Dr. Phillip Frost, the biotech billionaire accused of playing a role in a pump-and-dump scam, has taken an interesting tack since the allegations came to light: If only the Securities and Exchange Commission had asked him ahead of time, this whole business could have been avoided.
But, according to the SEC’s rules, the commission was well within its rights to blindside the 81-year-old entrepreneur. And things could still get worse for Frost, who has denied the allegations, and for OPKO (OPK), the company he founded.
On Friday, when OPKO was allowed to resume trading on the Nasdaq after a weeklong halt, Frost said in a statement that “it was particularly disturbing that the SEC departed from its own longstanding practice of providing advance notice and a meaningful opportunity to address their questions in advance of filing an action.” Frost and OPKO “would gladly have provided information that would have answered a number of the SEC’s apparent questions,” reads a prior statement from the company, “and filing of this lawsuit against them could have been avoided.”
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