By Lauren Ratcliffe
lratcliffe@scbiznews.com
Published Sept. 25, 2012

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is accusing Revolutions Medical Corp. and its CEO with stock fraud.

The Charleston medical device-maker’s signature product is a retractable safety syringe. The SEC claims the company and CEO Ron Wheet inflated stock price by issuing misleading press releases about its product over the course of 11 months in 2010 and 2011.

The complaint, filed Sept. 20, alleges the press releases contained misleading statements designed to convey the impression that the company had finalized the development of a safe and effective syringe. The SEC also contends that the statements said the RevVac syringe was slated for mass manufacturing and that the company had secured or was near securing binding agreements for the sale and distribution of the safety syringe.

The commission is seeking an injunction against the company and also wants Revolutions Medical to pay back all the profits earned, losses avoided and prejudgment interest.

The SEC is also seeking to permanently prohibit Wheet from acting as an officer of any company that has a class of securities registered with the commission.

The SEC complaint said Wheet knew that the safety syringe was not in a final stage of development when it sent out the press releases. The company’s actions allowed for faster fundraising through the sale of fewer shares of stock, the SEC said.

Messages were left for Wheet and the company’s investor relations, but calls were not returned by publication time.

A copy of the complaint can be found here.