(AP) — A businessman and web radio promoter charged with swindling 290 victims out of $3.5 million in a Ponzi scheme has pleaded not guilty but says he has retained an attorney who specializes in plea bargaining.
David Hernandez appeared for arraignment Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Cox. His attorney, John Meyer, said he was merely standing in for Jeffrey Steinback — a prominent plea agreement specialist Hernandez has retained.
The 48-year-old Hernandez is charged with promising victims big returns on investments he never made, instead paying them with money from other investors.
He founded the now-defunct ChicagoSportsWebio.com, an Internet sports talk station that signed Mike North, Chet Coppock and Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini as hosts.
Reports surfaced that checks were bouncing for Webio employees and the Federal Bureau of Investigation had searched Mr. Hernandez’s office in the Loop. Mr. Hernandez is chief executive of NextStep Medical Staffing Inc., among other companies.
The SEC on June 15 filed suit against Mr. Hernandez, his five companies and his wife, charging Mr. Hernandez, a convicted felon, of three counts of violating the securities act and one count of violating the exchange act.
The SEC suit disclosed that Mr. Hernandez was sentenced to 34 months in prison in 1998 after a wire fraud conviction, that he and his wife filed for bankruptcy in 2004, 2005 and 2006, and that he did not as he claimed have a bachelor’s or master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin or a law degree from John Marshall School of Law.
A federal judge temporarily froze Mr. Hernandez’s assets as well as those of his companies on June 15. That same morning, he met with ChicagoSportsWebio.com employees to assure them that the station had a strong future and that he would return in the afternoon, but later that day he was reported missing by his wife, Gina. He was taken into custody a week later.
On June 17, the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Hernandez and issued a warrant for his arrest.
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