November 2008

11.26.08
Ticket Scam Employees Arrested in London

Five employees of Xclusive Leisure & Hospitality Limited (XLH), the company behind beijingticketing.com, the most notorious of the scam Olympics tickets websites, have been arrested by investigators from Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO). According to reports, the five included Terence Shepherd, the man thought by many to be the brains behind XLH and a number of other suspected scam ticket sites, his wife, Xclusive director Alan Scott, former company secretary Gert Van Meel, and a man named Richard Nicholas. The five were interviewed and then released on bail. The arrests followed the search of three residential and one business property, and according to the SFO are part of an ongoing investigation into the activities of Xclusive Leisure & Hospitality. In what is considered an unusual move, the SFO has appealed to the public for information, asking that anyone who feels they were defrauded by XLH or one of their websites contact them with details. To contact the SFO, go here. To read more about the arrests, go here, here, and here...

11.10.08
Families of Canada’s Winter Olympians Guaranteed Tickets

Of the many ticketing problems to surface at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, one of the more disturbing was the difficulties parents of Olympic athletes had obtaining tickets to see their children compete. To solve that problem for Canadian athletes at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, Petro Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee have established a program to guarantee not just event tickets but also lodging to Olympians’ family members. Some Olympics families are hoping to extend such programs to the 2012 Summer Olympics and beyond. For more on this, go here...