Mr. Carton sought the investments last year around the time he also accrued millions of dollars’ worth of gambling debts to casinos and other parties, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a civil complaint filed on Wednesday.

Continue reading the main story The station’s owner, CBS Radio, said it had suspended Mr. Carton pending an investigation and was cooperating with the authorities.

The acting United States attorney in Manhattan, Joon H. Kim, said Mr. Carton and his co-defendant, Michael Wright, “deceived investors and raised millions of dollars through misrepresentation and outright lies.”

As Mr. Carton left the courthouse, wearing a white sweatshirt with the hood pulled down, he was swarmed by camera crews and a larger crowd of reporters, who chased him as he zigzagged down the block.

Mr. Carton provided to one investor fake agreements for entities that he or an associate controlled to buy millions of dollars’ worth of tickets to forthcoming concerts by Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Roger Waters, Metallica and Barbra Streisand, the S.E.C.