Felon admits lying about AIDS cure in press releases
NEW YORK, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The president of New Technologies & Concepts, a unit of Uniprime Capital Acceptance <UPCA.OB>, pleaded guilty on Thursday to securities fraud for issuing press releases last year that falsely claimed his Las Vegas company had developed a cure for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS.
Alfred Flores, 50, admitted during his plea hearing that not only was the AIDS cure claim false, but that he had been in prison for conspiracy to commit murder at the time the release said he was conducting research and testing the drug on patients.
The three false press releases issued in June and July of 1999 caused the stock of Uniprime Capital to jump sharply from 62 cents a share to a peak of $7.93 a share on the over-the-counter Bulletin Board market.
After it became known the press releases were fraudulent, Uniprime's stock price fell dramatically. Its shares now trade for less than one cent a share.
The New Technologies press releases had touted Flores' background and his development of the supposed AIDS cure called "Plasma Plus." The releases said Flores, an honors graduate of University of Madrid, had been doing research for the past 15 years at his own laboratory in Portugal.
The releases also said that during 1990 Flores had conducted tests on patients in Madrid that resulted in a complete reversal of the patients' HIV infections "with no reintroduction of the virus after a period of almost 18 months."
However, Flores admitted that not only had he never attended the University of Madrid, but during 1983 to September 1992 when he was supposedly conducting immunology research and testing Plasma Plus on patients, he was incarcerated in Colorado following his conspiracy conviction.
Flores, who is scheduled to be sentenced in Manhattan federal court on April 6, faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
18:53 12-21-00
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm |
