Webio Founder Given 16 Year Prison Sentence

By Richard Gibson
Jan 15 2011

David Hernandez, founder of Webio, was given a 16 year prison sentence for fraud on Friday in US District Court.

The rise and fall of Hernandez is very similar to Bernie Madoff, the famed scammer currently serving a 150 year sentence in federal prison. Hernandez was at the top of the business world for several years before he was found to be scamming his investors.

Starting in 2007 Hernandez founded Corporate Medical Staffing. By all accounts it was a successful medical staffing company. With the profits from that company Hernandez founded Webio, an online radio broadcasting company that featured Mike North, the famous sports radio personality.

In 2009 things started to come apart for Hernandez. The basis of Corporate Medical Staffing was proven to be a fraud. Hernandez was pulling in investors based on a plan to return 10-16% each month from a payday loan business. With each new investor he was paying off the previous investors.

When the scheme was completely uncovered Hernandez fled. He ended up in a Super 8 motel in Illinois where he attempted suicide. The police were called and Hernandez was saved from the attempt and he was then arrested on fraud charges.

During the trial it was discovered that Hernandez was a repeat offender, having served time for embezzling $600,000 from customers at a Chicago bank branch where he was employed for a short time.

The judge in the case ordered that Hernandez pay restitution once he has completed his prison sentence.