Nature Biotechnology
19, 5 (2001)
doi:10.1038/83524
Blech settles with SECEric NiilerUS Federal officials have settled a civil lawsuit with David Blech, barring the former biotechnology financier from being associated with a broker or dealer. In the early 1990s, Blech bankrolled such startup firms as GeneMedicine (Woodlands, TX), Incyte Genomics (Palo Alto, CA), and Guilford Pharmaceuticals (Baltimore, MD), until news of his own financial woes in 1994 caused several, including Parnassus (San Francisco, CA), to collapse (Nat. Biotechnol.
15, 23−26, 1997). The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in a civil suit filed in 1999, accused Blech of unlawful and unauthorized trading, and sought the return of illegal profits from Blech's "massive manipulative scheme designed to increase and/or stabilize the prices" of companies he was involved in. In the December 2000 settlement of the case, the government has waived civil penalties because Blech is unable to pay. In a separate criminal trial in 1998, Blech pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges and was sentenced to a five-year term of probation.
|
