David Blech, the initial financial force behind several pharmaceutical companies, has had a long and hard fall.
He went from being worth about $300 million--and being one of the 400 wealthiest Americans--to beginning a four-year prison term and being in debt, reported the New York Times.
“There’s no question that if I had been in a coma for the last 20 years, I would wake up a billionaire today,” Blech, 57, said.
Blech’s fortune, which he made from being involved with Celgene, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Ariad Pharmaceuticals, and Icos, was lost mostly because he borrowed a lot and also traded tons of stock in an effort to get even richer.
Blech is slated to report to prison in New Jersey on Sept. 18 after he pleaded guilty to two counts of securities fraud, after another crime had not landed him in jail.
In an interview with the New York Times, he blamed part of his behavior on bipolar disorder.
“I didn’t know how to say no to a deal,” he said.
The judge in the case said that he had done a terrible thing to his family.
Blech agreed to pay several million in the case and to the Securities and Exchange Commission, but is actually about $11 million in debt.
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