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A former Suns ticket manager has pleaded guilty to illicitly selling more than 2,800 of the team’s tickets through a third-party vendor from 2017 to 2019, according to a plea agreement filed in Maricopa County Superior Court.
Jeffrey Marcussen, who worked for the Suns from 2004 to 2019, has agreed to pay $458,218 to the team in restitution, according to court records acquired by ESPN. He must also pay $1,780 to the Arizona Attorney General’s anti-racketeering fund and $11,818 to the Arizona Department of Revenue.
Marcussen, 44, is scheduled to be sentenced on June 7 on felony fraud and theft charges. Together, the charges could carry a maximum 13-year prison sentence, but, in the plea agreement submitted to the judge, prosecutors have instead asked for probation with a year in jail at most, per ESPN.
Marcussen was indicted in September 2020 on four felonies, including two counts for filing false tax returns, according to court records obtained by ESPN. Prosecutors allege that Marcussen sold Suns tickets on StubHub without authorization.
The team does not sell tickets on the platform.
“StubHub contacted the NBA when it discovered five different Stub Hub accounts all linked to the Defendant,” prosecutors wrote in November of 2020, per ESPN. “After an internal audit by the Phoenix Suns Organization, which included a confession by the Defendant, law enforcement investigated the case. The investigation revealed, and bank records confirmed, that the Defendant received a total payout from Stub Hub for $458,218.”
Marcussen was formerly listed as an ”Assistant Director, Suns Ticketing” in the team’s 2018–19 media guide. Team employees were notified via a company-wide email in late June 2019 that Marcussen was no longer employed by the franchise, but no reason was given for for his departure, according to ESPN.
The case involving Marcussen is not related to the NBA’s investigation into Robert Sarver and the Suns, which the league launched last November after ESPN published a story detailing extensive accounts of alleged racism, misogyny and verbally abusive behavior by the majority owner in Phoenix.
