TORONTO -- A Canadian-Maltese dual citizen has been sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud in a U.S.-based sports ticket scam.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), Joseph Gatt, 75, recruited three investors into a fraudulent company sometime between 2009 and 2014 while he was living in the New Orleans, La. area. He claimed to have connections to purchase tickets to the UEFA Champions League and FIFA World Cup below face value, andsaid he could resell them at a higher cost.
The three investors contributed more than US$95,000 to the operation, but instead of using the money for the business, Gatt used the money for “personal purchases,”the DoJ said.
Once confronted about the scheme, officials said, Gatt wrote cheques to repay the investors, but the account did not have the funds to cover the payments. Gatt also blamed bank delays and that he himself had been defrauded to keep the scheme going.
In addition to the year in prison, Gatt will face three years of supervised release, must repay the investors and is subject to deportation from the U.S.
