Dueling court filings in Craig Carton's alleged fraud case

Former sports-talk radio star Craig Carton asked to bar prosecutors from calling his alleged Ponzi scheme a “Ponzi scheme” at his upcoming fraud trial, while the government said in new Manhattan federal court filings that Carton should be kept from flaunting mental health issues and law-enforcement ties.

The dueling filings also provided new details of evidence — including a claim that Carton used an email account to pretend he was a “Hamilton” producer — in advance of the one-time WFAN celebrity’s Oct. 29 trial on charges of scamming investors in a ticket-resale business and using their funds to instead repay gambling debts and pay prior investors.

Carton, 48, told U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon that it would be unfair for prosecutors to repeat the terms they have used in news releases — such as “Ponzi scheme,” as well as “sham,” “fleece investors” and “fraudulent” — in arguments to the jury that could associate him with Bernie Madoff and other fraudsters.

“The use of any of these type pejorative terms is designed to target the jurors' emotions and incite them to issue a verdict based not upon the evidence but on the portrayal of Mr. Carton's bad character,” wrote Carton’s defense lawyers.

Prosecutors warned McMahon that Carton’s lawyers have not ruled out references to his self-professed difficulties with Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder and attention deficit disorder, and may try to use good relations with law enforcement to inappropriately win jury sympathy.

At a recent media appearance, prosecutors said, Carton said he was named “man of the year” by FBI agents six months before his arrest last year, although the government “has been unable to locate any information” suggesting he got such an award last year “or at any point for that matter.”

“Carton would clearly be seeking to use such evidence ... to suggest that he had law enforcement’s imprimatur,” prosecutors said. “Accordingly, the Court should preclude such testimony.”

The charges allege Carton worked with co-defendant Michael Wright, who pleaded guilty last month, and Joseph Meli, now imprisoned on separate fraud charges, to raise more than $4 million from investors based on false promises the money would be used to buy blocks of hard-to-get tickets for resale at a profit.

At the same time, prosecutors told the judge, they plan to show at trial that Carton was soliciting loans to engage in gambling — and then using money from the ticket lenders to repay gambling lender.

Carton has said that he was misled by Meli. But in the new motions, prosecutors said they had evidence that before their alleged joint scam began in 2016, Carton controlled a Gmail account called “maytommy2015,” which Meli told investors belonged to "Hamilton’s" producer.

Carton, the government alleged, pretended to be the producer to help Meli fool investors.

“Evidence that ... Carton assisted Meli by using a fake email address to deceive an investor is highly probative to rebut the argument that Carton was unaware that Meli was running a fraudulent ticket-investment scheme,” they wrote.

Both sides’ motions were filed late Monday.

Carton’s attorney Robert Gottlieb declined to comment on the new accusations. “The truth will come out at trial with live witnesses, not government argument,” he said.