Vancouver musician sentenced in concert, album scheme
Jul 25, 2014, 6:14 AM | Updated: 6:37 am
Federal prosecutors say that between 2009 and 2011, Kasey Anderson told people he was raising money for non-existent music projects, including concerts and a benefit album featuring performers such as Tom Petty, Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen. (AP Photo/File)
(AP Photo/File)
A Vancouver, Wash. musician and would-be promoter has been sentenced to prison for using the names of famous performers to con investors.
Federal prosecutors say that between 2009 and 2011, Kasey Anderson told people he was raising money for non-existent music projects, including concerts and a benefit album featuring performers such as Tom Petty, Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen.
As the scheme unraveled, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Friedman says Anderson got desperate.
“The lies did become more elaborate, he did create fake e-mail accounts in names of people involved in the music industry and sent e-mails from those accounts that suggested that the artists that he’d lined up were participating in projects when they were not,” said Friedman.
One of the phony projects involved an album and concert tour that was supposed to benefit three men, known as the “West Memphis Three,” convicted in 1994 of murder in Arkansas.
Anderson, 34, pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud charges and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton to to almost four years in prison and ordered to pay almost $594,636 in restitution to 30 investors.
