Two men from New York were recently sentenced for a counterfeit ticket scheme that targeted several big concerts and sporting events, including the Falcons’ Super Bowl appearance in 2017.
On Monday, 49-year-old Damon Daniels of The Bronx was sentenced to two years in prison for his participation in the scheme, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Philadelphia said in a news release. One of his co-defendants, 31-year-old Rahiem Watts, also of The Bronx, was sentenced last week to three years and five months in prison.
Daniels was arrested by Duluth police in January 2019 after the vehicle he was in was pulled over on Pleasant Hill Road for having an expired tag, authorities said.
He and Watts were among of group who created counterfeit tickets to sell on Craigslist to unsuspecting fans, the release said. Each fake ticket cost hundreds of dollars.
The tickets were to events that included Super Bowl 51 between the Falcons and New England Patriots, a September 2017 NFL game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New York Giants, and the March 2017 NCAA men’s basketball ACC Championship game between Duke and Notre Dame.
In addition, the group sold fake tickets to Adele and U2 concerts in Philadelphia.
In a similar case, Eugene Smith, 45, of Lithonia, was sentenced to four years and three months in prison for selling counterfeit tickets to many events, including some of the same ones, the U.S. Attorney’s Office previously said. Those events included Super Bowl 51.
Smith’s co-defendant, 50-year-old Eric Ferguson of Riverdale, testified against Smith, saying he was recruited by Smith to produce and sell the fake tickets. The Georgia men were among 13 suspects indicted in January 2019 in similar ticket scam schemes, AJC.com reported at the time.
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In September 2019, Daniels pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods, the release said. Watts pleaded guilty to similar charges two months later.
In addition to their prison time, Daniels and Watts will spend three years on supervised released.
The FBI investigated the case with assistance from Duluth police, New York City police and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Since this was a federal case, mug shots of the suspects were not available.
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