MIAMI — A former ESPN Radio host who previously spent more than 10 years at a Townsquare Media Sports Talk radio station in Sioux Falls, S.D., has been ordered by a federal judge to pay more than $5 million after pleading guilty to participating in a phony ticket re-selling operation.
He’s also been sentenced to a nearly four years in prison for his fraudulent actions.
A plea deal between the federal government and Jeffrey Thurn, 39, first emerged in mid-September. This sees Thurn being charged with one count of wire fraud.
The matter dates back one year, as Thurn in December 2023 was indicated on five counts of federal wire fraud charges for allegedly pocketing dollars from investors between 2015 and 2022.
Now, U.S. District Court Judge Federico A. Moreno has ordered Thurn to return all of that money, while he will remain in U.S. Marshals custody before starting a 46-month term at a corrections institution in Yankton, S.D.
Once his time in prison ends, Thurn will be subjected to three years of supervised release.
But, he must repay exactly $5,101,944 collected through what he called “Backstage Tickets.”
According to court documents, starting in 2015 Thurn told individuals willing to invest in his purported business that he could leverage relationships forged through his professional activities in order to buy and resell tickets to concerts and sporting events, at a profit.
That proved to be false, as his investors received fake receipts for concert ticket sales that never really happened. Instead, Thurn kept some of the cash while a portion of the funds went toward gambling endeavors and, additionally, cryptocurrency acquisition. One investor in Florida caught wind of what Thurn was up to, and then notified special agents with the FBI. This explains why a U.S. District Court in Miami was the venue for the trial.
Thurn’s ties with ESPN Radio ended in February 2023.
