Legal Breakthrough: MabVax’s Key Allegations Against Barry Honig Collapse Under Cross-Examination
All,
Here is a quick summary of how we exposed David Hansen as a bald-faced liar.
- MabVax accused Barry and the other defendants of pumping-and-dumping MabVax stock.
- The heart of the argument was that Barry directed John O’Rourke to publish a false article about MabVax on April 8, 2015, on Seeking Alpha. The O’Rourke article is attached.
- During discovery, we served an interrogatory asking MabVax to identify with specificity which statements in the O’Rourke article were materially false. In response to that (see interrogatory Response No. 14, at page 20, attached). MabVax identified the following four statements:
- “MabVax’s lead antibody program, HuMab 5B1, targets metastatic pancreatic and colon cancers with anticipated early Phase I data coming out by the end of 2015, for both therapeutic and diagnostic indications.”
- “This is a billion-dollar annual market opportunity with a critical unmet medical need, as there are very poor 5-year survival rates for metastatic pancreatic and colon cancer.”
- “The neuroblastoma vaccine will enter Phase II trials by the end of 2015.”
“Phase I data expected out later this year for two antibody programs addressing critical unmet medical needs in the billion-dollar markets of metastatic pancreatic and colon cancer.”
- Somehow, remarkably, both David Hansen and his lawyers didn’t realize that every one of these four statements from the O’Rourke article, which MabVax/Hansen alleged were materially false, had actually been copied nearly verbatim from a PowerPoint presentation that David Hansen helped to create, and which he himself presented to a room full of investors at the Roth Conference in Dana Point, CA in March 2015 – about three weeks before O’Rourke published his article in Seeking Alpha. A copy of the March 2015 presentation is attached. We obtained evidence during discovery that MabVax had forwarded this very PowerPoint to John Stetson, who presumably shared it with O’Rourke.
- It can be clearly seen how each of the four “false” statements in the O’Rourke article were simply cribbed from Hansen’s PowerPoint. Compare the statements above with pages 24, 24 and 39. Indeed, one can see that O’Rourke copied the chart from page 39 straight into his article.
- David Hansen’s duplicity came crashing down on him during cross-examination. First, I got him to state under oath that each of the four statements above from the O’Rourke article were materially false. I then got him to confirm that he had sworn the same thing under oath when he verified the interrogatory response. After that, I confronted him with the fact that those statements which he just testified to be materially false . . . were actually his own words. Serious eye-rolling from the jury followed. See attached transcript at pages 109 to 142.
In other words, David Hansen claimed for over five years that Barry had pumped and dumped MabVax stock by causing O’Rourke to publish “falsehoods” about MabVax, but the precise statements that Hansen claimed were false in had originally written and presented to the public by Hansen himself. I can’t recall finding a smokier Smoking Gun than this in all more years of practice.
Let me know if you need more.
Robert D. Weber | Partner
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- March 2015 Presentation: The original investor presentation authored by David Hansen, which was later echoed in the article, he claimed was misleading.
- Interrogatory Response: Hansen’s written admissions during discovery, revealing lack of evidence regarding Honig’s alleged control.
- O’Rourke Article: The article at the center of the “pump and dump” claim, proven to mirror Hansen’s own investor language.
- Mabvax CERTIFIED: Read 109–142: Certified transcript excerpts showing Hansen’s testimony breakdown under cross-examination.
