An American man has been jailed for nearly five years in relation to a series of scams in which he tricked several concert organisers into thinking he could arrange performances by pop stars including Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish and Post Malone. The scheme involved fake contracts, emails and bank accounts, and even a video call attended by a fake Bieber.
In total Terronce Morris, working with fellow scammer Blake Kelly, made nearly $3 million by falsely claiming he had booked artists to play at a number of different events.
In pursuing the fraud, Morris and Kelly created several fake contracts supposedly signed by the likes of Bieber and Eilish; set up email accounts using those artists’ names to make it appear like they had been communicating with the stars; and banked cheques made payable to the musicians.
Even more bizarrely, Morris managed to find someone called Justin Bieber and got them to open a bank account, to make it easier to accept payments meant for the pop star. And on one occasion he got someone to pretend to be Bieber on a video call to tell the victim of the scam that he had definitely committed to play their show.
Both men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft charges, earlier this year. Kelly was sentenced to thirteen months in prison back in March, while Morris was handed a 57 month sentence earlier this month.
Confirming the sentencing this week, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said, “The total fraud loss from Morris’s musical artist fraud scheme is close to $3 million”. The two men used the money “to enrich themselves and finance a lavish lifestyle”, including “purchasing luxury goods, paying for luxurious services, and dining at high-priced restaurants”.
The first iteration of the scam generated the most money. Posing as a music producer, Morris convinced the promoter of a festival in Texas that he could get Bieber, Eilish and Malone to play the event in 2020.
After providing the faked contracts and emails, and staging the video call with an imposter Bieber, the promoter paid Morris and Kelly $1.3 million. The scam fell apart after the festival was announced and spotted by representatives for the artists, who sent cease and desist letters.
But that didn’t stop Morris and Kelly from repeating the scam, defrauding $500,000 out of another concert organiser in autumn 2020, and then tricking yet more people into paying for performances that were never going to happen the following year.