CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A federal jury convicted a man Wednesday who swindled the White Sox out of about $1 million with the help of two ticket sellers who worked for the South Side baseball team.
A January 2020 indictment charged ticket broker Bruce Lee with wire fraud and money laundering, and the jury found Lee guilty of several counts of wire fraud, the Chicago Sun-Times is reporting. The verdict came after less than two hours of deliberation at the end of a four-day trial at Chicago’s federal courthouse.
It also came the day before the first playoff game between the Sox and the Houston Astros.
The trial at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse involved the betrayal of the Sox by a decades-long employee, a secret recording at a pizza place near Sox park and a brazen plan to take advantage of the South Siders’ complimentary and discount ticket programs.
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The White Sox also released a statement in which the team said it is “very pleased by the determination of the jury in this case. We are glad that the person who orchestrated the theft and profited the most has been held accountable.”
The scam first came to light in October 2019 with an FBI affidavit about the suspicious ticket sales, especially surrounding the August 2018 debut of pitcher Michael Kopech. A few months later, prosecutors accused Lee of making $868,369 by selling 34,876 fraudulently obtained tickets during the 2016 through 2019 baseball seasons.
The tickets had a market value of between $1 million and $1.2 million, authorities said.
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(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire & Chicago Sun-Times 2021. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)