A former Phoenix Suns ticket manager was sentenced to one year in county jail and three years of probation Friday on fraud and theft charges for illicitly selling more than 2,800 team tickets through a third party between 2017 and 2019.
Jeffrey Marcussen, who worked for the Suns from 2004 to 2019, was charged in September 2020 with four felony counts, including two counts of filing false tax returns. Prosecutors alleged that Marcussen sold the tickets on StubHub, an online ticketing site, without authorization. The Suns do not sell tickets on the platform.
Marcussen pleaded guilty in April and, as part of the deal, agreed to pay the Suns $458,218 in restitution, according to court records. He also agreed to pay $1,780 to the Arizona Attorney General’s organized crime revolving fund and $11,818 to the Arizona Department of Revenue. Those funds have been paid in full.
In a statement to ESPN, Marcussen said: “I would like to apologize to the Phoenix Suns and all of my former colleagues within the organization that I worked with for over 20 years. I appreciated my time with the Phoenix Suns and worked with some amazing people. Because of that, it was important to me to make full restitution to the organization as soon as possible. I would also like to apologize to my family and friends. I appreciate all of their love and support. I couldn’t have gotten through this without them.”
His one-year jail sentence is scheduled to begin Dec. 1, but state representatives, as well as Marcussen’s attorneys from the Ballard Spahr Law Firm, Mark Kokanovich and Sarah Noe, will meet before then and file a joint stipulation to modify the sentence and allow Marcussen to continue working while serving his sentence.
The matter involving Marcussen, 45, was unrelated to the NBA’s investigation of the Suns and majority owner Robert Sarver.
Suns employees were notified via a company-wide email in late June 2019 that Marcussen was no longer an employee of the team, although the reason was not stated in the email, team sources said. In the team’s 2018-19 media guide, Marcussen’s title was listed as Assistant Director, Suns Ticketing.
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Former Suns ticket manager guilty of fraud and theft