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| Craig Carton |
According to Newsday, Carton’s lawyers, in papers seeking to justify subpoenas issued for his scheduled Oct. 29 trial that they said revealed “trial strategy,” described his gambling as a commercial operation in addition to his ticket-reselling business and his radio work.
“In addition to his career as a radio broadcaster and his ticket resale business, Mr. Carton gambled prolifically,” they said. “ . . . Mr. Carton sought loans and investors to fund the gambling operation. In some instances, Mr. Carton gambled on behalf of others, persons who invested large sums of money with him based on his gambling prowess.”
The defense lawyers said he partnered in the gambling “operation” with Michael Wright, his co-defendant in the Ponzi scheme case, and Joseph Meli, a fraudster currently serving time for a separate Ponzi scheme who is named along with Carton in a Securities and Exchange Commission suit over the ticket reselling business.Carton, 48, ex-football star Boomer Esiason’s former longtime partner on a WFAN 660 AM / 101.9 FM, and Wright, 41, are accused of scamming investors including a hedge fund by lying about their access to large blocks of event tickets that could be sold at a profit, and diverting the money to personal uses.
They are accused of conspiracy and securities and wire fraud. Carton has said he was running a legitimate ticket resale business and was duped by Meli. Defense lawyers on Thursday declined to explain how their description of Carton’s gambling activities would fit into his defense at trial, which is scheduled to being October 29.
The judge said the claim didn’t “hold water” and ordered the papers filed publicly late Thursday, noting that Carton himself had already regaled newspaper reporters about his trial strategy of claiming that he was running a legitimate ticket business.
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