Two former executives of a carbon offset developer charged with manipulating cookstove data to generate millions of extra credits
On 2 October 2024 the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced criminal charges against Ken Newcombe, former CEO of carbon credit developer C-Quest Capital, and Tridip Goswami, former head of its carbon and sustainability accounting team. The charges are allegations, and they are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. The former chief operating officer, Jason Steele, pleaded guilty and is cooperating, according to REDD-Monitor.
- Year
- 2024
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Charged (an allegation, not a conviction)
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Carbon credit fraud
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-28
The facts, as recorded
- The indictment accuses Newcombe and Goswami of carrying out a fraud from 2021 to 2023 that led their company, CQC Impact Investors LLC, to fraudulently obtain carbon credits worth tens of millions of dollars. Newcombe was indicted on wire fraud, commodities fraud and securities fraud and, if found guilty, faces up to 20 years in prison, according to REDD-Monitor.
- The allegation is that they altered data to show that CQC's cookstoves achieved greater fuel savings and manipulated data collection to make it appear that more of the stoves were operating than were.
- The indictment states that stoves were poorly installed, installed in suburban areas instead of rural ones because it was easier to meet targets, and in some cases never installed.
- Newcombe is also accused of using the fraudulently obtained credits to deceive an investor into agreeing to invest up to $250 million in CQC.
- Holland & Knight reported that the CFTC, DOJ and SEC announced parallel actions on 2 October 2024 over a scheme to generate about six million fraudulent carbon offsets across more than 27 projects, and that CQC paid a $1 million fine to the CFTC, agreed to invalidate all the fraudulent offsets, and was the subject of a DOJ declination letter after it investigated and self-disclosed. The SEC settled with CQC without penalties.
- In June 2024 C-Quest announced that it had uncovered wrongdoing by Newcombe that had resulted in the over-issuance of millions of carbon credits, and reported it to law enforcement, regulators and the registry Verra, which suspended the 27 implicated projects pending review.
Why this case matters
It is a different kind of carbon credit fraud from the other three cases on this page: the alleged deception was aimed at a carbon registry and investors, not cold-called individuals, and the alleged method is changing the data used to issue credits. Holland & Knight described it as the first federal enforcement action related to fraudulent practices in the voluntary carbon market.
What is alleged and what is not
The indictment alleges data manipulation by senior executives, supported by emails quoted by REDD-Monitor. The company itself avoided criminal charges after self-disclosure, according to Holland & Knight. Neither source reports a verdict or a sentence for Newcombe or Goswami, and this page did not find one.
The caveat
Charges are allegations. Newcombe and Goswami are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court, and the sources read here do not report a trial or a verdict. The Holland & Knight alert and the REDD-Monitor post differ in which of the executives they describe as indicted, so this page takes the names of the charged individuals and Steele’s plea from REDD-Monitor, which cites the indictment, and takes only the company outcomes from Holland & Knight. The status after October 2024 was not found.
Sources
- Ken Newcombe, ex-CEO of C-Quest Capital, faces criminal charges for multi-year carbon credit fraud. REDD-Monitor, by Chris Lang. Accessed 2026-10-28. Supports: The charges against Newcombe and Goswami, Steele's guilty plea, the 2021 to 2023 fraud, the alleged data manipulation, the stoves, the $250 million investor, the June 2024 disclosure and Verra's suspension.
- CFTC, DOJ and SEC Announce First Coordinated Action Aimed at Voluntary Carbon Market Fraud. Holland & Knight. Accessed 2026-10-28. Supports: The parallel CFTC, DOJ and SEC actions, the six million offsets and 27 projects, CQC's $1 million fine, the invalidation of offsets, the declination and the SEC settlement.