Former Sioux Falls, S.D., sports radio host Jeff Thurn received a 46-month prison sentence for running a fraudulent ticket scheme that brought him more than $5 million, according to local reports.
The sentence will be followed with three years of supervised release and Thurn was order to pay his victims back the money they lost.
Thurn left ESPN Sioux Falls, where he was host of the mid-day Overtime show in 2023 to take a national job with ESPN Radio. That job fell through when Thurn was indicted later that year.
According to court papers posted online, Thurn unlawfully enriched himself by “fraudulently inducing individuals to provide him money to be purportedly used to purchase sporting and other entertainment event ticket through BACKSTAGE [Thurn’s company], and then misappropriating those funds for the defendant’s personal use and benefit.”
Investors were promised a minimum 30% annualized guaranteed return on the money they gave him. Thurn used the money for his personal benefit, writing checks for cash, gambiling and trading cryptocurrency.
Thurn pled guilty to the charges.
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