PreveCeutical Medical is pointing fingers at its former lawyer for drafting a press release that was deemed misleading by a hearing panel at the B.C. Securities Commission. The company was cleared of violating the Securities Act.
The company, led by CEO Stephen Van Deventer, has filed a civil claim against its former lawyer, accusing him of being responsible for a controversial press release that contained misrepresentations. PreveCeutical Medical was one of 11 companies involved in the Bridgemark Group consulting case, which dates back to a hearing notice in 2018.
While most of the companies were cleared of allegations by the B.C. Securities Commission, PreveCeutical was accused of making misrepresentations in a news release. However, a panel of adjudicators determined that the news release was only misleading and did not have a material impact on investors.
Van Deventer and his company are now suing their former lawyer, Jonathan Lotz, for failing to provide proper warning about the disclosures in the news release. The claim states that the company suffered damages as a result of the lawyer’s breach of the standard of care.
Lotz has hired John Dives K.C. to defend him against the allegations. Dives intends to deny all the claims and provide his version of events.
The claim against the former lawyer stems from 2018 when PreveCeutical raised $6.5 million without disclosing that it had already paid consultants $3.2 million, who then bought shares worth millions of dollars. The commission alleged that consultants had done the same with 11 companies, without doing much work.
PreveCeutical, which initially claimed to be developing technology based on scorpion venom, now focuses on developing preventive and curative therapies using organic and nature identical products. The company currently trades at 2.5 cents per share.