After years of scrutiny over his handling of a high-profile drug program, former CytoDyn chief executive Nader Pourhassan is headed to federal prison.
A federal judge in Maryland on Monday sentenced Pourhassan to 30 months behind bars after a jury convicted him of securities fraud, wire fraud, and insider trading. The court also ordered him to pay more than $5.3 million in restitution and to forfeit roughly $4.4 million. The sentence caps a multi-year case that prosecutors say centered on misleading statements about the company’s drug program and millions of dollars in improper stock sales.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland detailed the penalties in a Jan. 26 press release, saying Pourhassan sold roughly 4.8 million shares and took in about $4.4 million from those trades. Prosecutors accused him of a pattern of public statements that, in their view, pumped up CytoDyn’s stock price and helped draw in fresh investors. For the official breakdown of the sentence and financial orders, see the announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Maryland.
How Prosecutors Say The Scheme Worked
Federal court filings and civil charges from securities regulators say Pourhassan repeatedly overstated the progress of CytoDyn’s drug candidate leronlimab toward Food and Drug Administration approval. That included a 2020 announcement that falsely claimed a completed Biologics License Application had been submitted to the agency…