Former Math Teacher Pleads Guilty in Ticket-Resale Ponzi Scam

• March 28 2018
• Chris Dolmetsch

A former math teacher charged with scamming investors out of more than $60 million through a Ponzi scheme disguised as an effort to buy and sell tickets to concerts, musicals and sporting events pleaded guilty, as federal prosecutors in New York increasingly …

A former math teacher charged with scamming investors out of more than $60 million through a Ponzi scheme disguised as an effort to buy and sell tickets to concerts, musicals and sporting events pleaded guilty, as federal prosecutors in New York increasingly clamp down on fraud in the ticket-resale business.

National Event Co. Chief Executive Officer Jason Nissen was charged in May with raising funds from investors under the pretense that he was going to use the proceeds to purchase and resell tickets to popular events, such as the Super Bowl and the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton.” Instead, prosecutors said, he just used the money to repay earlier investors.

On Wednesday, Nissen, of Roslyn, New York, pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud before U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer in Manhattan. He had faced as long as 20 years in prison if convicted.

The case was the second to focus on a scam centered around resales of tickets to "Hamilton," whose success drove Broadway revenue to an all-time high of $1.45 billion in the 2016-17 season, according to the Broadway League. A concert promoter, Joseph Meli, and Steven Simmons, pleaded guilty in October to similar charges as part of an alleged $95 million Ponzi scheme involving ticket resales. They are scheduled to be sentenced next week.

‘Hamilton’ Tickets

According to court filings, Nissen operated his ticket resale business since 2012 and began the fraud three years later, telling victims he would use their money to buy blocks of tickets to events such as "Hamilton," the Super Bowl, the U.S. Open and the World Cup and resell them at a profit.

One victim, an unnamed diamond wholesaler with offices in Manhattan, gave Nissen more than $1.9 million to buy tickets for an Ultimate Fighting Championship, but Nissen withdrew more than $43,000, sent another $383,000 to an account of another company he controlled that had a negative balance and transferred another $1.5 million to a personal account, according to court filings.

Prosecutors said Nissen forged financial documents and ledgers and sent them to victims as alleged proof of how their money was being used. Nissen eventually was unable to secure further financing and admitted to executives of the diamond company that he had been operating a Ponzi scheme, according to the complaint.

According to court filings, the diamond company gave Nissen a total of $32 million, $16 million of which has not been paid back, while a private equity firm invested more than $40 million.

Nissen is a former math teacher in Queens who was fired in 2004 after being caught reselling Dave Matthews Band tickets to his students for a profit, according to the New York City Department of Education.

The case is U.S. v. Jason Nissen, 17-cr-477, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).