YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: A former senior official at A&P supermarkets Montvale headquarters admitted in federal court in Newark today that he scalped more than 7,000 promotional tickets for employees a Super Bowl, New York Yankees playoff games and concerts by Bon Jovi, Lady Gaga and U2.
John R. Moritz, 44, said he pocketed $1.2 million privately selling the tickets online without his colleagues’ knowledge.
Moritz, of Mason, Ohio, was senior vice-president of marketing for A&P when he arranged for the company’s purchase of the tickets, intended “to reward high-performing A&P employees and for other legitimate business purposes,” U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.
For a year beginning in December 2010, he said, he sold them himself.
Fishman credited FBI agents for making the case handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lakshmi Srinivasan Herman of his Economic Crimes Unit in Newark and Evan Weitz of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Unit.
Sentencing was scheduled for July 9.