Former Iowa Sports Radio Star Convicted in $1.5M Ticket Fraud Scheme – Again

A former Iowa sports radio personality once known as “the Mouth of the Midwest” has been convicted of defrauding investors through a bogus ticket-reselling scheme – five years after he was sentenced to 41 months in prison for running a similar racket.

A federal jury in Des Moines found Marty Tirrell, 65, guilty Thursday (July 16) of 11 counts of wire fraud following a four-day trial. Four investors lost more than $1.5 million in the scheme, although prosecutors said several million dollars passed through Tirrell’s hands.

Rather than use the money as promised, Tirrell spent most of it on gambling and personal expenses, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

‘Colorful’ Host

Before his criminal convictions, Tirrell was best known as a colorful, albeit highly polarizing, broadcaster who helped pioneer sports talk radio in Iowa.

After relocating to Des Moines in 1995, he co-hosted the influential Marty & Miller show before going on to present sports programming across radio, television, and national syndication.

During the latest scheme, which ran from February 2024 through January 2025, Tirrell was operating sports programming through his production company, Tea Room Broadcasting.

Tirrell persuaded investors to give him money supposedly to purchase blocks of tickets for high-demand events, including Taylor Swift concerts, the U.S. Open, Indiana Fever games, and professional football and baseball playoff games.

He claimed he would resell the tickets at a markup, return the investors’ capital, and give them a share of the profits.

Instead, prosecutors proved that Tirrell diverted most of the money while using funds from newer investors to pay earlier ones, giving the operation a Ponzi-like structure.

Fool Me Once

The scheme closely resembled the one that sent Tirrell to prison in 2021 – even down to the scale of the losses.

A 2019 indictment alleged that the earlier operation defrauded eight investors of about $1.5 million. In that case, prosecutors said Tirrell cultivated investors by presenting himself as a sports insider and sometimes providing free tickets or VIP seating to win their trust.

He then claimed he could purchase discounted tickets, resell them to the public, and split the profits with investors. Instead, Tirrell used their money to place online sports bets, make unauthorized purchases, and pay other victims.

When he could no longer attract new investors, prosecutors said, Tirrell resorted to check-kiting, stealing credit cards, and submitting fraudulent claims to banks to keep the scheme going. He pleaded guilty to mail fraud in December 2019 and was sentenced in January 2021.

Shady History

Concerns about Tirrell’s financial dealings surfaced long before his first federal conviction. As early as 1997, advertisers who trusted him paid for tickets to the Mike Tyson–Evander Holyfield fight that never materialized, while separate Super Bowl travel packages also proved nonexistent, according to a 2019 investigation by the Des Moines Register.

By 2019, civil judgments against Tirrell in central Iowa reportedly totaled about $2 million, excluding bankruptcy proceedings and disputes settled outside court.

Tirrell was released from prison in January 2023 and began the latest scheme about 13 months later, while still serving his three-year term of federal supervised release.

Unlike the earlier prosecution, which ended in a guilty plea, Tirrell took the latest case to trial. He will be sentenced at a later date and faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison on each count.