Craig Carton is adamant he's not the scumbag con artist he's being made out to be -- claiming he's an innocent victim who was set up by a group of very bad people.
Carton was arrested by the FBI this week and accused of running a multi-million dollar concert ticket scam to pay back millions of dollars in debts to various casinos.
But a rep for the sports radio star says he's NOT A BAD GUY -- the feds simply have a "gross misunderstanding of what happened."
A rep for Carton didn't provide too many details about his defense -- but would only say he's not going down without a fight.