So just who bought Repros Therapeutics (RPRX) units in that amazing offering in early February? Tough to say, but looking through the February 2011 filings, the biggest buyer appears to be Joe Edelman‘s Perceptive Advisors. As of the end of 2010 they held no RPRX, but are now the biggest shareholders in Repros with a 12.28% stake.
Edelman used to work for Paramount Capital, run by the colorful Lindsay Rosenwald. Some readers, familiar with the world of bio-dreck are no doubt also familiar with Lindsay, as well as his early 90s employer, famed bucket shop D.H. Blair. Read about Blair here and here and here and the 173 count indictment against them here and here. Lindsay’s father-in-law, the even more colorful penny stock king Morty Davis, was the founder of D.H. Blair. Read about him here. Lindsay himself has quite the ego. Check out his vanity sites here, here and, of course, here.
According to ZONA/RPRX filings from the mid 90s Lindsay and Paramount were ZONA shareholders. Lindsay even had one of his employees sit on the Board of Directors of ZONA. This is not Joe Edelman’s first time holding Repros shares. Back in 2002, Edelman held an 8% position in the company. Check out the filing here.
Back in 2009, Perceptive got into a little trouble with the SEC for violations of a obscure rule known as 105M. Read about that here.
Frankly, the rule 105M violation is pretty petty. It is only significant for our purposes because the second largest holder of Repros, a fund called Quoque Capital, also got busted by the SEC for the same violations in 2008. Read about that here.
Quogue appears to have bought a 10.29% stake in Repros in February. This is not Quogue‘s first dance with Repros either. They were big holders for a while in 2006 as well.
Another big holder in RPRX, through the offering, with 7.38%, is Steven Oliveira. Steve keeps a fairly low profile, but he is well known to fans of Chinese reverse merger stocks. According to his bio from the China Broadband Inc. (CBBD) filings, Steve is part of the Chardan crew, a shop responsible for foisting a ton of SPACs onto the market. SPACs that more often than not did reverse mergers with junk Chinese companies that either could not do a proper IPO or did not want the scrutiny that comes from one. More interestingly, Steve learned the bio-dreck trade at none other than D. Blech & Co.
“On November 29, 2010, the Board of Directors of the Company appointed Steven Oliveira as a members of the Board of Directors of the Company. Mr. Oliveira has been Chief Investment Officer of Chardan SPAC Asset Management, LLC since 2008, and President of Oliveira Capital, LLC since its inception in 2002, with a focus on investments in Asia, biotechnology and Special Purpose Acquisition Companies. In 1995, while a Managing Partner at CSO Ventures, Mr. Oliveira co-founded DepoMed, Inc. and Siga Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Oliveira’s career in biotechnology began in 1992 as a Vice President at D. Blech and Company, an investment bank that specialized in financing emerging companies in the life sciences sector.”
We examined the ugly history of D.Blech and Co. in our explorations of Echo Therapeutics (ECTE) bankers LifeTech Capital here.
So in just one unit offering we get DH Blair / Lindsay Rosenwald / Paramount alumni and a D. Blech & Co. veteran. Imagine the possibilities!
Oh, and way back when, Stevie O. shows up as a selling shareholder in the Echo/Sontra filings too…
Now isn’t that a small world!