Former "Boomer and Carton" co-host Craig Carton. (Photo: AP)
A New York-based sports radio personality convicted in November 2018 of securities and wire fraud and conspiracy following a federal jury trial was sentenced to 42 months' imprisonment on April 5.
The defendant, Craig Carton, was also sentenced to three years' supervised release following his prison sentence, and was ordered to pay $4.8 million in restitution and to forfeit $4.6 million.
Carton used to co-host the "Boomer and Carton" morning sports radio talk show on CBS New York's WFAN with former NFL player Boomer Esiason, but left the show after his arrest.
Carton was previously charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission for related civil violations of the federal securities laws.
The criminal charges against Carton arose from the same conduct alleged by the SEC. In September 2017, the SEC charged Carton and another New York City man, Joseph Meli, along with six of their companies, with stealing millions of dollars from investors who were allegedly promised their funds would be used for the purchase and resale of concert tickets.
Meli was also separately charged by the SEC in January 2017 with fraud for running a Ponzi scheme, which raised money from investors to fund businesses purportedly created to purchase and resell tickets to such high-demand shows as Adele concerts and the Broadway musical "Hamilton." Meli, who was charged in a parallel criminal case, previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than six years' imprisonment. Meli was also ordered to forfeit over $104 million and pay over $56 million in restitution.
SEC Charges 15 in Illegal Microcap Offering
The SEC charged 15 individuals with acting as unregistered brokers or aiding and abetting such activity in connection with Intertech Solutions, Inc.'s fraudulent and unregistered securities offerings.
The SEC's complaints allege that Alexander Bevil, Richard Bohnsack, Daniel Broyles, Charles Davis, William Roth, Glenn Story, Harold Wasserman, Michael Duke, Martin Lewis, Mark Parman, Kenneth Shelton, Billy Ray Statham, Jr., Joel Duncan, Paula Saccomanno, and Dennis Swerdlen were hired by Intertech Solutions to engage in or facilitate cold-call solicitations of hundreds of prospective investors throughout the United States and Canada from at least February 2014 through December 2016.
The complaints allege that, as a result of the defendants' conduct, Intertech Solutions raised more than $7 million from retail investors.
According to the complaints, Intertech Solutions paid the defendants exorbitant commissions ranging from 35% to 50% of the funds provided by each investor. The complaints allege that the defendants did not disclose their commission rates to investors and instead distributed private placement memoranda that indicated that only 10% of investor proceeds would be used as commissions.
The SEC previously charged Intertech Solutions and its control persons with orchestrating the fraudulent and unregistered offerings.
