Cocrystal Pharma, Inc. (COCP) charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in fraudulent stock scheme
Shareholder rights law firm Robbins LLP announces that purchasers of Cocrystal Pharma, Inc. (COCP) (formerly known as BioZone Pharmaceuticals, Inc.) filed a class action complaint against the company’s officers and directors for alleged violations of the Securities Act of 1934 between September 23, 2013 and September 7, 2018. According to the recently filed complaint, BioZone was created in June 2011 through a reverse merger by a group of investors whose fraudulent stock manipulation scheme ultimately caused significant harm to unsuspecting investors. The controlling shareholders of BioZone engaged a stock promoter to tout Opko Health’s CEO Phillip Frost’s involvement in BioZone in exchange for below-market price BioZone shares.
Then, on January 3, 2014, BioZone announced it had finalized its merger with Cocrystal Discovery Inc., forming Cocrystal Pharma on April 15, 2014. Thereafter, Cocrystal Pharma repeatedly assured investors regarding the accuracy of its financial reporting, the disclosure of any material changes to the company’s internal control over financial reporting and the disclosure of all fraud. It therefore came as a surprise, when, on September 7, 2018, the SEC charged 10 individuals, including Cocrystal Pharma Director Phillip Frost and the controlling shareholders of BioZone, for participating in long-running fraudulent schemes that generated over $27 million from unlawful stock sales and caused significant harm to retail investors. On this news, shares of Cocrystal fell more than 15% over two days to close at $3.16 on September 11, 2018, and now trades at around $2.40.
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