Bleidt's wife denies knowing of scam

Local broadcast business reporter Bonnie Kirchner Bleidt said she didn't know anything about the alleged 20-year investment scam by her husband, Bradford C. Bleidt, before she received Bleidt's taped confession last Thursday at her office at radio station WBIX-AM, which he owns.

"Brad is obviously a very troubled person who, for reasons that only he knows, caused an enormous amount of damage to a lot of people," she said in a statement. It was her first public comment since Bleidt's failed suicide attempt and confession last week, in which he admitted to stealing millions of dollars from clients of his investment firm.

"I can't tell you how much I wish I had some idea of what was going on so that I might have acted to prevent it," she said. Kirchner Bleidt, who has been suspended from freelance business reporting for WBZ4 television and UPN 38 pending the completion of the investigations, said, "What happened here is tragic, as much because of the havoc he wreaked on the lives of his clients, employees, and family as the destruction he brought to himself. I first learned of the illegal activities Brad has confessed to me when I listened to the taped confession that Brad made expressly for me."

He also sent recorded confessions to his mother, the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and a brokerage firm with which he did business.

She added that she is cooperating with authorities. "My heart goes out to all of these innocent victims," she said.

Kirchner Bleidt worked closely with her husband's varied business interests. She is president of FP Insurance Agency, worked as a financial planner with Financial Perspectives Planning Services Inc. -- both Bleidt businesses -- and has been president of WBIX and cohosted a show there.

Karen Schwartzman, a spokeswoman for Kirchner Bleidt, said, "She's very anxious to get back to work."

Meanwhile, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the state Division of Insurance have joined the inquiry into the financial adviser and radio entrepreneur's alleged theft of millions of dollars from investment clients over 20 years, according to a law enforcement official and insurance officials.

The SEC yesterday asked a judge to order the 50-year-old Manchester-by-the-Sea resident to surrender his passport to prevent the possibility he might flee the country. "One of the potential ways defendant Bleidt may be able to dissipate assets is by traveling out of the country," said the SEC in a motion before Judge Nancy Gertner in US District Court.

The SEC also asked Gertner to appoint Boston attorney David A. Vicinanzo as a receiver to ensure that any assets Bleidt might have -- including his ownership of WBIX-AM, the all-business-news radio station -- be preserved and possibly used to repay victims of his confessed 20-year investment fraud.

Bleidt is believed to be in a Boston-area hospital recovering from injuries suffered after a botched suicide attempt last week. He sent recorded messages confessing to stealing millions in assets from investment clients to his wife, the SEC, a brokerage, and other family members before trying to kill himself. The incident occurred just hours after Bleidt left a gala party a week ago celebrating WBIX's move to 24-hour broadcasting.

In the messages, Bleidt said he diverted client funds to a secret personal bank account and used new money to repay clients who asked for payouts. The fraud came undone when St. Demetrios Church in Weston asked for repayment of $1.5 million he was supposedly investing for the institution, and he was unable to come up with the money, according to his tapes and regulators investigating the incident.

The FBI joins the SEC and the office of Secretary of State William F. Galvin, which have been investigating the alleged fraud, possibly totaling more than $20 million in stolen assets.

Gail Marcinkiewicz, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Boston office, said the agency would not comment.

Regulators are also investigating whether Bleidt concocted phony annuity plans for clients whom he allegedly bilked.

The Massachusetts Division of Insurance yesterday filed a complaint against Bleidt seeking to revoke or suspend his insurance producer's license, based on the taped confession he sent to the SEC, which was quoted in court documents. Bleidt holds a license to sell insurance in Massachusetts and among his business interests is the FP Insurance Agency Inc. Bleidt also failed to notify the agency, as required, when his broker's license in Maine was revoked in 2001, because he failed to keep his registration current.

Bleidt's suicide attempt and the disclosure of the alleged fraud have put the planned sale of WBIX on hold. Christopher Egan has an agreement to buy WBIX for $7 million. But the SEC is blocking the sale because Bleidt said in the taped confessions that he used money stolen from investment clients to buy the station in 2002.

Shelley Murphy of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Jeffrey Krasner can be reached at krasner@globe.com.