Yesterday, United States District Court Judge John R. Padova entered an Order granting in full Asensio & Company, Inc.’s (“Asensio”) Motion to Dismiss. Judge Padova further ordered that all pending motions are dismissed and that Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc.’s (Symbol: HEB) (Price: $7.375) case against Asensio is closed.
Hemispherx is a Stratton Oakmont stock fraud controlled by William A. Carter who has been charged with medical and scientific fraud and is being investigated for stock fraud. Since September 30, 1998, Hemispherx has used the legal services of Michael A. Walsh and David C. Franceski to harass Asensio, its employees and clients. The purpose of this harassment was to attempt to discredit and silence Asensio. Asensio was not discouraged and actively followed HEB even while the action was pending. The most recent example is on March 17, 2000 when Asensio reported that Hemispherx had issued misleading HIV treatment reports that had caused HEB’s shares to trade as high as $19.
Asensio is an institutional investment bank specializing in corporate valuations and equity research. Asensio also specializes in investigating and short selling stock promotions and publishing research on companies it identifies as grossly overvalued. A complete documented history of Asensio’s published work with overly promoted securities, and the firm’s definition of gross overvaluation, is available at www.asensio.com. Asensio was recently the target of six lawsuits by subjects of Asensio’s research. These companies’ stocks declined by an average of 88% after the Asensio reports. All six lawsuits have now been either dismissed or settled. Asensio has never retracted any statement or paid any amount to settle any of these suits.
Short selling involves a risk not associated with the purchase of stock including, but not only limited to, unlimited loss and stock borrowing risks. Additional information is available upon request.