AMPD Mangement backgrounds:"Harris Freedman and Sharon Will, who have been vice presidents of Hemispherx Biopharma Inc. (AMEX: HEB) since 1994, and a former Hemispherx board
member, Stephen J. Drescher, have been associated with three of the companies
named in a press release announcing the October 2, 1998 New York State
Attorney General stock-manipulation indictment. Hemispherx was one of the named
companies. Mr. Freedman, Ms. Will, and Mr. Drescher, along with Hemispherx's
underwriters, are as a group connected to a number of other companies associated
with fraudulent activities.
Mr. Freedman and Ms. Will, either directly or indirectly, controlled substantial
amounts of Netsmart Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTST) and Big City Bagels,
Inc. (NASDAQ: VILN) stock before their respective 1996 initial public offerings.
Monroe Parker Securities, Inc., one of the indictment's named defendants,
underwrote the Big City Bagels and Netsmart IPOs. Mr. Drescher was a board
member of Big City Bagels and was Monroe Parker's Director of Corporate
Finance at the time it took those companies public. Both Netsmart and Big City
Bagels were named in the stock-manipulation release.
Mr. Freedman and Mr. Drescher have also both been corporate officers and
shareholders of MusicSource USA Inc. (OTC: MUSS), which was delisted by
NASDAQ in April 1995 and last traded on April 30, 1999 at 4 cents. Mr.
Drescher served as MusicSource's president from February 1994 until November
1996. Mr. Freedman had been a vice president at MusicSource from October
1992 until January 1994. According to a September 1996 report in the Palm Beach
Post, five stockbrokers pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from a stock promoter in
exchange for persuading clients to buy stocks in several companies, including
MusicSource. In September 1998, according to a report in the Orange County
Register, the U.S. Attorney's Office charged ten additional brokers with accepting
bribes to sell stocks including
MusicSource." |
