Irwin H. "Sonny" Bloch (March 1, 1937 - March 10, 1998) was an American financial

talk radio Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues and consisting entirely or almost entirely of original spoken word content rather than outside music. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often featur ...

show host from 1980 to 1995 who defrauded investors of more than $24 million.

Career

Sonny Bloch was a lounge singer who dovetailed his career into a fifteen-year career as a financial talk radio host heard on over 170 stations in the U.S including

WOR-AM WOR (710 AM) is a 50,000-watt class A clear-channel AM radio station owned by iHeartMedia and licensed to New York, New York. The station airs a mix of local and syndicated talk radio shows, primarily from co-owned Premiere Networks, includi ...

and WMCA-AM in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. ''The Sonny Bloch Show'' featured such prominent guests as

Chemical Bank Chemical Bank was a bank with headquarters in New York City from 1824 until 1996. At the end of 1995, Chemical was the third-largest bank in the U.S., with about $182.9 billion in assets and more than 39,000 employees around the world. Beginning ...

's Irwin Kellner and

Federal Reserve The Federal Reserve System (often shortened to the Federal Reserve, or simply the Fed) is the central banking system of the United States of America. It was created on December 23, 1913, with the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, after a ...

Chairman

Alan Greenspan Alan Greenspan (born March 6, 1926) is an American economist who served as the 13th chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006. He works as a private adviser and provides consulting for firms through his company, Greenspan Associates LLC. ...

Fraud schemes

Bloch, his son, and associates had allegedly been involved in a variety of investment fraud schemes. One scheme sold interest in gold bars that were actually painted ordinary metal bars. Many of his investment recommendations caused his listeners to lose millions of dollars because the true financial viability of the schemes were improperly hidden from investors. Many of the investment scheme's backers paid to appear on the Sonny Bloch Show and conspired with Bloch to hide the fact that many of these involved companies that were already failing. One scheme solicited paid "memberships" with the proceeds used to pay for the purchase of a group of radio stations in Florida and Connecticut. Another pivotal scheme for which Bloch was indicted involved the sale of unregistered shares over the radio, which is illegal. In his later radio career, allegedly illegitimate wireless cable investment schemes were heavily promoted on his radio show. Bloch was also indicted for

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the taxp ...

Flight from prosecution

Shortly after the indictments Bloch fled to the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

in 1995 where his wife owned property.

Incarceration and death

Bloch was captured and deported back to the United States in 1995. He pleaded guilty to seven counts of tax evasion and perjury. After serving two years in federal custody, Bloch was found to be in the advanced stages of cancer. He was allowed to return home and died in 1998.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bloch, Sonny American talk radio hosts 1998 deaths 1937 births