Serving Roslyn, Roslyn Heights and Old Westbury
$1
Friday, June 9, 2017
Vol. 5, No. 23
SUOZZI TAKES AIM AT RUSSIANS PAGE 10
ROSLYN LAWYER NAMED BAR PREZ PAGE 12
Roslyn man charged in $70M Ponzi scheme
NIFA DEMANDS COUNTY CUTS PAGE 6
READ FOR THE CUP
CEO of ticket brokerage, Jason Nissen, accused of cheating lenders BY JA N E LL E CL AUSEN Jason Nissen, a 44-year-old Roslyn resident and former math teacher, was arrested and charged in Manhattan federal court Wednesday for allegedly running a $70 million Ponzi scheme. Prosecutors allege that from 2015 to May 2017, while Nissen was the CEO of a Manhattanbased ticket broker National Event Company, Nissen defrauded lenders of millions. The firm bought and sold many tickets, but millions of dollars allegedly found themselves in Nissen’s personal account. In the $70 million Ponzi scheme, Nissen allegedly took money to buy and resell tickets to big sporting events and the Broadway hit Hamilton – only to enrich himself and pay back others. “They’re inflated numbers. We really had those events and really sold the tickets and they’re inflated, you know, two or three fold
depending on how it was,” Nissen said in a taped conversation, according to the complaint. Prosecutors also said that Nissen “falsified financial documents and inflated accounts receiveable ledgers” and presented them to victims as fake proof that their money was being used for purchasing tickets for resale so he could get more money. His alleged victims include a diamond wholesaler that loaned him $32 million, a private-equity firm that invested $40 million and another person who allegedly gave Nissen $1.9 million to buy and resell tickets to a UFC fight, according to the suit. Some cash was used to buy tickets, but not as much as Nissen claimed, prosecutors said. A New York Times report says that Nissen, when he was a teacher at a Queens high school, was reassigned as school officials investigated whether he sold students tickets to a free Dave Matthews Continued on Page 57
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BRYANT LIBRARY
The Bryant Library gave a prize for people who checked out at least three books as part of its Stanley Cup celebration.
Scott Hislop, Flower Hill highway chief, dies at 49 on April 20 in Centereach. He was 49. Hislop died of colon cancer, Scott Hislop, who served which was diagnosed in 2014. In 2006, the village puras the highway superintendent in the Village of Flower Hill chased Flower Hill Park from for more than 20 years, died Nassau County, and Hislop
BY ST E P H E N ROMANO
transformed the “overgrown garbage dump” into a beautiful family park with basketball courts, a playground and a jungle gym, Ronnie Shatzkamer, the Flower Hill village adminContinued on Page 57
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