NYC Radio: Craig Carton Found Guilty

Craig Carton

Craig Carton, a familiar and influential voice to sports-crazy New Yorkers for years on WFAN talk-radio, was convicted Wednesday in Manhattan federal court of a multi-million-dollar fraudulent Ponzi scheme for misleading investors in his ticket re-sale business.

Carton was convicted of conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud.  He looked straight ahead as the jury read the verdict. The sports radio personality could face up to 45 years in prison

According to Newsday, jurors announced the verdict on the second day of deliberation after a week long trial on charges that Carton used deceit to raise over $4 million to buy blocks of event tickets to be resold at a profit, and then diverting the money to pay gambling debts and pay off prior investors.

Carton, 49, the long-time partner of former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason on WFAN’s morning drive-time show, left the station after he was charged last year. Opinionated and never at a loss for words on the air, he didn’t testify at trial.

According to evidence at trial, Carton had used his connections for years to buy and re-sell small blocks of tickets, and in 2016 began working with two alleged co-conspirators – Michael Wright, who has pleaded guilty, and Joseph Meli, who is now in prison for a separate Ponzi scheme – to expand the model.

His investors included Brigade Capital, a hedge fund that agreed to put in up to $10 million, and invested $4.6 million. A Brigade official testified the money was only for tickets, and said Carton claimed he had deals to buy large blocks of tickets with a promoter and an arena operator.

But two executives from Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, the operator of Nassau Coliseum and Barclays Center, testified emails Carton gave Brigade had been altered or invented, and a purported agreement with them to buy $2 million in tickets for Barbra Streisand and Metallica concerts was fabricated.

CEO Brett Yormark and former chief of staff Fred Mangione said that while Carton pestered them relentlessly and they allowed it because he was a major voice on WFAN, they never agreed to the type of deal he claimed he had to Brigade.