Former Knight Oil Tools CEO Sentenced For Corrupt Influencing and Public Bribery
Feb 09, 2019 03:58PM ● By Flint Zerangue, Sr.
In August 2018, Mark Knight, the former President and CEO of Knight Oil Tools pleaded “No Contest” to charges of Corrupt Influencing and Public Bribery.
On February 6, 2019, Knight was sentenced to four years in prison on the bribery charge but that was suspended, and he was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine, 300 hours of community service, forfeit $87,000.
Knight must also complete three years of probation. For the Corrupt Influencing charge, Knight was ordered to serve one year in the parish prison. Judge David Smith gave Knight until noon on February 15th to report to the jail and begin serving his sentence.
Knight was convicted of paying others to plant tracking devices and drugs in his own brother’s vehicle in an attempt to discredit him and take over financial control of Knight Oil Tools. It was discovered that Knight conspired with others to have his brother caught with the drugs and arrested. Three of those conspirators plead guilty to their roles in the scheme, including a former Knight Oil Tools employee, a former Louisiana State Police trooper, and a former Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s deputy.
After sentencing, Mike Skinner, Knights defense attorney, made a brief statement explaining they were glad this phase was over and that because of ongoing civil litigation [related to the matter], he would make no further comment.
