SEC ac­cus­es biotech bil­lion­aire Phillip Frost of join­ing a 'pump-and-dump' scheme that net­ted $27M

Over the years Phillip Frost has ac­quired quite a rep­u­ta­tion in biotech. He chaired Te­va, man­ages Op­ko Health — and now has to con­tend with ac­cu­sa­tions from the SEC that he ac­tive­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in a scheme to pump up biotech share prices in or­der to reap mil­lions in wind­fall prof­its ahead of their col­lapse.

Ac­cord­ing to the SEC, Bar­ry Honig led an ef­fort to pump up the share prices of three com­pa­nies — iden­ti­fied by the Wall Street Jour­nal as Bio­Zone Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, MGT Cap­i­tal In­vest­ments and Mab­Vax — pay­ing for ar­ti­cles in Seek­ing Al­pha that tout­ed their po­ten­tial. Frost, says the SEC, par­tic­i­pat­ed in two out of the three pump-and-dumps.

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