Former concert promoter Jack Utsick dies aged 80
Former concert promoter Jack Utsick has died of cancer at the age of 80.
Utsick, who was an airline pilot before entering live music, founded Worldwide Entertainment in the 1990s and went on to promote tours around the globe by superstars such as the Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Britney Spears, the Bee Gees, the Pretenders, Aerosmith and Fleetwood Mac.
Pollstar notes he also acquired interests in venues including Germany’s Wuhlheide Amphitheatre and New Zealand’s Vector Arena.
However, Worldwide was placed into administration amid mounting debts in 2006, and Utsick was subsequently accused of operating the Miami-headquartered business as a $200 million Ponzi scheme.
“I went through almost 12 years of crying every night for these poor people”
Utsick was alleged to have defrauded more than 3,300 investors, having promised them fixed rates of return ranging from 15% to 25% and, in some instances, an additional percentage of profits. Prosecutors said that when most of the entertainment projects lost money, he paid earlier investors with funds raised from new investors.
In 2014, Utsick was extradited to the US from Brazil, where he fled in 2007 after being charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), following a protracted court battle, and was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2016 after admitting fraud. He was also ordered to repay US$169m to Worldwide’s investors.
“I went through almost 12 years of crying every night for these poor people,” he told ABC from his prison cell in 2019. “I said I’m sorry and I said I’m sorry to some of the people who got screwed.”
A family friend tells CelebrityAccess that Utsick died in Florida after being released from prison during the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Ponzi promoter Jack Utsick sentenced to 18+ years
Jack Utsick, the 73-year-old former concert promoter who in June pled guilty to defrauding around 3,000 investors in his Worldwide Entertainment company, was yesterday sentenced to over 18 years in prison.
Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga, in the US District Court for southern Florida, handed Utsick – who prosecutors alleged ran unprofitable Worldwide as a ponzi scheme, paying older investors with money from new ones – close to the maximum possible sentence, reports AP.
Utstick and his lawyers pleaded for leniency, highlighting his bipolar disorder as explanation for poor business judgment and claiming he planned to pay the money back. “I am not that person. I’m a good guy,” said Utstick in what AP’s Curt Anderson, who was in court for the verdict, described as a “rambling, tear-filled statement”. “I always felt we could pay these people. To all the people: I’m so sorry.”
However, Altonago said: “It matters not, at the end of the day, whether on day one his intentions were good. There are far too many victims who suffered far too many losses, too many lives ruined.”
“There are far too many victims who suffered far too many losses, too many lives ruined”
Worldwide promoted tours by arena-filling artists such as The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, The Pretenders, Aerosmith and Fleetwood Mac before being placed into administration amid mounting debts in 2006.
Utsick was extradited to the US from Brazil, where he fled in 2007, in 2014 after a protracted court battle, and had since been held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami.
One of Utsick’s victims, like him a retired airline pilot, said he had lost his entire life savings. “I have never recovered,” he wrote in a letter to Altonago. “I will be 71 in October, still working, with no hope of ever retiring again.”
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Ex-Stones promoter faces jail over ‘ponzi scheme’
Jack Utsick, a former concert promoter who allegedly defrauded an estimated 3,300 investors out of nearly US$300 million, faces up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to a mail fraud charge.
Prosectors allege that Utsick, 73 (pictured), who appeared in court in Miami on Friday, operated his promotion company, Worldwide Entertainment, as a ponzi scheme, repaying older investors with money from newer ones.
Worldwide promoted tours by arena-filling artists such as The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, The Pretenders, Aerosmith and Fleetwood Mac before being placed into administration amid mounting debts in 2006. A subsequent investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) discovered that Utsick, who earned millions of dollars a year, actually lost money on most tours, reports The Miami Herald.
Utsick was extradited to the US from Brazil, where he fled in 2007, in 2014 after a protracted court battle, and has since then been held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami.
Utsick will be sentenced on 23 August. In the meantime, he has been ordered to repay $169m to Worldwide’s investors, many of whom are, like him, retired airline pilots.
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