Sports radio host charged in alleged Ponzi scheme
NEW YORK — Sports radio personality Craig Carton was arrested yesterday on fraud charges alleging he and others used a Ponzi scheme and a concert ticket-selling scam for acts including Katy Perry to try to raise millions of dollars to pay off gambling debts.
Conspiracy, securities and wire fraud charges were unsealed in Manhattan federal court against the host of WFAN’s “Boomer and Carton” show. A related Securities and Exchange Commission case accused Carton of soliciting investments in ticket-reselling enterprises in 2016 after he accrued millions of dollars’ worth of gambling-related debts to casinos and other third parties.
Carton, 48, has hosted the sports-themed radio program broadcast on WFAN since 2007 with former NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason. FBI agents arrested Carton at his Manhattan home at 3:45 a.m. yesterday, before he could leave for work at a show that starts at 6 a.m.
Esiason said he was shocked by allegations that Carton provided fabricated and forged documents to investors, claiming access to large quantities of face-value tickets to upcoming concerts by artists including Perry, Adele and Justin Bieber.
Federal prosecutors said Carton teamed up with Michael Wright, 41, of Upper Saddle River, N.J., to carry out a fraud on investors by posing as power brokers in the concert ticket business. Each man was released on $500,000 bond at a hearing. Their lawyers declined to speak afterward to reporters.
The SEC said Carton and others misappropriated at least $5.6 million from two investors.