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‘Wonder Blunder’ promoter’s sentencing set for next week

DENNIS ODA / 2016

Marc Hubbard says he didn’t defraud anybody and that his October 2016 guilty plea was coerced.

A federal judge denied today a request from the key figure in the University of Hawaii Stevie Wonder concert fiasco to withdraw his guilty plea.

Former North Carolina nightclub owner and self-styled concert promoter Marc Hubbard says he didn’t defraud anybody and that his October 2016 guilty plea was coerced. One day before he was to be sentenced to wire fraud last month, he said he wanted to withdraw his guilty plea.

U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi denied the request and scheduled sentencing for next week.

The North Carolina man had previously admitted to defrauding the University of Hawaii of $200,000 in 2012 by lying about being able to produce a Stevie Wonder fundraising concert.

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