Arizona Promoters Indicted

A former Tucson concert promoter and four others have been indicted by an Arizona grand jury on 204 counts of fraud, money laundering and theft associated with the financing of City Limits nightclub and concert promoter Cal Productions.

Bradley Nozicka, former City Lights CEO and Cal Productions co-manager, his Phoenix-based partner William Galyon, Nova Michaels, Robert Rosepink and Alfred Olsen are accused of bilking at least 125 well-heeled investors of more than $26 million between June 2002 and February 2006.

The group is alleged to have sold promissory notes with extraordinary rates of return, according to an 88-page indictment handed up May 14th. The five were to be arraigned in Maricopa County Superior Court June 11th, according to the Arizona Daily Star.

Money raised went not only toward financing planned concerts with major artists including Mariah Carey, Brooks & Dunn and Snoop Dogg, but also in supporting lavish lifestyles for Nozicka and Galyon, according to the indictment.

Former Cal Productions employees told the newspaper that Nozicka had a fondness for traveling in private jets and taking limousines to concerts, even while failing to make payroll for the City Limits staff.

"For Brad it was all the image. It was the office and the plane," former Cal Productions GM Kiri Gragg told the Daily Star. "It was the image of what they were doing. The office had all the fancy guitars and the pictures. When these investors would come in … they would go lock themselves in the conference room and that would be it."

In addition to theft and fraud, the indictment accuses the group of participating in a criminal enterprise and securities fraud, according to the Daily Star. Convictions could result in up to 56 years in prison.

"Basically [they] were doing a Ponzi scheme," said investor Jim Heath of Phoenix, who told the newspaper he lost $150,000. "[Galyon] basically misrepresented everything. He lied about his financials."

Rosepink was reportedly Heath’s attorney when he convinced Heath to invest in Galyon’s company, Enti Capital LLC. Enti was the investment arm of Cal Productions, the paper said.

Heath said that initially the investment paid off well for the first year. Then an investor with a reported $5 million sunk into the company pulled out, throwing the investment scheme into a tailspin.

The indictments come two years after Nozicka filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for Cal Productions and four other companies after several lawsuits were filed against him.

At the time, investors in the concert promotion company were seeking $16 million in compensation. According to one suit, alleged enticements included bringing a then-retired Garth Brooks to Tucson for a one-off performance.

When that and other big shows didn’t happen, plaintiffs claim they were left with unpaid promissory notes.

Nozicka was accused of attempting to repay original investors with money from new ones, the general definition of a Ponzi scheme.

Shawn Aiken, an attorney for Galyon, told Pollstar in March 2006 that his client didn’t know what Nozicka had done with the money and had filed his own lawsuit against his partner.

"I hesitate to say, I don’t know what happened, and my client doesn’t know what happened up there in Tucson," Aiken told Pollstar at the time.

When Pollstar attempted to contact Nozicka and Cal Productions, the phone number had been disconnected.