- In February 2024, the man pleaded guilty to the crimes of mail and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges | Photo: EFE
A man who defrauded concert promoters of nearly $3 million by impersonating artists including Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish and Post Malone in concert contracts was sentenced Monday, July 22, to nearly five years in prison.
Terronce Morris, 42, of Missouri City, Texas, was sentenced to 57 months in prison for a fraud scheme he hatched with another accomplice that “involved fake music concerts featuring famous artists,” the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Morris had pleaded guilty in February 2024 to conspiracy to commit “mail and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges.”
His accomplice, Blake Kelly, 37 years old, who is based in Los Angeles (California), had also pleaded guilty last January to the same charges of fraud and aggravated identity theft for forging and using the signature of Justin Bieber in false and fraudulent concert contracts.
The two produced contracts with fake signatures from Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish and Post Malone, in which they guaranteed their performances at a music festival, according to NBC News.
So far, the three artists affected have not issued any statement on their social networks regarding this sentence.
They obtained 1.3 million dollars from one of their victims
According to court documents, between December 2019 and March 2020, Morris and Kelly fraudulently obtained approximately $1.3 million from a victim, whom they persuaded to give them the money for the purported production of a music festival featuring the named artists.
Morris created fake and fraudulent email accounts impersonating the artists themselves, as if they had sent signed contracts to Kelly and himself.
Both also prepared “several false and fraudulent concert contracts by falsifying the artists’ signatures.”
Additionally, during a video call with the victim, Morris and Kelly had an accomplice pose as Bieber to trick the victim into believing that the artist had agreed to perform at the concerts.
He continued with the frauds after receiving letters from the artists’ lawyers
Morris continued with his fraud scheme after receiving several cease and desist letters from the artists’ attorneys.
A few months after stealing $1.3 million from the victim, in October 2020 Morris “used additional fake and forged contracts (from Bieber) that he created to deceive another victim,” scamming her out of $500,000.
Based on these fake contracts, this other victim sent Morris a check for $250,000 for the planned performance.
Morris quickly deposited those funds and, like the other victim, used those funds for himself and not for a concert with musical artists,” authorities said.
From May 2021 through December 2023, Morris stole an additional $850,000 from two more victims.
Morris and Kelly used the fraudulently obtained money to enrich themselves and “fund a lavish lifestyle for themselves and their co-conspirators, which included traveling, purchasing luxury items, paying for lavish services, and dining at expensive restaurants.”
With information from EFE
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2024-07-23 01:58:26
