2 Valley Men Indicted in Investment Scheme

Four Los Angeles men, including two from the San Fernando Valley, have been indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly operating a $12-million Ponzi scheme in which a radio investment talk-show host promoted phony wireless cable companies.

The men collected funds solicited by teams of telemarketers but used most of the money for their own personal expenses and for gambling in Las Vegas, Assistant U.S. Atty. Aaron S. Dyer said.

The indictment said the men worked with the late Irwin H. “Sonny” Block, a radio talk-show host who persuaded hundreds of investors, mostly retirees, to plunge their savings into the companies from 1993 to 1995.

Block, his son and five others pleaded guilty in 1996 in a New Jersey federal court and were sentenced to prison. Block was released in September 1997 and died March 10, 1998.

Dyer said the investigation has continued, leading to the indictment handed down late Thursday.

Named in the indictment were alleged ringleader Ronald Henry Michel of Pacific Palisades, William Richard Horne of Los Angeles, Stephen Regen of Tarzana and Daniel Kelly of Canoga Park.

The suspects, who worked out of offices over a tony restaurant in Santa Monica, are expected to be arrested next week, Dyer said.

The grand jury charged the men with 60 counts of mail and wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy and others offenses.

Prior to 1993, Michel and Horne operated Golden Oak Numismatics, a telemarketing operation that sold gold coins, Dyer said. The Federal Trade Commission in 1991 imposed a civil injunction against Michel, prohibiting him from participating in telemarketing or investment sales businesses, Dyer said.

However, a brother-in-law of Michel later allegedly supplied telemarketing services for the wireless cable promotions, Dyer said.