A man who defrauded concert promoters of nearly $3 million by impersonating artists including Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish and Post Malone in concert contracts has been sentenced to nearly $1 million. five years in prisonthe United States Department of Justice reported on Monday, July 22.
Terronce Morris, 42, of Missouri, Texas, was sentenced to 57 months in prison for a fraud scheme he hatched with another accomplice that “involved fake music concerts with famous artists”, including those mentioned.
Morris had pleaded guilty last February to conspiring to commit “mail and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges,” according to the Justice Department’s statement.
His accomplice, Blake Kelly, 37, of Los Angeles, California, had pleaded guilty last January to the same charges of fraud and aggravated identity theft for ““forge and use JB’s signature” “in false and fraudulent concert contracts.”
The two allegedly fabricated contracts with fake signatures from Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish and Post Malone, in which they guaranteed their performances at a music festival, according to information from the NBC News channel.
According to court documents, between December 2019 and March 2020, Morris and Kelly fraudulently obtained approximately 1.3 million dollars of a victim, who they persuaded to give them money for the alleged production of a music festival with the aforementioned artists.
Morris created fake and fraudulent email accounts impersonating the artists themselves, as if they had sent signed contracts to Kelly and himself. The two also created “several false and fraudulent concert contracts by forging the artists’ signatures.”
In a video call with the victim, Morris and Kelly had an accomplice pose as Bieber to trick the victim into believing that Bieber had agreed to perform at the concert series.
Morris continued with his fraud scheme after receiving several cease and desist letters from the artists’ attorneys.
Months after stealing $1.3 million from the victim, in October 2020 Morris “used additional fake and forged contracts (from Bieber) that he created to defraud another victim,” from whom he defrauded $500,000. Based on these fake contracts, this other victim sent Morris a check for $250,000 for the planned performance.
“Morris quickly deposited those funds” and, as in the case of the other victim, “used those funds for himself and not for a concert with musical artists.”
From May 2021 through December 2023, Morris stole an additional $850,000 from two more victims.
Morris and Kelly used the fraudulently obtained money to enrich themselves and “fund a lavish lifestyle for themselves and their co-conspirators, which included traveling, purchasing luxury items, paying for lavish services, and dining at expensive restaurants.”
