HALIFAX -- A judge is expected to sentence two key players in a sophisticated multimillion-dollar stock market scheme today for manipulating the share price of Knowledge House.

Former president and CEO Daniel Potter and lawyer Blois Colpitts were found guilty in March -- nearly 17 years after the Halifax e-learning company's dramatic collapse.

In a 207-page ruling, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice Kevin Coady said the pair knowingly carried out fraudulent activities in a regulated securities market.

He said their goal was to artificially maintain the company's stock price while securing new investors, who would make investment decisions based on a misleading impression of the stock demand.

Knowledge House was once a high-flying developer of educational software, trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange before its collapse in 2001 which cost investors millions of dollars.

The trial began in November 2015 and heard from 75 witnesses over more than 160 court days, and 184 exhibits were received -- including thousands of documents.