UNITED
STATES
SECURITIES
AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington,
D.C. 20549
SCHEDULE
14A
Proxy
Statement Pursuant to Section 14(a) of the
Securities
Exchange Act of 1934
(Amendment No. 1)
Filed
by the Registrant ☒
Filed
by a Party other than the Registrant ☐
Check
the appropriate box:
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Preliminary
Proxy Statement |
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Confidential,
for Use of the Commission Only (as Permitted by Rule
14a-6(e)(2)) |
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Definitive
Proxy Statement |
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Definitive
Additional Materials |
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Soliciting
Material under § 240.14a-12 |
AIM ImmunoTech Inc.
(Name
of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)
(Name
of Person(s) Filing Proxy Statement, if other than the
Registrant)
Payment
of Filing Fee (Check all boxes that apply):
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No
fee required |
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Fee
paid previously with preliminary materials |
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Fee
computed on table in exhibit required by Item 25(b) per Exchange
Act Rules 14a-6(i)(1) and 0-11 |
AMENDMENT
NO. 1 TO DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT
EXPLANATORY
NOTE
The
following information supplements and revises the Definitive Proxy
Statement on Schedule 14A filed by AIM ImmunoTech Inc. (the
“Company” or “AIM”) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission on September 19, 2022 (the “Proxy Statement”) in
connection with the Company’s Annual Meeting of Stockholders to be
held on November 3, 2022, at 11:00 a.m., Eastern Daylight Time, at
2117 SW Highway 484, Ocala, Florida 34473 (including any
adjournments, postponements or continuations thereof, the “Annual
Meeting”).
Except
as specifically supplemented and/or revised by the information
contained herein, this amendment to the Proxy Statement (“Amendment
No. 1”) does not modify, amend or otherwise affect any of the other
information set forth in the Proxy Statement. This Amendment No. 1
should be read together with the Proxy Statement, and, from and
after the date of this Amendment No. 1, any references to the
“Proxy Statement” shall be deemed to include the Proxy Statement as
supplemented and revised hereby. All page references are to pages
in the Proxy Statement, and any defined terms used but not defined
herein shall have the meanings set forth in the Proxy
Statement.
The
purpose of this Amendment No. 1 is to (i) provide updated
biographical information on our Board’s proposed nominees—Thomas K.
Equels, William M. Mitchell and Stewart L. Appelrouth—for election
as directors at the Annual Meeting; and (ii) clarify the
instructions on the attached form of proxy. The Company intends to
mail this Amendment No. 1 and a revised WHITE proxy card to
all stockholders.
IMPORTANT
As
previously stated, your vote will be especially important this
year. As you may be aware, Jonathan Thomas Jorgl (together, with
the other participants in Mr. Jorgl’s solicitation, the “Dissident
Group”) submitted documents to the Company purporting to provide
notice (the “Purported Nomination Notice”) of Mr. Jorgl’s intent to
nominate director candidates for election to the Board at the
Annual Meeting. The Company has informed the Dissident Group that
the Purported Nomination Notice is invalid due to its failure to
comply with the Company’s Restated and Amended Bylaws. Mr. Jorgl
has sued the Company and its directors in the Court of Chancery of
the State of Delaware (the “Delaware Chancery Court”), seeking,
among other remedies, declaratory judgment that the Purported
Nomination Notice was valid. This case is pending, and the Delaware
Chancery Court has scheduled a hearing on Mr. Jorgl’s motion for a
preliminary injunction for October 5, 2022.
Unless
the result of the litigation is that the Purported Nomination
Notice is valid, any director nominations made by Mr. Jorgl will be
disregarded, and no proxies or votes in favor of his purported
nominees will be recognized or tabulated at the Annual Meeting. As
Mr. Jorgl’s nominations will not be recognized as valid nominations
under Delaware law unless otherwise so determined by a Delaware
court, the WHITE proxy card does not include the names of
Mr. Jorgl’s purported nominees on a “universal proxy card.”
However, if the result of the litigation is that the Purported
Nomination Notice is valid, then the Company will amend the Proxy
Statement and the WHITE proxy card to reflect those
developments and to include the names of Mr. Jorgl’s nominees on a
universal proxy card and mail the revised proxy statement and
WHITE universal proxy card to stockholders. In addition, in
this scenario, no proxies or votes received on the Company’s
previously circulated proxy card will be recognized or tabulated at
the Annual Meeting. Accordingly, if you vote on the Company’s
WHITE proxy card and the result of the litigation is that
the Purported Nomination Notice is valid, your votes will not be
recognized or tabulated, and you will have to vote again for your
vote to be counted.
This
Amendment No. 1 is being mailed to you with an updated WHITE
proxy card. Because directors will be elected under Proposal 1 by a
plurality of the votes cast at the Annual Meeting, there will be no
option to vote “AGAINST” any director nominees at the Annual
Meeting. We have revised the instructions to Proposal 1 to clarify
that if you vote “FOR ALL EXCEPT” and write the name of a nominee
on the line below Proposal 1, the proxies will withhold authority
to vote your shares for each of the nominee(s) written on the line.
If you have already voted “FOR ALL EXCEPT” using the WHITE
proxy card sent to you with the Proxy Statement and you wrote the
name(s) of any nominee(s) on the line below Proposal 1, your votes
will be withheld with respect to such nominee(s) written on the
line. If you vote, or have already voted, you can subsequently
revoke that proxy by following the instructions on the enclosed
WHITE proxy card to vote over the Internet or by telephone
or by completing, signing and dating the WHITE proxy card
and mailing it in the postage-paid envelope provided. Only your
latest dated vote will count. Any proxy may be revoked prior to
its exercise at the Annual Meeting as described in the Proxy
Statement.
The
first sentence in the response to the question “How do abstentions,
against votes, broker non-votes, withhold votes and unmarked WHITE
proxy cards affect the voting results?” on page 7 is amended and
restated to read as follows:
Abstentions
and Broker Non-Votes. Abstentions and withhold votes, if any,
will have no effect on the outcome of Proposal 1. Broker
discretionary voting is not permitted on Proposal 1, and broker
non-votes, if any, will have no effect on the outcome of
Proposal 1.
The
section of the Proxy Statement entitled “Nominees for Election as
Director” on pages 28–29 is amended and restated in its entirety to
reads as follow:
NOMINEES
FOR ELECTION AS DIRECTOR
THOMAS
K. EQUELS, Esq., 70, has been a director and serves as the
Company’s Executive Vice Chairman (since 2008), Chief Executive
Officer (since 2016) and President (since 2015). Mr. Equels was the
owner of and former President and Managing Director of the Equels
Law Firm headquartered in Miami, Florida that focused on
litigation. For over a quarter century, Mr. Equels represented
national and state governments as well as companies in the banking,
insurance, aviation, pharmaceutical and construction industries.
Mr. Equels received his Juris Doctor degree with high honors from
Florida State University. He received his Bachelor of Science,
summa cum laude, from Troy University and also obtained his Master
of Science Degree from Troy University. Mr. Equels began his
professional career as a military pilot. He served in Vietnam and
was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Bronze Star, the
Purple Heart, and fifteen Air Medals. In 2012, he was Knighted by
Pope Benedict.
THOMAS
K. EQUELS, Esq. – Director Qualifications:
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Leadership
Experience – Military, Owner and former President, Managing
Director of Equels Law Firm, Court appointed receiver in numerous
industries; |
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Industry
Experience – legal counsel, General Counsel, CFO and CEO to the
Company; and |
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Scientific,
Legal or Regulatory Experience – Law degree with over 25 years as a
practicing attorney specializing in litigation, development of
clinical trials, creating intellectual property concepts, and
established plan to finance drug development. |
WILLIAM
M. MITCHELL, M.D., Ph.D., 87, has been a director since July
1998 and Chairman of the Board since February 2016. Dr. Mitchell is
a Professor of Pathology at Vanderbilt University School of
Medicine and is a board-certified physician. Dr. Mitchell earned a
M.D. from Vanderbilt and a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University,
where he served as House Officer in Internal Medicine, followed by
a Fellowship at its School of Medicine. Dr. Mitchell has published
over 200 papers, reviews and abstracts that relate to viruses,
anti-viral drugs, immune responses to HIV infection, and other
biomedical topics. Dr. Mitchell has worked for and with many
professional societies that have included the American Society of
Investigative Pathology, the International Society for Antiviral
Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American
Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the American
Chemical Society, and the American Society of Microbiology. Dr.
Mitchell is a member of the American Medical Association. He has
served on numerous government review committees, among them the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National
Institutes of Health, including the initial AIDS and Related
Research Review Group. Dr. Mitchell previously served as one of the
Company’s directors from 1987 to 1989.
WILLIAM
M. MITCHELL, M.D., Ph.D. - Director Qualifications:
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Leadership
Experience – Professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
He was a member of the Board of Directors of Chronix Biomedical, a
company involved in next generation DNA sequencing for medical
diagnostics, from 2006 until its acquisition/merger by the public
company, Oncocyte, in April 2021 and was the former Chairman of its
Medical Advisory Board. Additionally, he has served on multiple
governmental review committees of the National Institutes of
Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and for the
European Union, including key roles as Chairman; |
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Academic
Experience – Well published medical researcher with extensive
investigative experience on virus and immunology issues relevant to
the Company’s scientific business; and |
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Scientific,
Legal or Regulatory Experience – M.D., Ph.D. and professor at a
top-ranked school of medicine, and inventor of record on numerous
U.S. and international patents who is experienced in regulatory
affairs through filings with the FDA. |
STEWART
L. APPELROUTH, CPA, 69, was appointed as a director of the
Company and head of the Audit Committee in August 2016 and has been
a certified public accountant and partner at Appelrouth Farah &
Co., P.A., Certified Public Accountants and Advisors since he
co-founded the firm in 1985. Appelrouth Farah & Co. joined
Citrin Cooperman Advisors, LLC in March 2022. Mr. Appelrouth is
also a certified forensic accountant and possesses 40 years of
experience in Accounting and Consulting. He is a member of or has
affiliations with the AICPA, American College of Forensic
Examiners, FINRA Arbitrator, Association of Certified Fraud
Examiners, Florida Bar Grievance Committee, Florida Institute of
Certified Public Accountants and InfraGard Member, a national
information sharing program between the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and the private sector. Mr. Appelrouth graduated from
Florida State University in 1975 and received his master’s degree
in Finance from Florida International University in
1980.
STEWART
L. APPELROUTH – Director Qualifications:
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Leadership
Experience – has served in leadership positions on numerous private
and non-profit boards of directors and other
organizations; |
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Industry
Experience – Partner at certified public accounting and advisory
firm; Certified Public Accountant and Certified Fraud
Examiner; |
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Regulatory
Experience – FINRA Arbitrator. |
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Financial
Expert – over 40 years of accounting and audit
experience. |
THE
BOARD RECOMMENDS A VOTE ON THE WHITE PROXY CARD “FOR
ALL” OF THE BOARD’S NOMINEES (THOMAS K. EQUELS, WILLIAM M.
MITCHELL AND STEWART L. APPELROUTH) TO BE ELECTED TO SERVE AS
DIRECTORS ON THE BOARD.


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