Except for his significant ownership interest in the mega oilfield service company with such humble beginnings that it once operated out of the trunk of his late father Eddy’s car, Mark Knight is out of Knight Oil Tools.
“Mark Knight is no longer chairman of the board or a member of the board of directors of Knight Oil Tools,” President and CEO Earl Blackwell tells ABiz. Blackwell says that Mark, 57, the oldest of Eddy and Ann Knight’s three children, was voted off the board effective Thursday.
Blackwell also acknowledges that Mark still has a significant ownership interest in the company but declined to comment on why Mark was removed as president and CEO of the company in recent months.
Confirmation of Mark Knight’s removal from the board comes four days after the former executive was arresting on a racketeering charge in what authorities say was a scheme to plant illegal drugs on the vehicle of his own brother, 55-year-old Bryan Knight, which resulted in the June 2014 arrest of Bryan. Also implicated were former Knight Oil Tools employee Russell Manuel, a state trooper and a Lafayette sheriff’s deputy. The two law enforcement officials were arrested over the weekend, and Mark Knight turned himself in Tuesday. He was released after posting $100,000 bond.
Authorities claim Mark Knight paid the trio more than $100,000 in cash and gifts to set his brother up.
Manuel is expected to turn himself in shortly.
Bryan Knight, who was not prosecuted on the 2014 drug charges, is among the board members who booted Mark Knight from the board. Blackwell identified other board members as the Knight brothers’ sister, Kelley Knight Sobiesk, and Bobby Veazey, the company’s chief financial officer.
Read more about the Knight family saga here.