Former sports radio show co-host Craig Carton, seen [photo] after the verdict, was convicted by a federal jury in New York on Wednesday of fraud in a multi-million dollar ticket scam

Former sports radio show co-host Craig Carton has been convicted of fraud in a multi-million dollar ticket scam.
The 49-year-old, who hosted WFAN’s ‘Boomer and Carton’ show with ex-NFL quarterback Boomer Esiason, was convicted by a federal jury in New York on Wednesday.
After less than a day of deliberations, a jury of three men and nine women found Carton guilty on all three counts against him, including securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud.
Jurors deliberated about for five hours and Carton did not visibly react when the verdict was announced.
Following the verdict, Carton said he would go home and hug his four children.

Carton faces up to 45 years in prison for the securities and wire fraud charges.
He resigned from his radio show following his arrest last year when he was accused of swindling investors in a ticket reselling business.
Prosecutors alleged he had misappropriated at least $5.6 million from investors and spent the money on personal expenses including gambling, landscaping bills, repaying debts and business opportunities.
Carton from Westchester, New York was one of the biggest names in sports radio when he was arrested last year and charged with defrauding investors of a bulk ticket business he had been running with Michael Wright, who has  since pled guilty.
The feds said Carton and Wright, in collaboration with a third individual who has pled guilty in a separate scheme, solicited millions from investors to buy bulk tickets to events, only to use as the money for themselves, including to pay off Carton’s gambling debts.
Hedge fund executives testified during his week-and-a-half long trial that they invested millions to buy and resell ever-growing numbers of premium tickets to events, including a Metallica tour and Barbara Streisand concerts.
One hedge fund executive who said his firm gave Carton more than $5 million at various points in 2016 to invest in tickets to Metallica and Barbara Streisand concerts.
In order to win the money, Carton fabricated contracts and emails, including one email presented at trial that was doctored by Carton to look like it had come from Fred Mangione, chief of staff of Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Barclays Center and the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the evidence showed.
At the time of the fraud, Carton was spending big bucks at casinos — even borrowing money from loan sharks to fund his casino trips, according to witness testimony.
One of the loan sharks, Desmond Finger, a general manager of Upper East Side strip club Sapphire 39, told the jury he gave Carton several high-interest loans of as much as $500,000 a pop to finance his casino trips in 2016 and 2017.
Their relationship fell apart when the radio host failed to repay a $500,000 loan in 2017, the strip club manager testified.
Carton resigned from WFAN’s top-rated “Boomer and Carton” radio program a week after his arrest and has repeatedly asserted his innocence up until trial, including in chats with the press and on his new radio show on the FNTSY Sports Network called “Carton & Friends.”
Carton claimed he was a victim of Joseph Meli, who is serving six-and-a-half years at a minimum security prison in Pennsylvania after pleading guilty to stealing a $100 million from investors of his ticket-selling scheme.

‘People trusted him. He lied to them.’
His lawyers argued during the trial that Carton was no crook and that he was victimized by another businessman.
After Carton’s arrest, his radio co-host Esiason told the Boston radio team of Toucher & Rich morning that he was ‘lost and kind of bit heartbroken over the whole thing’.
In a statement, Carton promised that ‘when this strange episode is over, I’ll be back, stronger than ever’.
Carton’s sentencing is set for February 27.