Eric Aronson, indicted in Ponzi scheme, back in jail

A Syosset man accused of multiple frauds was back in jail Friday, a week after he failed to surrender on new charges and after a mysterious hospitalization.

Eric Aronson, 43, had been indicted in April with two other men as part of an alleged $26 million Ponzi scheme. He had been out on bail until he surrendered in federal court in Central Islip on Nov. 26 to face new fraud charges.

At the time, U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Spatt revoked his bail, but then gave him until Nov. 30 to surrender.

Aronson did not appear on Nov. 30, and prosecutors said in court Friday that he had been found unconscious at 8 p.m. that day at a hotel in Suffolk County, according to Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.

The prosecutors told Spatt that Aronson was hospitalized and remained in the unidentified hospital until this Friday morning, according to Nardoza, who declined to comment further.

Aronson's attorney, Randy Zelin of Garden City, declined to comment Friday.

The charges in April alleged that Aronson and two other men promised investors up to 400 percent interest in a business that imported paving stones from Australia.

Last month, Aronson was charged with defrauding a California man out of $25,000 by falsely claiming he could market the businessman's health food bars on the "Dr. Oz" television show.

Aronson was sentenced to 40 months prison in 2000 for securities fraud, court records show.