A Swiss lawyer pleaded guilty last week in federal court in Boston in connection with participating in an international pump-and-dump scheme.

Matthew Ledvina, 46, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

Ledvina assisted his co-conspirators by creating nominee entities that were used to hold shares in Environmental Packaging Technologies Inc., a publicly-traded company, in June 2017.

The nominee entities allowed the true owners of the shares to mask their identities and to secretly sell large quantities of EPTI shares, even as they and others simultaneously orchestrated promotional campaigns and other manipulative efforts to artificially inflate the price and trading volume of those shares.

The government previously charged Roger Knox, the operator of Silverton, a Switzerland-based asset management firm, with helping to facilitate the EPTI pump-and-dump and other market manipulation schemes.

During the pump-and-dump, Silverton sold approximately $1.5 million worth of EPTI stock before trading was halted by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Knox previously pleaded not guilty and is currently detained pending trial.

Sentencing is scheduled for April 25, 2019.