UPDATE: Sentencing For Legisi HYIP Ponzi Swindler Gregory McKnight Rescheduled For Feb. 5

This grainy likeness of Legisi HYIP operator Gregory N. McKnight appears in U.S. court files.

Sentencing for a Michigan man federal prosecutors accused of “semantic obfuscation” for the manner in which his “program” was promoted has been rescheduled for Feb. 5, according to the docket of U.S. District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith of the Eastern District of Michigan.

The sentencing delay for Gregory N. McKnight, who conducted the Legisi HYIP Ponzi swindle, is at least the third. McKnight originally was scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 11. That date was delayed until Nov. 19 — and now has been delayed until Feb. 5.

Prosecutors did not return a call seeking comment on the Legisi case, McKnight and the reason for the sentencing delay.

But it is known that the court-appointed receiver in the Legisi case has moved for a contempt of court order against Paul Harary. Harary, 48, is a purported one-time FBI informant now in federal prison in Alabama for his role in a Boca Raton, Fla., investment fraud that occurred in 2004 and 2005.

Receiver Robert B. D. Gordon (Corrected Aug. 22, 2013) alleges that Harary informed individuals who were researching McKnight for the purposes of selling him investments prior to the filing of the SEC’s Ponzi case in May 2008 that McKnight likely was operating a Ponzi scheme and offering impossible returns.

Harary also allegedly consulted with at least one of the individuals about Legisi’s bizarre Terms of Service, including a provision that required investors to affirm they were not with the government, namely the IRS, the FBI, the CIA and the SEC. Harary, the receiver alleged, told the individual “that if Legisi was not doing anything wrong why would Legisi want these representations from their customers[?]”

Despite Harary’s alleged misgivings about McKnight and Legisi and an acknowledgment by at least one of the individuals that McKnight likely was running a scam, the individuals allegedly decided to solicit money from McKnight for the purpose of investing in penny stocks and a real-estate limited partnership.

McKnight allegedly turned over more than $20 million, beginning about a year prior to the collapse of his Ponzi, according to the receiver.

But now Harary is ducking a deposition aimed at getting to the heart of the alleged fraudulent transfer, according to the receiver.

HYIPs are infamous for using wordplay to try to duck securities regulators. An evidence exhibit in the Legisi case includes a transcript of McKnight interacting with undercover agents who’d infiltrated the purported “opportunity.”

McKnight, according to the transcript, informed the agents that he was presiding over a “loan” program, not an investment program.

The MoneyMakerGroup Ponzi forum also is referenced in court documents in the Legisi case.

Zeek Rewards, another alleged Ponzi scheme, also was pushed on MoneyMakerGroup. Zeek, too, insisted it was not offering investments.

McKnight pleaded guilty in February to wire fraud. Prosecutors have asked for a prison sentence of 15 years.