The curtain falls for the ticket mafia

An organized crime gang of 150 people has been convicted by a Moscow district court. Their crime? Event ticket fraud.

The organization, consisting of fraudsters, IT specialists and website designers, created fake duplicate websites for popular cultural venues, such as the Bolshoi and Maly Theaters and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. These sites sold real tickets at inflated prices, with the difference being passed on to the scammers.

Over the course of more than a decade, the criminal gang has skimmed off more than a billion rubles ($11.3 million) through their scam. Their scheme was so successful that sales on the real websites practically stopped, leading to an investigation in 2020, which led to the arrest of the criminals.

The leader was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, while other participants received shorter prison sentences or suspended sentences.