In yet another investor fraud case in which the alleged fraudsters touted the sale of tickets from the musical Hamilton, Jason Nissen is charged with wire fraud in a $70M Ponzi scam. According to prosecutors, the CEO of National Event Co. raised money by falsely claiming that he would use investors’ funds to purchase and resell wholesale tickets for premier events, including the Broadway hit and the Super Bowl.
Although Nissen did buy tickets with some of the money, most of the funds purportedly did not go toward ticket purchases. According to court filings, what Nissen allegedly was actually doing with the funds was paying back earlier investors. After running out of new funds this month, he purportedly admitted to two investors that he’d bilked them. He also allegedly said that he’d forged documents to conceal his scam.
Among Nissen’s alleged victims are a diamond wholesaler that lent him $32M and a private equity firm, which gave him $40M to invest. This same firm owns part of National Event Co.
Earlier this year, prosecutors charged concert promoter Joseph Meli and others for allegedly bilking over 125 investors, including Dell founder Michael Dell and hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones in a multi-million dollar scam. The individuals invested $81M in businesses that were supposed to purchase big blocks of tickets for musicals and concerts, including Hamilton. Instead, alleges prosecutors, they ran a Ponzi scam and used at least $51M of investors’ funds to pay of earlier investors and to give to themselves.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed its own case against Meli as well as a number of relief defendants. The regulator said that Meli and Matthew Harriton raised over $97M from over 135 investors in 17 US states.
At Shepherd Smith Edwards and Kantas, LTD LLP, we represent investors in trying to get back the money they lost because of Ponzi scams and other types of financial fraud. Contact us today to request your free case consultation. We can help you determine whether you have grounds for a securities claim.
The SEC Complaint in the Meli Case (PDF)
CEO And President Of Premium Ticket Resale Business Charged With Engaging In A Multimillion-Dollar Ponzi Scheme Resulting In Losses Of At Least $70 Million, Justice.gov, May 31, 2017