Blonde Ambition Investments, a Canadian company that was defrauded in a Broadway ticket Ponzi scheme, is trying to get its money back from the father of one of the fraudsters.
The Regina, Saskatchewan, company sued Richard J. Meli of Port Chester and RJM Ventures, a Schenectady area company operated by Meli, Feb. 19 in Westchester Supreme Court.
Last year, a Saskatchewan court ordered Meli and RJM Ventures to pay $50,600 to the “blonde” of Blonde Ambition, Tarissa Peterson, a Canadian lawyer and real estate broker.
In May 2017, Philmore Anderson of New York City persuaded Peterson to invest in Sahara Entertainment, according to Westchester and Canadian court records. Sahara would buy bulk tickets to Broadway shows at a discount, resell them and reap a large profit. By the end of the year, Peterson would collect her share.
Peterson invested $40,500, but by the end of the year she got nothing back. Nearly a year later, Anderson notified Peterson that Sahara had sent her money to RJM Ventures. When Sahara got the money back from RJM, she would be paid.
She had never heard of RJM and had not authorized the transfer of funds.
Peterson discovered that RJM was controlled by Richard Meli, father of Joseph Meli, who had pleaded guilty to defrauding 130 investors of $100 million. Anderson was a friend of the Meli family.
Joseph Meli told investors that he could buy bulk tickets to Broadway shows and popular live events at a discount and then resell them for a profit on the secondary market. He used the funds for personal expenses ”” buying a $3 million house in East Hampton, for instance ”” and to pay off some previous investors to keep the scheme going.
“Joseph Meli was in fact convicted precisely of the kind of ticket scam and fraud now being perpetrated upon myself,” Peterson said in a Canadian court deposition.
Joseph Meli was sentenced in 2018 to 6½ years in federal prison for securities fraud and ordered to forfeit $104.8 million. In 2019, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ordered him to give up $55.2 million in ill-gotten gains.
In 2019, Peterson sued RJM, Richard Meli, Sahara Entertainment and Philmore Anderson for fraud in the Saskatchewan court.
Richard Meli emailed Blonde Ambition”™s attorney, denying wrongdoing.
“First, let me say I”™m sorry Ms. Peterson is facing a potential financial disappointment. My son”™s legal difficulties have taken a huge financial toll on my family, so sadly, I can readily empathize with her,” the email states. “That being said, I must tell you that her predicament has nothing to do with me.”
He claimed that Philmore Anderson had wired the money to his account, without explanation, and he assumed that Anderson was trying to help his son.
“I used the money to pay bills I had incurred to help support Joe and his family,” the email states. “I had no idea that Ms. Peterson was the source of the funds.”
Richard Meli challenged the Canadian court”™s jurisdiction. The court rejected his argument and later entered the $50,600 default judgment for Blonde Ambition.
Now Blonde Ambition, represented by Manhattan attorney Jared P. Turman, is asking the Westchester court to enforce that judgment.
Attempts to contact Richard Meli for his side of the story were unsuccessful.
Joseph Meli, 46, is in custody at the federal prison at Otisville, New York. He is scheduled for release in January 2024.
