $17 million, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. 

Christopher Knight Lopez, 40, was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, Acting U.S. Attorney John G. E. Marck said in a news release on Thursday. Lopez had pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. 

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison said at sentencing that Lopez' scheme was the most offensive white-collar crime he had seen during his tenure as a judge, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. 

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Lopez and his brother, Jayson, operated the scheme from May 2015 to January 2025, during which time they defrauded more than 40 victims, including senior citizens, local businesses and people who thought they were investing their retirement savings and college funds, federal prosecutors said.

The brothers operated the multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme through a fraudulent investment business that operated under several LLCs, including Knight Nguyen Investments, Knight Advisory and Planning and Aevum Holdings Inc. The Lopezes misled their clients about the profitability of their investments by forging bank letters and account statements. Meanwhile, the brothers used clients' money for their own expenses while using money from new investors to pay other clients purported returns, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

The Lopezes also falsely told clients that they had access to $2 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds that they could use to finance clients' businesses. In actuality, the Lopezes collected large advance fees from their clients but never issued the business loans, federal prosecutors said. 

Jayson Lopez, of Florida, and Nadir Abdel Torres, of North Dakota, who helped the brothers obtain forged bank statements, both pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and are expected to be sentenced this month.