California broker arrested in alleged billion-dollar ticket resale scheme

A California ticket reseller allegedly purchased more than $1 billion worth of tickets to Beyoncé, Post Malone and other major concerts and events, making it harder for fans to get seats without paying exorbitant prices — and now the company is facing an explosive federal lawsuit.

San Diego-based REPS & Company, which describes itself as a “data and technology-focused company in the entertainment industry,” was sued Thursday in a complaint filed by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission.

REPS allegedly purchased more than the ticket limit, typically set at four to eight tickets per buyer, for at least 83,500 events between January 2022 and October 2025, according to the complaint obtained by the California Post.

Many events were in high demand, including concerts by Beyoncé, Luke Bryan and Post Malone.

REPS also purchased tickets to music festivals, comedy shows, professional and collegiate sporting events, rodeo competitions, Broadway shows and touring theater productions.

The company spent more than $1.3 billion to gather more than 18.5 million tickets for those events, generating at least $120.8 million in profits by reselling them on platforms like Stubhub, SeatGeek and other secondary marketplaces, prosecutors alleged.

Secondary ticket marketplaces allow verified ticket sellers to resell their tickets to the public at prices of their choosing.

REPS allegedly generated $833,000 in profits by using 1,300 accounts to purchase 7,624 tickets for a single Beyoncé Renaissance Tour show in Kansas City in 2023, the FTC said.

At least 700 accounts purchased 5,430 tickets to a Pitbull concert in Syracuse, New York in 2024, prosecutors said. REPS then allegedly resold these tickets for a profit of $120,109.

The company and its executives — CEO Ryan Pancheri, President Brian Archibald and COO Nicholas Totagrande — are accused of violating the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, which prohibits anyone from circumventing a website’s online limits on the number of tickets purchased.

The lawsuit seeks to enjoin REPS from violating FTC regulations in the future, impose civil penalties, and award monetary relief.

“The Department of Justice is committed to holding accountable individuals and businesses that drive up the price of event tickets by illegally exceeding ticket purchase limits and reselling illegally obtained tickets at exorbitant markups,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.

“Working alongside the FTC, we will continue to enforce the BOTS Act to protect consumers from such behavior,” he continued.

The company specifically sought tickets whose resale price was expected to far exceed the original price, according to the complaint.

REPS allegedly used data analysis and retrieval software to track information such as artist popularity and touring information, then employees monitored resale trends to determine which events were likely to sell out and which tickets were likely to be the most profitable.

The company circumvented ticket purchase limits on Ticketmaster and other sites by using a team of mostly Philippines-based employees to purchase tickets through accounts created with names, addresses or phone numbers belonging to other people, federal authorities alleged.

“REPS’s entire business model is to attempt to circumvent the ticket purchasing system in order to obtain as many tickets as possible to resell at inflated prices to consumers,” said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.

The company allegedly used IP proxy services and multi-session browsers that mask the account user’s identity and location.

REPS allegedly used the names and addresses of employees and third-party partners to create multiple ticketing accounts – on average 19 per person and up to 40 under a single identity, according to the complaint.

Employees even relied on a “mistake bible” detailing how to bypass Ticketmaster’s security controls, while the company allegedly used thousands of virtual SIM cards and credit cards to bypass restrictions and create more accounts.

Internal documents obtained by the federal government revealed that the company strives to “maximize purchasing efficiency” by “ensuring that accounts used are less likely to be flagged, allowing for smoother and faster transactions.” REPS reportedly regularly tested what types of accounts were likely to be flagged.

“Defendants’ actions harmed consumers who otherwise might have purchased these tickets in the first place from the ticket issuers at lower prices,” the complaint states.

The California Post has contacted REPS for comment.

California lawmakers have tried to crack down on questionable ticket sales practices, including introducing two bills this year that would ban speculative sales of seats that sellers don’t actually own and cap resales at 10 percent. Both have come under scrutiny for potentially favoring Ticketmaster.

The first bill was signed into law, while the second was rejected.

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