Two people have been charged with infiltrating StubHub’s backend and stealing over $635,000 worth of tickets, including 900 tickets to Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour.
Tyrone Rose of Kingston, Jamaica, and Shamara P. Simmons of Jamaica, Queens, were both arrested and arraigned in late February for the cybercrime, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Wednesday.
“According to the charges, these defendants tried to use the popularity of Taylor Swift’s concert tour and other high-profile events to profit at the expense of others,” Katz said in a statement. “They allegedly exploited a loophole through an offshore ticket vendor to steal tickets to the biggest concert tour of the last decade and then resold those seats for an extraordinary profit of more than $600,000.”
According to the New York Times, Rose — who worked for an outsourcing company contracted by StubHub — allegedly gained access to an unauthorized system within the ticket reseller that allowed him to re-route tickets to Simmons and another accomplice who has since died.
Simmons then resold those illegally obtained tickets, with ” the overall illicit proceeds from this scheme are valued at $635,000,” the Queens D.A. office said in a release.
In addition to the Eras Tour, other high-profile events involved in the scheme included tickets to Adele’s Las Vegas residency, Ed Sheeran concerts, NBA games, and the U.S. Open.
Both Rose and Simmons were charged with grand larceny in the second degree, computer tampering in the first degree, conspiracy in the fourth degree, and computer tampering in the fourth degree; they both face a maximum sentence of three to 15 years in prison on the top charge.
StubHub’s chief legal officer, Mark Streams, told the New York Times, “The individuals involved, employees of S.G.S., exploited a system vulnerability to fraudulently resell tickets. They were swiftly identified and terminated.” (Although Streams said they were “swiftly identified,” the scheme lasted from June 2022 to July 2023.) StubHub’s contract with the third-party outsourcing company was also terminated.
