Buxton Helmsley Issues Letter to Assertio Stockholders Disclosing Inversion to Short Position Following Board Refusal to Address Product-Related Fraud
Well-Documented Evident Product-Related Fraud Related to the Acquisition of Spectrum Pharmaceuticals' Rolvedon Biologic Illuminates the Basis for Assertio's Massive Write-Down of Spectrum Immediately After Acquisition
Assertio Board Has Overseen Evident "Hush Money" Offers to Whistleblowers who Have Privately Raised Concerns and Evidence Relating to Rolvedon
Extensive Evident Fraud, Coupled with Assertio Chairman Peter Staple's Continued Refusal to Speak with BHG, Implicating Evident Liability at Parent Company Level, Has Driven BHG to Invert to Short Position
Warns Assertio Stockholders to Conduct Appropriate Diligence and to Consider Abandoning Stock Ownership
The Buxton Helmsley Group, Inc. (together with certain of its affiliates, "BHG" or "we"), a New York City-based investment fund manager that has now inverted its long equity position into that of a short interest in the publicly traded securities of Assertio Holdings, Inc. ("Assertio" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:ASRT), today released an open letter to Assertio stockholders.
"Today, BHG has sadly been forced to issue a letter to Assertio stockholders, in light of the board of directors' refusal to engage over evident product-related fraud and misconduct uncovered by multiple former Spectrum executives-turned-whistleblowers, who have continued sounding the alarm over severe and ongoing safety matters that are continuing to put cancer patients at risk," said Alexander Parker, Senior Managing Director of BHG.
"Despite extensive attempts by BHG to persuade Assertio's leadership to address these serious matters, the board of directors and management team have continued to opt for a ‘head in the sand' approach to avoid admitting colossal due diligence failures as part of the Spectrum acquisition, at the expense of Assertio's stockholders and to the detriment of cancer patients. We believe the timeline for the Spectrum acquisition was rushed because Assertio's leadership was aware that its own flagship product, Indocin, was at imminent risk of losing exclusivity and facing generic competition. It is well-known in the pharmaceutical industry when the ‘patent cliff' of a branded product is about to expire. To be clear, it appears to us that both Assertio stockholders and Spectrum stockholders were defrauded as part of the Assertio-Spectrum merger, and that the fraud is continuing, as is thoroughly detailed within today's open letter. To ensure the validity of these corroborating allegations from multiple former Spectrum executives-turned-whistleblowers, BHG engaged outside counsel to conduct an independent investigation, which included the review of substantial non-public evidence related to these matters.
"Assertio's board has continued with a ‘head in the sand' approach, even after being notified by BHG that the whistleblowers had received inquiries regarding Rolvedon from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the U.S. FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). The board has claimed a ‘thorough investigation' of the whistleblower allegations, even though they have never asked for the whistleblowers' extensive non-public evidence supporting their allegations, making clear that a sham investigation occurred, at best. Assertio's leadership has continued to receive non-public evidence from the whistleblowers via e-mails since BHG's investigation began, and has never responded to any of those e-mails, other than a non-substantive effective autoreply.
"Had Assertio's leadership acted in accordance with its fiduciary duties, stockholders would not have been exposed to this evident imminent catastrophe. We urge all stockholders to read the below-linked open letter very carefully, and consider the implications of net asset insolvency on the value of their investment in Assertio. BHG intends to donate a portion of any profits to the Cancer Research Institute of New York, a nonprofit organization. Although our initial intent was to create value by seeking change to the Assertio board, subsequently identified information has led us to conclude that it would require an utter miracle for Assertio's equity value to have any value now, following the board's endless betrayals and failures to address such well-documented and evident product-related fraud," ended Parker.
The full letter to Assertio's stockholders, issued today, in addition to the extensive private correspondence between BHG and Assertio's leadership, may be found at: https://www.buxtonhelmsley.com/asrt/
About Buxton Helmsley
The Buxton Helmsley Group, Inc. is a New York City-based investment advisory firm and fund manager, engaging both active and passive investment strategies across a range of asset classes, with a general focus on opportunities in North America and Europe. The investment approach is based on deep fundamental analysis and risk management, with a focus on ensuring disclosure obligations are being upheld under applicable accounting standards and securities laws.
Disclosure: We hold a short position in the securities of ASSERTIO HOLDINGS, INC. (NASDAQ:ASRT)
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