MARLBOROUGH, Mass.,
Sept. 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/
-- Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Lemelson,
the Chief Investment Officer of Lemelson Capital Management, today
responded to a civil complaint filed by the United States
Securities and Exchange Commission in the
United States District Court of Massachusetts, Boston Division. In its
complaint, the Commission alleges that Fr. Emmanuel engaged in
violations of the federal securities laws in connection with
transactions in the securities of Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc.
(NASDAQ: LGND), a U.S.-based publicly-traded pharmaceutical
company.
This matter, the likes of which the Commission has never
previously brought, has no merit and amounts to a gross abuse of prosecutorial
discretion. Fr. Emmanuel intends to vigorously contest the
allegations and to demonstrate that the Commission's claims are
contaminated by the misconduct of the staff of its Enforcement
Division.
"The Commission chose to bring this case based upon its
Enforcement staff's personal feelings and facts be damned,
win-at-any-cost ambitions which have allowed it to 'make up the
rules' as they go along. The government's
claims are false and will be proven to be so," Lemelson
said.
"The action is an effort to destroy the reputation of a
whistleblower, who provided factually accurate and critical
information concerning an alleged massive multi-year accounting
fraud at Ligand Pharmaceuticals," Lemelson added.
On July 27, 2018 Ligand
was sued for $3.8
billion by investors in eight bond funds, including
Citadel,1 this followed multiple class-action lawsuits,
alleging securities fraud, filed against Ligand beginning in
2016.2
"We are looking forward to defending this matter, exploring the
possibility of bringing a complaint against the SEC and to setting
a precedent that will prevent this sort of meritless action from
being brought in the future," Lemelson continued.
Separately, Fr. Emmanuel recently released a letter he has
provided members of The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform, The U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging and
the SEC Office of the Inspector General, further outlining
extensive alleged abuses of accounting, pharmaceutical
reimbursement and classification guidelines and regulations by
Ligand Pharmaceuticals. In the letter, Lemelson urged the
Committees in both the House and the Senate to commence an
investigation into these alleged abuses, as well as the Securities
and Exchange Commission's (SEC) failure to stop them.
Lemelson's full July 17, 2018
letter to Congress is available online here:
https://amvona.com/featured/finding-alpha/item/43521-rev-fr-emmanuel-lemelson-calls-on-congress-office-of-inspector-general-to-investigate-sec-failures
His December 2016 letter to the
U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, regarding the company, is
available online here:
https://amvona.com/featured/finding-alpha/item/43503-lantern-foundation-founder-urges-senate-committee-to-commence-investigation-into-ligand-pharmaceuticals
About Rev. Fr. Emmanuel
Lemelson:
Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Lemelson is the
Chief investment officer of Lemelson Capital Management, LLC a
Massachusetts based investment
management firm.
For more information, see:
https://www.lemelsoncapital.com/
For further information, please contact:
Lemelson Capital Management, LLC
Investor and Media Relations
Telephone: 508-630-2281
1 Read more online here:
https://amvona.com/featured/finding-alpha/item/43522-investors-sue-ligand-pharmaceuticals-for-3-8-billion
2 The lawsuits made substantially the same claims as The
Lemelson Capital Management, LLC 2014 reports.
View original
content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fr-emmanuel-lemelson-responds-to-sec-charges-300711622.html
SOURCE Lemelson Capital Management, LLC