Creditor moves against Reno tech company

Thursday, March 1, 2001 | 11:16 a.m.

A creditor of Harvard Scientific Corp. of Reno filed an involuntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition against the company in Las Vegas after it allegedly failed to comply with a settlement agreement.

The medical research and development company formerly operated at 1601 East Flamingo Road in Las Vegas, court papers said. Curtis Orgill, a company official, could not be reached for comment on the petition or whether the company is still open.

In the petition filed Feb. 15 against Harvard Scientific, Eric Savage, who left the company in December 1996, had a claim for $47,000, which his attorney, Sean Flanagan, said was part of a settlement reached on May 8, 2000, in return for his agreement to drop a lawsuit he filed against the company in 1997.

Savage, who said he was given 150,000 Harvard Scientific shares as compensation for relocating to Las Vegas from Washington D.C. in 1994, sued the company and a director, Jackie See, on Nov. 10, 1997, in Clark County District Court, alleging he suffered $1.25 million in damages after they allegedly refused to allow him to sell his shares when they became eligible for sale on March 17, 1996.

Harvard Scientific was sued three other times in Clark County District Court between 1997 and 1998.

--A Boulder City man sued the company on March 17, 1997, to recover a $42,275 loan. The suit was dismissed on May 20, 1997.

--A former president and chief executive of Harvard Scientific sued the company and three senior executives on April 4, 1997, alleging they violated a three-year contract by terminating him before it expired. The suit was dismissed on Dec. 1, 1997, after the defendants agreed to compensate the ex-CEO with 200,000 shares of Harvard Scientific stock.

--Springrange Investment Group of Tel Aviv, Israel, on behalf of Harvard Scientific shareholders, sued the company, two senior executives and three board members on March 17, 1998, to invalidate an equity financing agreement Springrange said was executed in breach of their fiduciary duties.

Springrange, which accused the defendants of self-dealing, won a court order on March 23, 1998, to force two senior executives to return $10 million worth of Harvard Scientific stock the board members allegedly authorized them to buy to increase "equity financing" for the company.