Terren Scott Peizer was born on July 31,1959 and is an American businessperson who was convicted of insider trading and securities fraud.
30 Facts About Terren Peizer
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Terren Peizer worked as a junk bond salesman at Drexel Burnham Lambert.
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Terren Peizer testified against his former boss Mike Milken in 1990 in Milken's securities fraud prosecution in exchange for immunity from both criminal prosecution and SEC sanctions.
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Out of college in 1983, Terren Peizer worked for a few months at Goldman Sachs when he was 21 years old.
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Terren Peizer's job was to manage the Drexel account of the president of high-yield mutual fund manager Solomon Asset Management, with whom Drexel had an illegal arrangement that included insider trading and phony tax losses.
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Terren Peizer worked directly under Milken and admired him, sometimes pretending to be him on the phone, and calling him "Dad".
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When investigations into Milken's illegal activities began, Terren Peizer, starting in 1988, provided material evidence to prosecutors against Milken and Solomon.
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At Milken's pre-sentencing hearing for securities fraud in 1990, Terren Peizer testified against Milken in exchange for immunity from both criminal prosecution and SEC sanctions.
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In 1989, Terren Peizer purchased the Omaha Racers, a minor league basketball team, but it struggled financially.
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Terren Peizer had by that time already purchased 135,000 shares of the company's common stock, and when he became a director he received warrants to purchase 1.1 million shares of the company's common stock at $10.00 per share.
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In early 1992, the price of the company stock collapsed after the company disclosed that it was being investigated by federal prosecutors for systematic underpayment of its customs duties, and Terren Peizer thereafter resigned as a director.
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Terren Peizer sold his shares in 1993 at what was reported to be a $6 million profit, and the company never delivered, lost money, and went bankrupt in 1997.
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Terren Peizer was elected chairman of the company, and held the position for two years.
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Terren Peizer was a debt collection agency Ponzi scheme founded by fraudster Steven Hoffenberg, with which Jeffrey Epstein was involved.
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Terren Peizer purchased an interest in Advanced Promotion Technologies, which manufactured electronic barcode coupon machines for checkout lines.
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Terren Peizer subsequently sold his shares, and the company then went bankrupt in 1996.
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From 1997 to 1999, Terren Peizer was president of Hollis-Eden, a startup pharmaceutical company.
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In 1999, Terren Peizer raised money for and invested in Tera Computer Company, an unprofitable 112-employee manufacturer of supercomputers.
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The money that was raised allowed Tera to later buy the remains of Cray Research, and Terren Peizer was its chairman and a director from 1999 to 2000.
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Journalist Adam Feuerstein opined: "most of what Terren Peizer says is dubious-sounding hype".
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In 2018, Terren Peizer became CEO and chairman of BioVie, a pharmaceutical company of which he was majority shareholder.
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Terren Peizer resigned on March 2,2023, the day after he was criminally indicted, at which point the company had not yet received any revenue, and had lost $26 million in 2022.
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In March 2021, Terren Peizer became the controlling shareholder and board Executive Chairman of EVmo, a technology-enabled fleet management and rental company, which had a share price of $5.45 the prior month.
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Terren Peizer resigned as EVmo Chairman on February 17,2023, as the company defaulted on a $7.5 million loan, and its stock price had declined to $0.17 per share.
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Terren Peizer is the founder and CEO of Acuitas Group Holdings, biotech company NeurMedix, and blockchain company Casperlabs.
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On March 1,2023, after an FBI investigation, Terren Peizer was charged with insider trading by the SEC, which alleged that he sold $20 million of Ontrak Inc stock in 2021 while he was in possession of material nonpublic negative information related to the company's largest customer.
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Terren Peizer's case was assigned to the US District Court for the Central District of California, before US District Judge Dale S Fischer.
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On February 9,2024, Terren Peizer moved to dismiss the indictment.
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Terren Peizer was slated to be sentenced on October 21,2024.
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Terren Peizer's sentencing hearing is set for February 24,2025.