Saturday, March 23, 2019

NYC Radio: Craig Carton Pleads For Leniency

Craig Carton
Former WFAN talker Craig Carton’s “severe gambling addiction” should be taken into account when a federal judge considers a punishment for his fraud conviction, attorneys for the former sports radio personality argued on Friday.

Carton, 50, was convicted last year of securities fraud and defrauding investors in a bulk ticket business he was operating with Michael Wright, who also pleaded guilty in the $2 million scheme.

The NY Post reports Carton's attorneys explain in their sentencing submission filings that Carton “gambled prolifically” at various casinos and that he would seek investors and loans to fuel his addiction.  At one point, he borrowed $8 million to cover gambling debts.

“I was actually building a real business and really buying and selling concert tickets, over four thousand tickets to be exact, but at the same time I was becoming enslaved by my desire and addiction to gamble,” Carton says in a letter to Manhattan Federal Judge Colleen McMahon.

“The result: I did not use monies entrusted to me and my company to buy tickets when I told people I would actually be buying tickets. I often used that money for gambling.”

Carton could be sentenced to up to 45 years in prison, though it is unlikely he would do that much time.

Prosecutors argued that Carton used his celebrity to lure investors into the ticket business.

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