February 1, 2002
The Honorable John J. LaFalce
Ranking Member
Financial Services Committee
2310 Rayburn House Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20515
Re: A Free Market Fair Plan (“FMFP”) for increasing corporate responsibility.
Dear Congressman LaFalce:
A jury is being selected in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Civil Trial Division. I will be tried for publishing 96 words that are allegedly defamatory concerning Hemispherx Biopharma, Inc.’s controversial drug and stock. Hemispherx is the subject of a U.S. General Accounting Office and Securities and Exchange Commission fraud investigation. I have written approximately 40,000 words about Hemispherx in the last three years and four months.
Our economy has been harmed by corporate irresponsibility. Countless billions of hard-earned after-tax American savings have been misallocated to un-worthy endeavors and then lost. American savings can be better protected from those that only harm our free enterprise system.
I ask you; if one man with a small voice is not allowed to speak freely against a company as blatantly questionable as Hemispherx, who can be an effective public adversary of a giant like Enron? No one under current laws.
The solutions to our corporate responsibility problems are more freedom and an expansion of the American way. End the judicial system’s and the SEC’s extraordinary material bias against those investors that oppose corporate misbehavior. Make our capital markets fairer. Let Enron be a great positive to our society. Let history show it was the moment in time when all America stood up for America’s values: freedom, fairness and democracy.
Sincerely,
ASENSIO & COMPANY, INC.
Manuel P. Asensio
Chairman, President and
Chief Executive Officer