SEC-PR-2412-189 (Dec. 3, 2024) (SEC-PR-2412)
SEC Charges Kiromic BioPharma and Two Former C-Suite Executives with Misleading Investors about Status of FDA Reviews – SEC declines to impose civil penalties against company due to its self-reporting, remediation, and cooperation.
Excerpt: Washington D.C., Dec. 3, 2024 — The Securities and Exchange Commission today filed settled charges against Houston-based biotherapeutics company Kiromic BioPharma, Inc., its former CEO, Maurizio Chiriva-Internati, and its former chief financial officer, Tony Tontat, for failing to disclose material information about Kiromic’s two cancer fighting drug candidates before, during, and after a July 2021 follow-on public offering that raised $40 million. Kiromic and Tontat have agreed to settle the SEC’s charges in separate administrative proceedings and Chiriva has agreed to settle the charges in federal district court. Kiromic was not ordered to pay a civil penalty in light of its self-reporting, cooperation, and remediation, and Chiriva and Tontat agreed to pay civil penalties of $125,000 and $20,000, respectively, to settle the SEC’s charges.
“These resolutions strike the right balance between holding Kiromic’s then-two most senior officers responsible for Kiromic’s disclosure failures while also crediting Kiromic for its voluntary self-report, remediation, proactively instituting remedial measures, and providing meaningful cooperation to the staff,” said Eric Werner, Director of the SEC’s Fort Worth Regional Office.
Source: (https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2024-189)
Categories: (Misleading Investors) (Disclosure Failures)
SEC-PR-2412-189 (Dec. 3, 2024)