A Florida man involved in a scheme to sell tickets to a bogus concert in eastern Iowa has pled guilty to fraud.
Thirty-eight-year-old Scott Elkins of Tampa, Florida, admitted he conspired with several others to defraud potential concert-goers by promoting and selling tickets to a 2006 concert in Dubuque they knew would not happen.
The conspirators bought commercials on a Dubuque radio station for a “Summer Jam 2K6” concert, saying Chris Brown, Chamillionaire and Ciara were going to be at the Dubuque County Fairgrounds on June 30th. About a thousand $25 tickets were sold before the artists got wind of it and said they weren’t booked for the show. Someone had reserved a stage on the fairgrounds and VH1 had the concert listed on its website.
Prosectors say Elkins had been involved in setting up similar fake concerts in six other states. He’s pled guilty to one count of federal mail fraud in connection with the fake Dubuque concert and faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to a quarter-of-a-million dollars.