The Securities and Exchange Commission (Commission) announced that on September 30, 2004, the Honorable Jeffrey T. Miller, United States District Judge for the Southern District of California, issued an order continuing an asset freeze and other relief against six Southern California defendants charged with securities violations. The defendants are Vince Dory and Joshua Adams, ages and residences unknown, and four entities with which they are affiliated: Global Health, Global Clearing, Global Strategies and Goldman Quintero & Associates (Goldman). The Court (1) continued the freeze on the defendants' assets; (2) ordered the repatriation of funds; (3) prohibited the destruction of documents by the defendants; (4) ordered accountings from the defendants; and (5) granted expedited discovery.

According to the Commission's complaint, which was filed on September 9, 2004, Global Health purports to be a biotechnology company engaged in the development of a cancer treatment, although it does not appear to be organized or registered as any form of business in any state. The other entities and individuals operate as unregistered brokers.

The Commission's complaint alleges that, since early 2003, the brokers have cold called prospective investors and solicited investments in Global Health, which, they represent has developed a cancer treatment that is on the verge of FDA approval and, subsequently, has obtained FDA approval. To convince prospective investors to invest in Global Health, or to encourage existing investors to add to their investment, the defendants have disseminated letters on FDA letterhead that state that Global Health's cancer treatment has been approved by the FDA and that Global Health can soon begin marketing its product. The defendants instruct investors to send their checks to one of two San Diego-area addresses used by the brokers.

The complaint alleges that the FDA letters are forgeries, and the statements concerning the FDA approval are false. The letters were not authored by any employee or representative of the FDA and, in fact, the FDA has no record of Global Health or of any product purportedly manufactured by it. Global Health does not have any cancer treatment or other product that is undergoing the FDA's approval process. Furthermore, the addresses for the brokers are merely commercial mail drops from which the proposed defendants take investors' checks across the border to Mexico, where they cash or deposit them in accounts at a Mexican bank in Tijuana.