Is Immunosyn (IMYN.OB) and SF-1019 for real? You decide..

NOTE:  The author of this blog was contacted in September 2008, by the Criminal Division of the FDA in Colorado, seeking information about the possible illegal manufacturing and distribution of SF-1019. 

LATEST NEWS:

09/25/09 – Dr. Myron Wentz has filed a lawsuit against Immunosyn and Argyll Biotechnologies and is seeking $1,948,000 plus costs.  Read the complaint here

03/20/09 – Dr. Myron Wentz has resigned from the Immunosyn Board of Directors. Click here to view

03/23/09 – According to an 8-K filing on 3/23/09, both Immunosyn and Argyll Biotechnologies have been served with subpoenas by the SEC:

“On or about March 17, 2009, representatives of both Immunosyn and Argyll Biotech became aware that they had received additional subpoenas from the SEC on or about March 6, 2009.  The Company intends to comply with the subpoena directed to it as quickly as possible.”  Click here to view

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Argyll Biotechnologies, Immunosyn, and Alan Osmond have claimed the following:

Argyll Biotechnologies (www.argyllbiotechnologies.com) owns the rights to SF-1019, (there is a patent infringement lawsuit so it is unknown if they will own them for long), and they (Argyll) have licensed SF-1019 to Immunosyn (www.immunosyn.com).  Argyll and Immunosyn claim to have test results showing SF-1019 produces therapeutic results and can provide relief to those suffering from complications of diabetes, and MS.

Immunosyn has claimed to have received permission to begin human trials in Malaysia.  Alan Osmond claims he has been to England to receive injections, and he has also claimed on his website that he has been told by Argyll Biotechnologies that SF-1019 injections will be available here in the states very, very soon at a facility named The Renewed Hope Clinic in Beaver, Utah.  This clinic will be run by a doctor named Mitchell Melling, MD a family practice doctor practicing since 1998.

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Before we get started, here are a few key points from Immunosyn’s latest 10Q.

• The company only has $309 in cash.
• There is “substantial doubt about Immunosyn’s ability to continue as a going concern”

Remember that this is a company who only a few months ago had a billion dollar market cap on not a single penny of revenue..  Should the SEC or Finra be looking more closely at this company for any possible improprieties?

 

 

Ok, now here are some other facts to consider:

1. The Principals of Argyll Biotechologies and Immunosyn are Being Sued, and are Being Accused of Participating in a Fraudulent Stock Loans Scheme..  (In fairness, it is important to stress that being accused of something does not mean you are guilty, however the suit is certainly relevant to Immunosyn)

James Miceli, who is the CEO of Argyll Biotechnologies and Douglas McClain, who is the President of Argyll Biotechnologies and also the CFO of Immunosyn are being sued for $4,000,000 in a lawsuit that is alleging seven separate counts, including fraud, RICO, and RICO conspiracy.  Click here to read the actual complaint.

Before these two principals got into “biotechnologies”, they were (and still are) players in a niche market called “stock lending” using a company called Argyll Equities, LLC.  They loaned money to people who put up publicly traded securities as collateral, and this is not the first time they have been sued for fraud relating to securities collateralized loans.

• Click here to Google search “Argyll Equities defendant”.

You can see their website at www.theargyllgroup.com. (It appears that since this latest lawsuit, they have pulled down their site).

If anyone has not yet made the Argyll Equities/Immunosyn connection, you can see here  (at the very bottom of the page) that Argyll Equities and Immunosyn work out of the same office..  you can also see here that Argyll Equities has loaned Immunosyn $803,255.

In this lawsuit a co-defendant is named as Jeffrey Spanier, who is an agent of Argyll Equities (www.stocklending.com, and www.amerifundcapital.com)

It should be noted that Immunosyn gave Mr. Spanier 350,000 shares of stock.  Why would this be neccessary?  It could be easy to see why Argyll Biotechnologies might do this (after all, they are co-defendants in a lawsuit), but why would Immunosyn? 

This leads us to the next question that begs to be asked..

 

2. Who else has stock that is noteworthy?

As long as Immunosyn is being so generous with their stock, it should be noted that Immunosyn gave 3,200,000 shares to a fellow named Manuel Bello, for “consulting services”.  Thats a LOT of stock!  Guess what industry Mr. Bello works in..  you guessed it, stock lending.. (http://www.ayudafunding.com/about_bios.html).  Interestingly enough, in another complaint Mr. Bello  was accused of being adept at stock manipulation.

As long as we are at it, it should be noted Immunosyn gave another person stock.  A Mr. John Franczyk, was given 50K shares of IMYN and it it should be noted that he also happened to be a defendant in a stock fraud lawsuit.  Guess what? Argyll Equities is named 47 times in the complaint. 

 

3. Other Legal Proceedings with Argyll and Immunosyn

According to the latest 10Q:

• “On March 19, 2008, a shareholder of the Company, Deborah Donoghue, commenced two actions — one in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California and the other in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York – derivatively on behalf of the Company to recover alleged short-swing profits from several alleged statutory insiders of the Company, including Company officer and director Douglas A. McClain Jr.”  The lawsuit alleges that the defendants- James T. Miceli, Douglas McClain Jr., Argyll Biotechnologies, and Immunosyn Corporation collected more than $12,500,000 in profits between April 2007 and October 2007 by manipulating and selling the IMYN stock.  If this is true, where did the money go??  Obviously it did not go to Immunosyn who currently claims slightly more than $300 in the bank..  Click here to read the actual complaint.
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• “On December 19, 2007, a shareholder of Immunosyn, Leon S. Segen, commenced an action in the Southern District of New York derivatively on behalf of Immunosyn to recover alleged short-swing profits from several alleged statutory insiders of Immunosyn, including Immunosyn officer and director Douglas A. McClain Jr.”  This lawsuit alleges that the defendants- James T. Miceli, Douglas McClain Jr., Argyll Biotechnologies, and Immunosyn Corporation collected more than $14,254,897 in profits between April 2007 and October 2007 by manipulating and selling the IMYN stock.  If this is true, then again where did the money go??   Click here to read the actual complaint.
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• “pursuant to subpoenas issued by the SEC to affiliates of Argyll Biotech on March 30, 2006 and to Immunosyn on December 15, 2006 in a proceeding captioned In The Matter of The Argyll Group, LLC, Immunosyn and its affiliates have been asked to produce all documents concerning a wide variety of topics including many related directly to Immunosyn. Immunosyn and Argyll Biotech’s affiliates actively cooperated with the SEC and produced documents responsive to these subpoenas, completing their responses in early August 2007.”
  On this entry, it would have been helpful in Immunosyn had stated what documentation the SEC was seeking.

One last lawsuit that is not mentioned on the latest 10Q, is Bramante vs. James T Miceli and Immunosyn Corporation.  According to this lawsuit Douglas McClain Sr. who has a material interest in Argyll Equities, Argyll Biotechnologies and Immunosyn lost a lawsuit in 2005, and was hit with a judgement for $4,500,000 which he has yet to pay and satisfy.  The people he owes the money to, Frank and Salvatore Bramante, want to know how him and his associates have managed to spend millions of dollars on their companies, yet have not managed to satisfy their judgement.  The lawsuit also alledges that McClain and his associates purposely tried to move and hide funds by transferring funds and assets to Miceli’s wife and and other companies as well, both in direct violation of the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act.  Click here to read the actual complaint. 

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4. Trials??  What trials??

Immunosyn has made many announcements regarding trials, lets look at them one by one..

1. MALAYSIA – According to a press release put out by Immunosyn on August 12th, 2008:
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   “approval has been granted by the Ministry of Health Malaysia for SF-1019 in the Private Pay Heath Sector in Malaysia. The marketing name for SF-1019 in Malaysia will be R-1818.”
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   If you visit the Malaysian Ministry of Health website (www.moh.gov.my) and perform a search, there is not a single mention of R-1818, SF-1019, Immunosyn, or Argyll Biotechnologies.  Maybe their IT department is slow to update the information, but regardless the only entity claiming approval is the company itself.  At this time, there is no third party to corroborate the information.
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2. UTAH – According to a press release put out by Immunosyn on July 16th, 2008:
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   ‘the distribution of SF-1019 in the State of Utah is anticipated to begin shortly through Renewed Hope Clinic in Beaver, Utah.” 
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   Says who?  If you search the U.S. FDA website (www.fda.gov) there is not a single mention of SF-1019, Immunosyn or Argyll Biotechnologies. And why Beaver, Utah? It seems odd that a miracle drug would be administered in the US by a family practice doctor in a town with a population of 3,000 people, located in almost the middle of nowhere.
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   “The combination of the proposed license and manufacturing agreements will allow for SF-1019 to be administered in the State of Utah exclusively by Utah Biopharmaceutical Laboratories through Renewed Hope Clinic”  also,  “Mitchell J. Melling, MD, Manager of Utah Biopharmaceutical Laboratories, LLC.”
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   Thats interesting..  Mitchell J. Melling, the family practice doctor since 1998 who is opening the Renewed Hope Clinic (www.rehopeclinic.com, there is no website yet), is also running a Biopharmaceutical company, that plans to manufacture a serum originally derived from goats?  He must be really good at his job.  Is should be noted that according to the State of Utah’s own records, Utah Biopharmaceutical Laboratories, LLC was founded in January of 2008 (by Mitchell Melling).
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   It should be noted also, that this announcement from Argyll/Immunosyn about treatments in the US, came just eight days after both of Argyll”s principals were being sued for fraud..
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3. ENGLAND – Alan Osmond who is a serious proponent of Immunosyn and SF-1019 (click here to visit his site) claims to have traveled to England to receive injections, however he did not receive injections of “SF-1019”, rather he received injections of “Aimspro”.   Naturally it should not come as a surprise then that neither the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (www.mhra.gov.uk) nor the European Medicines Agency (www.emea.europa.eu), have a single reference or mention on their websites of SF-1019, Immunosyn, or Argyll Biotechnologies.
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   However, there are two references to “Aimspro“…

 

5. Daval International and Aimspro

So who is Daval and what is Aimspro?

SF-1019 was previously known as Aimspro, and was created by a company by Daval International.

There are two references to Aimspro on the MHRA website.. 

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This one, which mentions that:
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a.  the Aimspro trials (limited to 12 people) results, were “dissapointing“. 
b.  Daval has not provided enough information to show that the product is safe
c.  Daval’s manufacturer of choice for Aimspro has not met the requirements to get the license needed to manufacture the product
d. All of the above is after two years of help and advice from the MHRA
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And then there is this link, where the MHRA clearly states:
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a. that “Aimspro is NOT a licensed product”
b. that the MHRA is concerned about the “quality and safety of the product”
c. that “there are no ongoing UK clinical trials”
d. that Duval and its manufacturer of Aimspro, “do not have the proper license” for trials, and “do not meet the requirements to obtain such a license” 

It should be noted that Daval International has plenty of current information about Aimspro on their website, and it would seem that they are still trying to promote the drug actively.  One thing that they do not mention on their website is that Daval and Aimspro were criminally investigated in late 2006 by the MHRA.  Read about it here in a Times UK article.

 

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6. The Patent Infringement Lawsuit

While Daval is still fresh on our minds, it should be noted that Daval is currently suing Argyll Biotechnologies for patent infringement.  According to the latest 10Q:

“On or about July 27, 2006, Daval, filed suit in the High Court of Justice, Chancery Division in London, England against Argyll Biotech and five of Argyll Biotech’s research scientists and others, including Douglas McClain, Sr., seeking an injunction and damages or an account of profits based on allegations of breach by the scientists and Mr. McClain of confidentiality agreements with Daval, breaches by such persons of their fiduciary duties and conspiracy by Argyll Biotech and certain of its shareholders to wrongfully disclose and use Daval’s alleged trade secrets.”

The trial is listed to start in the UK in 2009.

 

7. Alan Osmond 

While Alan Osmond is still fresh in our minds, we should remember that on July 5th, 2008 Alan Osmond announced on his own website (www.osmondms.com):

“NOW, you can see a doctor for treatment of SF-1019. Argyll has been given permission to open the “Renewed Hope Clinic in Beaver, Utah” 

Later, that was modified to say: 

“NOW you can see A Doctor for treatment with SF1019! We have been given permission to open!
I will let you know where and when they will be open so you can go for treatments very soon!”

It would seem that Alan Osmond has a very close relationship with Argyll/Immunosyn, to have received the good news 11 days before the public did.  That fact is even more clear when you consider that Immunosyn gave Alan Osmond 4,000,000 shares of IMYN.

Update: November 16th 2008 – Alan Osmond is now claiming that when asked what he is doing to improve his health, he responded “Besides Immunosyn, I have been only eating organic and natural foods..”

Besides Immunosyn??  First of all, Immunosyn is a corporation not a drug, so we can safely assume he is referring to SF-1019..  But wait, how can that be?  There is no record anywhere that SF-1019 is approved for testing or manufacturing in the United States..  What is Alan Osmond doing, and how is he doing it???

Update: February 8th, 2009 – Alan Osmond is claiming on his site:  “Yes, I am still taking SF-1019”

Update: February 26th, 2009 – Alan Osmond is now saying on his site:  “Immunosyn was hit hard with these past financial times. But, I am going to test soon, a new batch that is about 20% stronger! Yes, they are still pushing forward to get it out and help us!”   Testing a new batch???  20% stronger???  Can anyone please explain how it is that Mr. Osmond is getting access to a drug that to date has no history of any type of FDA approvals, not to mention a drug that is 20% stronger???  Should someone start speaking with him about this??

Update: October, 2009 – Alan Osmond has removed all references of Argyll Biotech, Immunosyn and SF-1019 from his website.

 

8. Stephen Ferrone, CEO of Immunosyn

It is interesting that in Immunosyn’s own SEC filings, Mr. Ferrone is quoted as saying that Argyll Biotechnologies “brought this biopharmaceutical through its ten-year period of development to the point where it is a fully-developed drug“.  That is quite a feat considering the fact that Argyll Biotechnologies, LLC was only recently formed in September of 2006..

 

 

More info coming soon, stand by..

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