Utsick Profile Airs On CNBC

Utsick, Worldwide Entertainment Inc., and partners Donna and Robert Yeager agreed in April 2006 to settle accusations they raised some $300 million from 300 investors in what the SEC later characterized as a Ponzi scheme.

Utsick’s business assets were placed in receivership and in the process of being sold and investors repaid when Utsick moved to Brazil in 2007.

U.S. District Judge Paul Huck imposed a final settlement ruling in the case in May 2009, ordering Utsick to pay $4.1 million in disgorgement plus pre- and post-judgment interest, and a civil penalty.

Utsick immediately appealed the ruling, which was later affirmed by the court. The Yeagers’ case was closed in September.

Utsick’s previous attorney, Richard Kraut of the Washington, D.C., firm Dilworth Paxson, told Pollstar at the time that Utsick was asked for an in-person deposition in the case but was given no assurances by the SEC or the court that he would not be detained.

Without that assurance, Utsick remained in Brazil, where he apparently remains.

An attorney and friend of Utsick would not confirm to Pollstar Brazilian media reports that the former concert promoter had been arrested in Sao Paulo in April or that extradition proceedings were under way.

The U.S. State Department did not respond to Pollstar’s repeated inquiries.

Receiver Michael Goldberg, representing Utsick’s investors, told Pollstar the information “appears to be correct” and included it in his most recent report.

In promos for the “American Greed” segment, Goldberg is shown discussing the Utsick case, as are investors.

Previous attempts by Pollstar to contact Utsick for his side of the story were unsuccessful, although family and colleagues contacted say he continues to dispute the SEC’s narrative.

“American Greed: The Fugitives,” produced for CNBC by Kurtis Productions and narrated by Stacy Keach, will air at 10 p.m.