I'm a bit confused as to how he defrauded people... reading through the legalese at the bottom of the article still didn't really explain what he did... how did he defraud artists and bands? Were tbe concerts he promoted "pay to play"? Did the bands that played them not get paid? Were artists and bands really dumb enough to give him money to be a part of his label or promotions business?
Please understand... I'm not defending the guy... it just seems to me that the article was ambiguous when it came to explaining exactly what he did, and how he did it... unless I missed something..

DonnyThompson, post: 454015, member: 46114 wrote: I'm a bit confused as to how he defrauded people...

My understanding is that he screwed over people (in charge of venues) who gave him deposits (that were never returned after shows were cancelled) and he screwed over people who invested money to advertise the concerts. In typical fraudster fashion he took care of the bands. He probably understood that once you screw over a band like Motley Crue or Kiss then word will spread real fast and your career is over. When you screw over individual investors or people running venues in South America who you will probably never deal with again, then your crime spree can last longer. The problem is that often the law just considers these civil matters -- rather than criminal matters. He probably thought he could just keep screwing people over, let them sue him, let them waste their time and money attempting to collect on their judgements after he already spent or hid the money, and just do that indefinitely. But at some point I guess the cops realized that this was a criminal matter worth stopping.
Hopefully they give this guy at least 10 years but with our justice system he'll probably get 4 and then get out on good behavior in less than 2. At least he won't be able to go anywhere near the music industry again. Try plumber maybe.

About 5 years ago, the theatre I run technical facilities for in the summer were involved in a project where we were the rehearsal venue, as it was the first show of the season, for a music, song and dance type show. 8 piece on stage band, dancers, singers - and most young people starting off. The producer had hired a local holiday centre for some of the rehearsals, and he ferried people the 5 miles to our venue in a local cab company's vehicles. They were all staying in a local hotel, and eating at a local restaurant. It became clear he really had no idea and seemed ignorant of the industry, having forgotten about proper costumes - and all the things he needed to do to tour the show when it left us after 4 nights. He didn't understand anything about marketing or advertising and gradually the alarm bells started to ring loudly with my people after time and time again very obvious things were just not right. The band had no dots to play - he was cross that professional musicians couldn't just play popular songs. The dancers couldn't dance in some fo the costumes that he hired. Our crew had grief with some of his scenery and cloths just too big or small. One day the taxi firm Googled him and discovered he was on bail for a previous scam https://suffolktrad… It seemed the theatre show was to repay the victims of the first. He had no budget at all, hoping to pay the expenses of the show with ticket sales. One day the taxi firm collected him and delivered him to the Police station. It all unravelled. Nobody got paid - hotels, food, rehearsals, hire companies - theatre, we all lost out.

I happen to think he was not deliberately criminal, but stupid. His big scam was that he figured that if he block booked holiday caravans, he'd get them cheap, and make a mark up on each let, so he took loads of money from customers, then discovered there were no available caravans available, but of course had spent the money?

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"Nobody got paid - hotels, food, rehearsals, hire companies - theatre, we all lost out."

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So everyone paid out-of-pocket? Never do that under any circumstances. Reminds me of the Fyre Festival scam, or serial scammer Anna Delvey having her friend pay the bills for their lavish vacation, all under the guise of 'my bank froze my account. I'll pay you back'.