N.C. Promoter Sentenced

A North Carolina concert promoter who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in April was sentenced Aug. 9 to 30 months in prison.

John Burton Vick was also ordered to pay $919,766 in restitution after his prison time has been served and to be on supervised release for three years, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

Vick was charged with fraud after conning the non-profit Danville Harvest Jubilee in Virginia out of $85,000 under the premise of putting on a Big & Rich concert last summer that never happened. Vick instead used the money to pay off an unrelated loan, according to the Virginian-Plot.

The promoter also ripped off investors in Wyoming and California in a Ponzi-type scheme by obtaining multiple payments of about $25,000 or more to pay off expenses related to the fictitious Big & Rich concert, which he would return with interest.

Those funds were instead used to pay salaries to himself and others and to clear past debts, including for a show by Tracy Lawrence, the paper said.