Tom Shaer has asked himself several times this week: "Should I have said something?"

Mr. Shaer, the former sports talk host at WSCR-AM 670, had dealings with David Hernandez during the 1990s and knew all about him being convicted for wire fraud in 1998, resulting in a 34-month sentence.

Mr. Shaer, though, said he didn't think it was his place to tell Mike North about Mr. Hernandez's past. Mr. North signed Mr. Hernandez's company, NextStep Medical Staffing, as the title sponsor for his "Monsters in the Morning" show on Comcast SportsNet and worked with him to help form Chicagosportswebio.com, an Internet sports talk station.

The station shut down Tuesday in the wake of SEC allegations that it was funded through a Ponzi scheme run by Mr. Hernandez that bilked investors out of $11 million. The SEC lawsuit filed Monday made Mr. Hernandez's previous conviction public.

Wednesday, the U.S. attorney's office issued an arrest warrant for Mr. Hernandez after charging him with wire fraud.

"I know Mike North and I consider him a friend," Mr. Shaer said. "However, I know if I had made that call, it wouldn't have been well-received. I didn't want to mess up Mike's deal. It seemed to be going fine. If there's one lesson I've learned in the media business — and it has taken me a long time to learn this lesson — it's that I should keep my nose out of other people's business."

Besides, Mr. Shaer said he had no reason to believe Mr. Hernandez wasn't running a legitimate business.

"He had deals with Comcast SportsNet, the White Sox, the Bears," Mr. Shaer said. "I didn't think they would get involved with the guy unless he had some sort of financial legitimacy."

Mr. Shaer's relationship with Mr. Hernandez began during his days at WSCR in the 1990s. He described Mr. Hernandez as a "Score groupie." He would hang out at remotes and frequently called in to the station, identifying himself as "Banker Dave."

Mr. Shaer met Mr. Hernandez through Mr. North. He recalled at a party at Mr. North's house in 1996...

This story is getting worse by the day!

By that, I hope you mean: getting more awesome by the day...

Why would David Hernandez be at a party at North's house in 1996? That's bad news for Mike.

This just keeps getting weirder.

And by that, I hope you mean me having to really hurry it up in terms of getting the rights to this story and starting my own Ponzi scheme to finance the production of the movie. Rack me.

comment left on Shermans blog:
Frederick S. wrote:
Thanks Mr. Shaer for keeping your mouth shut. Did you ever think about the people who have now lost their life savings and their homes because of this. You also perpetrated Mike North's lies about not knowing Hernandez until recently. After all now we all know you met him through North at North's house in 1996. He did a mortgage for North before you. Your friend North is a liar and Dan Jiggets will be found out in the near future also.

Show me some mahogany furnishings and I'm in.

He was gonna tell someone...but he had shredded wheat in his mouth

Also if you fuck someone like they are a millionaire they might go try to be one.

that's pretty damn funny...

He was gonna tell someone...but he had shredded wheat in his mouth

Seems sort of odd that Shear would out of nowhere come up and speak - really puts the screws to North. Almost if he had an axe to grind with mikey - and saw an opportunity to to drive the axe home.

I smell a bit....

Seems like as good a time as any to resurrect this one:

Well, well, well . . . a party at North's house in '96?

This story changes hour-by-hour, doesn't it?