David Blech, who was convicted of investment fraud in 1998 and sentenced to probation, pleaded guilty to two new charges of manipulating stock prices, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Blech bought and sold shares in two biotechnology companies, Pluristem Therapeutics Inc. and Intellect Neurosciences Inc., in 2007 and 2008 through his own account and those of friends and family, according to court papers. Prosecutors said that the buying and selling of the stocks was "a fraudulent scheme to manipulate the market" by enticing other investors to purchase the securities and raise their prices. Blech said that he made the trades because he became heavily in debt and was "desperate for money in early 2008."
