Revolutions Medical (PINK:RMCP) said a civil complaint filed against it by the SEC last year relied on an informant who was later convicted in a $20 million libel suit.
Philip "Marty" Hicks was revealed as the informant in the SEC complaint accusing Revolutions Medical and CEO Ronald Wheet of issuing misleading press releases in 2010, according to a regulatory filing. The securities watchdog wants Revolutions to cough up $1.1 million and other civil penalties, and wants to bar Wheet from serving as an officer or director of SEC-regulated companies.
A South Carolina court awarded $20 million to Wheet and Revolutions Medical in July. Revolutions had accused Hicks of waging a "cyber smear campaign" against the company and its chief executive, and claimed that Hicks intentionally interfered with a DoD grant that Revolutions was slated to receive in September 2010.
" In April 2013, through discovery and answers to interrogatories, the SEC identified Phillip Maurice Hicks a/k/a Marty Hicks as its tipster and evoked client attorney privilege on all correspondence with Hicks," according to the filing. "Also in April 2013, the SEC identified that the testimony under oath of Richard Theriault was instrumental in bringing these allegations against the Company and its CEO."
Revolutions Medical sued Theriault, who according to the filing has declared bankruptcy, accusing him of fraud and RICO Act violations, among other claims.
According to company documents Hicks, under the user-name "Tazmanian353", had made libelous comments on Yahoo! Finance and Raging Bull online forums alleging that Revolutions was just a "shell company" without legitimate operations or real patents and that CEO Ron Wheet "lied in official documents" and made "fraudulent misleading statements."
Revolutions argued that Hicks’ comments were false and defamatory since the company owns patents, both granted and pending, for auto retractable safety syringe and certain medical imaging technology.
