Florida Sportstalker bilked investors

98.1 FM "Sports radio talk show host Charles "Scott" McKinney will serve at least a year and a day in prison for bilking investors out of more than $100,000.

• McKinney pleaded guilty Friday to nine counts of theft and one count each of
• organized fraud,
• money laundering and
• racketeering, prosecutor Russ Edgar said. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 24.

• Eight of the theft charges involved money taken from investors in McKinney's
• Southern Sports Tonight radio program.

• The ninth involved McKinney using his ex-fiancé's credit card to steal about $10,000 from her, Edgar said.

Edgar said the plea arrangement, which could land McKinney in state prison for up to five years and calls for "no less than a year and a day," was designed so he would not serve his sentence in a county jail....

McKinney, 42, of Santa Rosa Beach, works for Star Broadcasting as a commentator for 98.1 FM The Ticket sports talk radio. He co-hosts "The Morning Wrap" weekday mornings and "Southern Sports Tonight" weekday afternoons. He was originally arrested on the fraud and theft charges in March.

• Ron Hale, owner of Star Broadcasting, said McKinney will remain on the air until the sentencing hearing.

• "We won't pull him off the air," Hale said.

Edgar said the state was prepared to prove at trial that McKinney had sold more than double the number of investment shares than existed in Southern Sports Tonight

• by convincing clients he was going to syndicate his program nationally.

McKinney told investors he needed money to buy broadcast equipment, investigators said. Edgar said McKinney spent the funds he received on himself."...via Radio Daily News

• 98.1 Sportstalk the Ticket website

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