Man Sentenced For 'Hamilton' Ticket Ponzi Scheme, Feds Say

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A Manhattan hedge funder is facing six-and-a-half years in federal prison for a conning investors into funding a venture to resell Broadway tickets at a profit, federal prosecutors announced this week.

Joseph Meli, 43, was sentenced to serve 78 months in prison in connection to a Ponzi scheme he ran between 2015 and 2017, federal prosecutors said. Meli was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit more than $100 million and pay restitution to his victims, prosecutors said.

"Joseph Meli directed his own version of a Broadway production, where the lead character deceives investors into giving him money that he pockets and spends on himself, or uses to pay off other investors," U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey S. Berman said in a statement. "Today, however, Meli’s Ponzi scheme is over, and he will serve prison time for his crimes."

Meli convinced more than 130 investors to pay him more than $100 million between 2015 and 2017 to fund a venture to buy and resell tickets to concerts and popular Broadway shows such as "Hamilton," federal prosecutors said. Often times investors were promised returns within eight months, according to the U.S. Attorney. Meli and accomplice Matthew Harriton were also charged in a parallel civil suit from the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Ponzi schemer once fooled investors by pretending he struck a deal with a "Hamilton" producer to purchase 35,000 tickets to the famously-pricy show, according to the SEC. The deal never happened. Meli duped investors by falsifying documents regarding agreements between Broadway productions companies and his company Advance Entertainment, LLC.

The bulk of investor's money went toward personal expenses such as a $3 million house in East Hampton, a 2017 Porsche convertible and expensive watches and jewelry, federal prosecutors said. Meli also used the money to pay off earlier investors in the ticket resale venture and an unrelated hedge fund, prosecutors said.

Meli pleaded guilty to charges of securities fraud in October, federal prosecutors said.

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