No Pity for Bipolar, Gambling Addicted "King of Biotech"

Jan. 23, 2014

David Blech, the former biotechnology stock promoter once dubbed the "King of Biotech," failed to persuade a U.S. appeals court to throw out his four-year prison term for securities fraud.

Blech, who got probation for a 1998 fraud conviction, was sentenced to four years in prison for a similar crime last May. He appealed on the ground that his sentencing judge was biased.

The defendant, who is white, Jewish and wealthy, claimed the sentencing judge had wanted to prove a point and counter a view that "we let people like you get away with things that we don't let poor black drug addicts" get away with.

During the May trial, the judge had rejected pleas by Blech’s lawyer to sentence him to a non-jail sentence, based on Blech’s gambling addiction, bipolar disease and family situation.

Read the Reuters press release