In 1983, Peizer worked at First Boston, where he worked as a high yield bond salesman. After two years there he was interviewed by Michael Milken for a position at Drexel Burnham Lambert. Even though Michael's brother Lowell disapproved of Peizer, he was hired nevertheless, and given a 3.5 million dollar salary, as well as a $500.000 loan, so he could invest in the partnership. Peizer worked directly under Milken, whom he admired, sometimes pretending to be him on the phone, and calling him "Dad". When investigations into Milken's illegal activities started, Peizer approached the investigators, and offered them material evidence, in exchange for immunity. In 1989, after losing his job at Drexel Burnham Lambert, Peizer moved back to his parents in Cleveland, and purchased a minor league basketball team, the Omaha Racers, which he sold again after about a year..
Major deals and financial transactions
From 1991 to '92 Peizer was a director at the shoe company Millfeld Trading, of which he owned $3.5M worth of stock. He sold 90% of his shares one day before the management admitted it had underpaid its Customs duties for many years. Peizer was sued, along with the management, but the case against him was later dismissed. Between 1991 and '95 Peizer was also Chairman & CEO of Urethane Technologies, which was producing bicycle tires. The company had been making losses since its inception in 1985, and went bankrupt in 1997. From 1993 to '95 he was the Chairman at CMS Enhancements, which produced computer parts. From 1997 to '99, Peizer was president of Hollis-Eden, a pharmaceutical company that was developing a drug that would work against HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis & biowarfare. In 1999 Peizer raised money for Tera Computer Company, a manufacturer of supercomputers, which allowed them to later buy out Cray Research. Peizer became chairman & director of Cray, until he stepped back one year later. In 2003 he acquired Hythiam, in order to market a drug-treatment program named Prometa. When, after a few years or trial studies, it became clear that the treatment wasn't working, the stock price crashed, and Hythiam was delisted from NASDAQ in 2010.. After renaming the company to Catasys, and executing several reverse stock splits it was relisted.. Catasys is offering telehealth services, and was renamed to Ontrak in 2020. In 2006 CT Holdings, merged with Xcorporeal, and then attempted to merge with National Quality Care Inc., a developer of portable dialysis machines. According to NQCI and the arbitrator Xcorporeal was guilty of several contract breaches during the negotiations, and had to pay $1.8M in damages to NQCI. Subsequently, merger talks were aborted. In 2009 Peizer started a new investment company, called Socius Capital Group, with Michael S. Wachs as an equal partner. Wachs had been convicted of bank fraud in 1997, served a year in prison, and was barred from the banking and brokerage industries. Despite this, Wachs started a video production company, CEOcast, to promote penny stocks and was involved with Socius for several years. Another of Socius’s employees was Richard Josephberg, who was sentenced twice for tax evasion, and received a 50 month sentence in 2007 and a 42 month sentence in 2019. Josephberg sued Socius in 2013 for non-payment of $4.8M in sales commission. In 2012 the group was renamed to Crede Capital Group. In 2012 Peizer arranged investments of $40M for Cell Therapeutics, which was developing a cancer drug. Even though the company had been fined $10M in 2007, for marketing & selling an unapproved drug, they were still in the cancer business. In 2015 FINRA convicted the company's broker, Halcyon, of securities violations during the transactions between Socius and CTIC, and barred Halcyon from trading. In 2014 Crede invested $10M into 22nd Century Group, a company that produces low-nicotine cigarettes. Relationships broke down after two years though, when Crede sued them for $250M in damages. After 3 years in court, the case was dismissed. In 2014 Peizer also started Neurmedix, which is a "virtual" company that markets drugs for Parkinson’s, migraine, Lou Gehrig's & Huntington's Disease, Alzheimer's and encephalitis, and that's awaiting its IPO. In 2018 Peizer founded BioVie, which markets treatments for liver cirrhosis. Even though the patent for their main product, BIV201, had been struck down in 2019, BioVie is still planning to go public.
Financial vehicles
Over the years Peizer has used the following holding and investment companies to conduct business :
The Prometa program was using a combination of existing drugs in an off-label manner, without controlled studies of its safety or efficiency, and marketed it directly to consumers. While some open-label trials had been started in 2005, the first controlled study was only done in 2009, but a massive marketing campaign had already been initiated in 2007.. The results of the first study were positive, but another study, done in 2011 by UCLA, determined that "The PROMETA protocol appears to be no more effective than placebo".
