SEC v. Craig H. Carton, et al. (ponzi schemes, 2017)

Settled

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In September 2017 the SEC charged radio host Craig Carton and five companies over a concert-ticket resale investment scheme, alongside Joseph Meli and his companies. Carton and the five companies settled and a final judgment was entered on May 31, 2019, with $4.7 million in disgorgement and interest deemed satisfied by criminal restitution; Carton was convicted in the parallel criminal case and sentenced to 42 months.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The SEC announced this matter on September 6, 2017 as release LR-23929, with a parallel criminal case filed the same day. The respondents named are Craig H. Carton and others; the SEC later described the defendants as Carton, Joseph Meli and six of their companies, accused of taking investor money that was supposedly for buying and reselling concert tickets.

Outcome: an SEC litigation release of April 8, 2019 says Carton was convicted by a jury in November 2018 of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy, and sentenced on April 5, 2019 to 42 months in prison, three years of supervised release, $4,835,186.56 in restitution and forfeiture of $4,590,000. A release of May 31, 2019 says a federal judge that day entered a final judgment against Carton and five of his companies (AdvanceM Ltd., Misoluki, Inc., Misoluki, LLC, Ticket Jones, LLC and Tier One Tickets, LLC), who settled with the SEC. It enjoins them from violating Section 17(a) and Section 10(b), and orders disgorgement and prejudgment interest totaling more than $4.7 million, deemed satisfied by the criminal restitution order. The release gives no split between disgorgement and interest, and no civil penalty, so no money field is stored. The release says Meli and his companies settled in April 2019 (see the separate Meli record).

This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes, based on the conduct the regulator describes. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Ponzi schemes — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2017-09-06 Litigation release published
2. 2019-04-05 Carton sentenced to 42 months in the parallel criminal case
3. 2019-05-31 Final judgment entered against Carton and five companies on consent

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• SEC litigation release
• SEC litigation release LR-24445 (Carton sentenced)
• SEC litigation release LR-24485 (final judgment)

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Same matter

The library links these 6 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.