Radio Host Must Pay in Fraud Case

A federal judge ordered former radio show host Irwin H. “Sonny” Bloch to pay $3.9 million in a securities fraud case that cost his listeners millions of dollars, regulators said Friday.

U.S. District Judge Allen G. Schwartz in New York issued the order against Bloch, his wife, Hilda Bloch, and six companies involved in the broad investment fraud case.

None of the defendants responded to or presented a defense to charges in the lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC attorney Andrew Geist said.

Schwartz also ordered Bloch and the others not to offer securities or violate federal securities laws in the future. A violation of such an order could lead to criminal penalties.

Bloch, 58, was arrested in May 1995 in the Dominican Republic. He moved there from Tampa, Fla., in March 1995 to broadcast his program, “The Sonny Bloch Show,” as the investigation of his finances intensified. Bloch had broadcast his show six days a week for 15 years from Tampa. Eventually it was syndicated and carried on 170 stations throughout the nation.

The SEC complaint accused Bloch of bilking investors of $3.8 million through the sale of “memberships” in three companies formed to acquire AM radio stations.

Bloch, currently in a New York City jail, also faces federal criminal tax fraud, perjury and obstruction of justice charges in New York and a federal conspiracy and fraud case in New Jersey.

Bloch has denied wrongdoing and accused investigators of violating his constitutional rights.

The judge ordered the Blochs to pay $3.9 million, plus interest, from sale of securities in three companies within a broadcast radio group that Bloch controlled. A decision on civil penalties is pending.