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Broker convicted over White Sox ticket fraud

A federal jury in Chicago has convicted a ticket broker that allegedly lost Major League Baseball’s Chicago White Sox hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Bruce Lee, who is 35, was convicted for fraudulently selling tickets to White Sox games, with the help of two White Sox ticket sellers. After a four-day trial, Lee was convicted of 11 counts of wire fraud. A federal judge set his sentencing for January 10. 

An indictment, which was made public last year, alleged that Lee made more than $860,000 (£632,000/€744,000) through his Chicago-based brokerage Great Tickets by fraudulently selling nearly 35,000 tickets for White Sox games. 

Lee did this over four baseball seasons from 2016 to 2019. 

Prosecutors said the two now-former White Sox ticket sales booth staffers, James Costello and William O’Neil, created thousands of discounted and complimentary tickets for Lee in exchange for money. These were generated without  the required vouchers. 

Lee would then sell these tickets through online resale platform StubHub.

Costello and O’Neil pleaded guilty in August last year to federal charges for the part they played in the scheme, but agreed to cooperate with the prosecutors. 

Lee’s attorney, Nishay Sanan, said he believes that the jury “got it wrong” and said his client will “continue to fight” the conviction. 

Image: Jose Francisco Morales on Unsplash