Oasmia changes CEO amid reporting suspicious transactions

Amid Oasmia’s decision to report certain suspicious transactions that has been made by to company during several years, to the Swedish authority, Sven Rohmann, has today been appointed as acting CEO of the company, to replace the present CEO, Mikael Asp.

The Company said that Asp will assume a position as CTO and remains part of its management team, being responsible for all technology and manufacturing activities of the company.

“With Sven we have an experienced CEO, who can lead the company through the critical phase of transitioning Oasmia from a technology platform based drug development company into a commercially active, fully integrated pharmaceutical company. The company still has challenges, linked to its past. This will be the job for the Board to sort out and correct. Sven’s focus will be forward looking and to create value out of the unique assets in Oasmia”, said Jörgen Olsson, Chairman of the Board of Oasmia.

In connection with a tax audit in Oasmia that started during the spring of 2019 a number of remarkable transactions have come to the knowledge of the Board, the company said in a press release. In connection with this it also became known that an earlier tax audit had been carried out during 2014-2016 where the tax auditors found many transactions, being carried out during several years in millions of Swedish kronor which were not accounted for in the company’s books. Moreover, transactions regarding Oasmia’s patents have been carried out in a doubtful way according to independent IP-right lawyers, the company said.
According to the press release, these transactions have been carried out between Oasmia and the companies Alceco International S.A. and Ardenia Investments Ltd that are controlled by the former executive chairman in Oasmia, Julian Aleksov and his former father-in-law, the former Board member Bo Cederstrand.

“Our analysis of the initial findings of the ongoing tax audit, and also facts recently disclosed to us from the previous tax audit, gives us no other choice than to hand over these findings to relevant police authorities for further investigations”, said Olsson.

Moreover, the Board has decided to appoint a special examiner in order to give all shareholders a thorough decision basis regarding discharge from liability for the Annual General Meeting that will take place on September 26, 2019, the company said.