SEC settles with former CyberCare officers
South Florida Business Journal - 5:16 PM EST Wednesdayby John T. Fakler
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced March 22 that on March 16, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered final judgments of permanent injunctions against former CyberCare Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Michael Morrell, former President John Haines and Paul Bornstein, an outside analyst that covered the company.
The telemedicator was based in Boynton Beach until it relocated to the Tampa Bay area.
Morrell and Haines consented to the entry of an injunction against future securities fraud violations, and were ordered to pay $110,000 and $55,000 in civil penalties, respectively.
Additionally, Morrell was prohibited from acting as an officer or director and Haines' final judgment prohibits him from acting as an officer or director for five years.
In 2004, the SEC said CyberCare lied in its public filings.
The company gave false or misleading information, the SEC said at the time, adding it had also filed an order instituting cease-and-desist proceedings against the company.
As per a previous settlement, the SEC said CyberCare, then listed in the Pink Sheets under the stock ticker CYBR, consented to the entry of the cease and desist order. However, the SEC noted, the company did not admit or deny SEC findings.
From October 1999 through May 2000, the SEC said, CyberCare issued a series of false and misleading press releases that announced agreements that were non-existent or grossly exaggerated or made projections regarding future orders that the SEC said lacked any reasonable basis.
In 2003, the South Florida Business Journal reported that CyberCare, once a South Florida Internet darling with a stock price of $40 a share, was no longer doing business at its Boynton Beach headquarters.
The company has since regrouped in Tampa Bay area. It filed for bankruptcy in October 2004 as part of a strategy to get back in business, the Tampa Bay Business Journal quoted Scott Stichter, the Tampa lawyer representing CyberCare, as saying. |
