Ex-WIP, WFAN host Craig Carton gets prison time for ticket Ponzi scheme

Former WIP weekend host Craig Carton, who most recently co-hosted the Boomer and Carton show on WFAN, has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for bilking investors out of millions of dollars with a fake-ticket Ponzi scheme.

Prior to handing down the sentence, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon welcomed Carton with a popular sports radio phrase used by fans calling into a show for the first time.

“Colleen from New York. First time, long time,” McMahon said to the host, according to the New York Post.

Carton was convicted in November of conspiracy, wire fraud, and securities fraud for stealing more than $5 million from investors by lying about a fraudulent ticket-resale business. Instead, Carton was using the money to pay off his extensive gambling debts. Carton pleaded for leniency, blaming his actions on “demons” stemming from his abuse as a child.

“Gambling may be why you did what you did, but a gambling addiction is not an excuse for stealing from people,” McMahon said, according to Newsday.

The sentence Carton received was dramatically lower than the potential maximum term, which would have put him behind bars for 45 years. Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of at least five years and 10 months.

“For nine and a half years, I worked with him and never saw that side of it,” former cohost Boomer Esiason said on WFAN Friday. “I always saw a crazy guy who came in here and gave his all to put on a four-hour show to entertain everyone, including yours truly and — I think — the guys who worked with him.”

After he was arrested at his Manhattan home in September 2017, Carton claimed he was “unequivocally not guilty,” and that “the damage done by the government’s false accusations cannot be undone.” But in a sentencing memo last month, his attorneys wrote that he was remorseful about the crimes he committed.

The New York Post’s longtime media columnist Phil Mushnick obtained a copy of a five-minute video Carton reportedly intended to release following today’s sentencing. In the video — titled “The Reckoning” — Carton reportedly spoke openly about his gambling addiction and the huge amount of money he would wager.

“Harrah’s in Atlantic City. They allowed me to wager five hands at $25,000 a hand, at once. Obscene. I won $4 million in three days and didn’t tell a single person. Didn’t enjoy it, didn’t buy anything with it," Carton said in the video, according to Mushnick. “Two weeks later, I lost $700,000. You end up living in an isolated, introverted world of secrets. And that’s what I did, until I couldn’t anymore.”

Carton worked at WIP in the mid 1990s, where he was known as “The Kid.” According to Merrill Reese’s autobiography, It’s Gooooood!, Carton was the first to report that Jeffrey Lurie had purchased the Eagles in 1994. Carton and WIP were sued by the Flyers after he said Eric Lindros missed a game because of a hangover. That case was eventually settled out of court.

He also worked for years as co-host of The Jersey Guys on 101.5 FM before joining WFAN. Carton is legally separated from his wife and has four children.