Ex-Record Promoter Gets Probation in Payola Case

U.S. District Court Judge William J. Rea on Monday sentenced William Craig, a former independent record promoter, to five years’ probation and 100 hours of community service and fined him $60,000 after his conviction on payola and tax evasion charges.

Craig, 44, of Scottsdale, Ariz., was one of four people indicted on payola charges by a Los Angeles federal grand jury in February, 1988. At time of the indictment, then-U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner called it the nation’s most significant payola case since the early 1970s. Craig, who pleaded guilty in October, had faced up to three years in prison for one count of failing to disclose payola payments and two counts of assisting in preparation of a false income tax return. But the prosecutor did not urge that he be imprisoned. Another defendant, Ralph Tashjian of San Mateo, was sentenced earlier this month to five years’ probation and 500 hours of community service and was fined $100,000.