Lake Oswego, Oregon’s Nader Pourhassan sentenced to 30 months in prison

Nader Pourhassan, 62, of Lake Oswego, Oregon, United States was the chief executive officer of the publicly traded company CytoDyn. Based in Vancouver, Washington, the company was developing an investigational drug to treat human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the new coronavirus (COVID-19).

CytoDyn

Kazem Kazempour, 72, of Potomac, Maryland, USA was the CEO of Amarex Clinical Research LLC, a contract research organization based in Germantown, Maryland. He was hired to conduct Cytodyn’s clinical trials and was serving as the company’s representative with the U.S. Food and Drig Administration (FDA).

Pourhassan and Kazempour engaged in a scheme to deceive investors about CytoDyn’s development of an investigational drug to artificially inflate and maintain the price of the company’s stock and to attract new investors. The two diverted proceeds of the scheme for their own benefit.

Between 2018 and 2021, Pourhassan intentionally misled investors about the prospects of the CytoDyn drug for FDA approval. After making false announcements to investors and pocketed $4.4 million, he sold his 4.8 million shares of the company’s stock.

Nader Pourhassan

In April 2020, CytoDyn released a press release falsely announcing that it had submitted a completed biologics license application to the FDA. It was one of the press releases Pourhassan repeatedly issued to exaggerate the company’s progress with regard to leronlimab.

On December 20, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Pourhassan with fraud and insider trading in connection with providing misleading information to shareholders about the progress of a clinical research treatment for COVID-19 and HIV.

On December 4, 2024, a federal jury in Maryland convicted Pourhassan and Kazempour for their roles in a scheme to lie to investors in CytoDyn. The former was convicted of two counts of wire fraud, three counts of insider trading and four counts of securities fraud while the latter was convicted of one count each of securities fraud and wire fraud.

On January 23, 2026, Pourhassan was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He was ordered to forfeit more than $4.4 million and pay more than $5.3 million in restitution.