LOS ANGELES — Four California men have been indicted for allegedly using their company, Wiseguy Tickets, Inc., to fraudulently buy and sell tickets to high-interest concerts and sporting events.
In a 43-count indictment, Kenneth Lowson, 40, Kristofer Kirsch, 37, and Faisal Nahdi, 36, of Los Angeles, and 37-year-old Joel Stevenson, from Alameda, Calif.,
are charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and gain unauthorized
access to computer systems, as well as damaging computers in interstate
commerce.
The indictment, unsealed Monday in New Jersey, alleged that the four took in $25 million by fraudulently buying and reselling tickets for Bruce Springsteen and Hannah Montana
concerts, the Rose Bowl and Yankees games, among other events.
Altogether, they moved about 1.5 million tickets, the indictment said.
By hacking into the computers of Live Nation Entertainment and its Ticketmaster unit, the men were able to buy almost half of the 440 general admission tickets at a July 2008 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.
According to the court document, the four men described the success of their ticket scheme as “straight domination.”
“The allegations in this indictment represent a
scheme orchestrated through technology to cheat the public and
circumvent fair business practices,” Edward Kahrer, an FBI assistant special agent, said in a statement.
The men used complex software that impersonated
thousands of individual ticket buyers to purchase tickets before they
even went on sale to the public, the court document said. The tickets
were then resold through Wiseguy Tickets Inc. or other company names and aliases on the Internet, such as Smaug Inc. and Seats of San Francisco Inc., the indictment said.
On average, the men would charge about a $30 premium when reselling the tickets, but some events were marked-up as much as $1,000 per ticket, prosecutors said.
Lowson, Kirsch and Stevenson surrendered Monday morning to the FBI in Newark, N.J., the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey said in a statement. Nahdi, who is not currently in the United States, is expected to surrender to authorities in the coming weeks, after which the four defendants will be arraigned in a New Jersey federal court.
Calls to the men’s lawyers requesting comment were not returned on Monday.
Wire fraud, the most serious offense the men face, carries a 20 years maximum prison sentence.
Ticketmaster did not return requests for comment on Monday.
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