A former Iowa sports radio personality once known as “The Mouth of the Midwest” has been slapped with a second conviction in relation to a ticket investment scheme that defrauded millions of dollars from investors.
High-Demand Event Tickets
A federal jury in Des Moines, Iowa, US, found 65-year-old Marty Tirell guilty of 11 counts of wire fraud following a four-day trial last week.
According to prosecutors, four investors lost more than $1.5 million after Tirrell convinced them to pump money into what he described as a lucrative ticket reselling business.
Federal authorities claim that Tirrell investors to buy tickets for high-demand events, including Taylor Swift concerts, the US Open, or Indiana Fever games, among others, with the promise to resell them at a profit and share the proceeds.
Instead, prosecutors said he spent most of the money on gambling and personal expenses.
Almost Same Scheme, 5 Years Later
The case has drawn particular attention because it mirrors a nearly identical scheme that sent Tirrell to federal prison just a few years ago. In 2021, he was sentenced to 41 months behind bars after pleading guilty to mail fraud in a case involving roughly $1.5 million in losses to eight investors.
Investigators said the latest operation ran from February 2024 through January 2025 while Tirrell was still serving a term of supervised release following his previous conviction.
Prosecutors described the scheme as having a Ponzi-like structure, alleging that funds from newer investors were used to repay earlier participants while Tirrell continued seeking additional money.
Before his legal troubles, Tirrell was a well-known and often controversial figure in Iowa broadcasting who helped popularize sports talk radio in the state during the 1990s and later hosted programs on radio and television through his company, Tea Room Broadcasting.
His financial troubles, however, reportedly stretch back decades. A 2019 investigation by the Des Moines Register discovered that complaints regarding ticket sales and unpaid obligations dated as far back as the late 1990s.
Tirrell now faces a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years in prison on each of the 11 wire fraud counts. A sentencing date has not yet been announced.