'Squeaky-Clean' Guy Accused in $750K Super Bowl Scam

Ketan Shah seems like an unlikely perpetrator
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 2, 2019 5:05 PM CST
'Squeaky-Clean' Guy Accused in $750K Super Bowl Scam
Michael, Buchwald, NFL Senior Counsel, Legal, holds up Super Bowl 53 tickets as he explains the security features on the tickets during a news conference for the NFL Super Bowl 53 football game Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019, in Atlanta.   (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

A Georgia man has apparently swindled his family, friends, and personal connections—and even his own mother—out of more than $750,000 in a Super Bowl ticket scam, Deadspin reports. Seems Ketan Shah, a prominent Gwinnett County businessman and father of two, sold premium tickets to nearly a dozen buyers but became unreachable when pick-up hour arrived. Most buyers put down at least $20,000, while his mother paid $36,000 and a businessman friend of Shah's paid $500,000 for tickets and the chance to host an event at the big game Sunday. Now, of course, Shah is nowhere to be found.

"It's just crazy, mind-blowing," one buyer tells WSB-TV. "Everything seemed legit." Police records show that Shah also took out a recent half-million-dollar loan against his digital printing shop and may have gone to Las Vegas during a mid-life crisis. His wife, Bhavi, broke down crying when approached by a reporter: "I really don't know where he is now," she said. "I really don't, I'm sorry." Even police seem partly concerned: "We'd certainly like to get his side and see if there’s something more ... some trouble that he’s been in," says Cpl. Wilbert Rundles. "It's a very odd situation." Rundles tells Fox News that Shah hasn't been charged yet, but will face several charges of theft by deception after the game. (One brazen attempt at fraud was stymied by a video camera.)

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