Lake County man gets six years for bilking investors

A former Lake County man was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison for defrauding investors out of roughly $1.6 million.

William Block, 54, most recently of Lake Forest, has been in custody since his arrest in 2008. Block did not admit guilt, but conceded the government could prove his guilt at a hearing earlier this month, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said between 2002 and 2008 Block operated the scheme bilking at least 20 investors out of amounts as high as hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Block was ordered to forfeit $1.6 million and pay $1.9 million in restitution in addition to his 75-month prison sentence.

Prosecutors said Block used the investors’ money to fund a lavish lifestyle that included cigars, limousine service, clothing, travel, wine, trips, rounds of golf, a $2,600 watch and “payments to a girlfriend.”