NEWARK, NJ—The former senior vice president of marketing at A&P, a U.S. supermarket and liquor store chain, was sentenced today to 36 months in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud A&P by selling for personal gain event tickets that were intended for A&P’s use, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

John R. Moritz, 45, of Mason, Ohio, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty to an information charging him with one count of wire fraud.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

From December 2010 through December 2011, Moritz worked at A&P, a U.S. supermarket and liquor store chain headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey. He arranged for A&P to purchase thousands of tickets to sporting events, concerts and other shows that were to be used to reward high-performing A&P employees and for other legitimate business purposes. However, Moritz resold more than 7,000 tickets to third parties over the Internet, without A&P’s knowledge or consent. Some of these tickets were for the 2011 Super Bowl, the 2011 New York Yankees playoff games and Bon Jovi, Lady Gaga and U2 concerts. He admitted that as a result of his conduct he fraudulently obtained $1,218,192.

In addition to the prison term, Judge McNulty sentenced Moritz to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay restitution of $3.2 million.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI in Newark, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford, for the investigation leading to today’s guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lakshmi Srinivasan Herman of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Economic Crimes Unit in Newark and Evan Weitz of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Unit.