{"id":898,"date":"2026-02-03T15:27:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T21:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paymentconsulting.net\/Blog\/wordpress\/?p=898"},"modified":"2026-02-03T15:27:38","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T21:27:38","slug":"who-is-joe-meli-inside-the-ticket-resale-ponzi-scheme-resurfaced-by-the-epstein-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paymentconsulting.net\/Blog\/wordpress\/?p=898","title":{"rendered":"Who Is Joe Meli? Inside the Ticket Resale Ponzi Scheme Resurfaced by the Epstein Files"},"content":{"rendered":"
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e<\/a>\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0Who Is Joe Meli? Inside the Ticket Resale Ponzi Scheme Resurfaced by the Epstein Files<\/span><\/p>\n

By Dave Clark<\/span>1 day ago<\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n
\"Dead<\/p>\n
Dead & Company perform in New York on Nov 1 2015. Tickets to Dead & Company shows were reportedly among those pitched to Jeffrey Epstein as part of an “investment” scheme by Joe Meli, which surfaced in emails released as part of the Epstein Files this week. (Photo – Brianga, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A newly released tranche of records tied to Jeffrey Epstein is rippling into the live-entertainment world this week, after email exchanges surfaced showing a 2015 pitch from Joe Meli to the New York financier for a high dollar ticket resale \u201cinvestment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pitch involved Meli \u2013 who was later arrested and jailed for what turned out to be a massive ponzi scheme \u2013 seeking a $30 million investment to bankroll bulk ticket purchases to events including the Grateful Dead\u2019s 50th anniversary Fare Thee Well shows, Dead & Company dates, and Coachella.<\/p>\n

Meli\u2019s pitch to investors like Epstein promised big returns, pointing to his connections in the music and live entertainment business \u2013 including work promoting concerts in the tony Hamptons on Long Island and connections with Broadway insiders.<\/p>\n

The documents were published as part of U.S. Department of Justice compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which the department says resulted in the public release of millions of responsive pages.<\/p>\n

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Included in the released files were details that Epstein and his associates did not participate in Meli\u2019s offer, and even later made fun of others who were caught up in the scam.\u00a0An email from Richard Kahn in early 2017 to Epstein<\/a>\u00a0shared the text of a Bloomberg article documenting Meli\u2019s scheme, with his addition, \u201cLooks like there are many not too shrew=(sic) billionaires\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

From ticket \u201cinvestments\u201d to federal fraud convictions<\/h2>\n

Joe Meli rose to prominence in the New York entertainment circle beginning with work as a concert promoter. He was behind several small scale but high profile shows in the Hampton\u2019s, including shows featuring Billy Joel and Dave Matthews. Getty photos from\u00a0one such event in 2007<\/a>\u00a0depict Meli alongside Joel, as well as celebrities like Alec Baldwin, Renee Zellwiger, and Katie Lee.<\/p>\n

A decade later, Meli was charged of defrauding some 130 investors of nearly $100 million. He and associates had claimed connections with insiders that would allow them to bulk purchase significant quantities of tickets to high profile events to resell at a profit. In April 2018, Meli was sentenced to 78 months in prison, along with supervised release and massive forfeiture tied to the proceeds prosecutors said were obtained through the scheme.<\/p>\n

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He\u00a0later received a 37 month prison sentence<\/a>\u00a0(with 25 months to be served concurrently) tied to a scheme involving Broadway tickets following the breakup of his previous scheme, in addition to more than $4 million in additional restitution and fines.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoseph Meli, a recidivist fraudster, spun the web of lies that buttressed this scheme while on pretrial release in a prior theatre ticket investment fraud case in this District,\u201d says U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss. \u201cWith today\u2019s sentencing, the curtain has come down on Joseph Meli\u2019s act.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meli\u2019s case was also connected to a similarly high profile case involving WFAN radio host Craig Carton. Found to be running his own scheme related to the purchase and resale of tickets (that was instead funnelling investor funds to repay gambling debts),\u00a0Carton attempted to claim he was himself a victim of Meli rather than a perpetrator of a separate Ponzi operation<\/a>. Carton was found guilty of all charges,\u00a0and received a 3.5 year sentence<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Carton has returned to WFAN sports talk radio following his release from prison. It is unclear if Meli is still in custody, or if he has been released.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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e\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0Who Is Joe Meli? Inside the Ticket Resale Ponzi Scheme Resurfaced by the Epstein Files By Dave Clark1 day ago Dead & Company perform in New York on Nov 1 2015. Tickets to Dead & Company shows were reportedly among those pitched to Jeffrey Epstein as part of an “investment” scheme by Joe Meli, which … Continue reading Who Is Joe Meli? Inside the Ticket Resale Ponzi Scheme Resurfaced by the Epstein Files<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-update"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paymentconsulting.net\/Blog\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paymentconsulting.net\/Blog\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paymentconsulting.net\/Blog\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paymentconsulting.net\/Blog\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paymentconsulting.net\/Blog\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.paymentconsulting.net\/Blog\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":899,"href":"https:\/\/www.paymentconsulting.net\/Blog\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions\/899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paymentconsulting.net\/Blog\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paymentconsulting.net\/Blog\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paymentconsulting.net\/Blog\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}