The Jakarta Globe reports the promoter of a now-abandoned Motley Crue concert that seems to have never been remotely likely to occur, has promised to refund all 1,500 tickets sold...at a cost of $60,000.
“On Tuesday, we began paying [fans] back,” said Astri Darmawanti, chief executive of MLive, adding that 100 ticket buyers had already been reimbursed.
Astri’s company was the promoter behind the show, announcing to media outlets, that the rock band would play its first-ever show in Indonesia on October 8.
The band issued a statement on its Web site a day later, saying no agreement for a show “in Jakarta or anywhere else in the country was ever made.” It also warned fans to be wary of any vendors advertising the nonexistent concert.
But by then, tickets had been on sale for more than a month at Rp 350,000 ($40) each.
Astri said her company would return ticket buyers’ money in stages, adding that all would be compensated by the end of October.
Central Jakarta district police chief Lt. Col. Angesta Romano Yoyol said that some angry fans had already reported MLive management to the police for fraud. An investigation is ongoing but no suspects have been named.
Astri insisted that the concert was at one point real and that MLive had even deposited Rp 1 billion as a down payment to the band’s booking agent. The band, she said, had abruptly canceled their show here.
“I am now destroyed. This has turned into an attack against me personally. Even those who didn’t buy the tickets are saying bad things [about me],” Astri said.
Astri’s comments that she allegedly paid a deposit to Crue’s booking agent is interesting: if it turns out to be true, than others are involved in initiating the scam and, you’d think, would be tracked down by the authorities, with her help. If the statement cannot be proven, and no such person exists, that information reveals more than Astri may have wanted to share with the public...and let the chips fall where they may.
Stay tuned.
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See also:
Motley Crue: Indonesian fans scammed out of $60,000
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