David Hansen: A Cooperator Admits Under Oath He Lied
Did David Hansen make a deal and lie to or for the government?
In a stunning courtroom reversal, MabVax Therapeutics CEO David Hansen was caught in a web of his lies, forced to admit under oath that the “false” statements he claimed were used to manipulate his company’s stock were his own words from his own investor presentations.
The Base: A Case Built on Shifting Sand
For over five years, Hansen pursued litigation against billionaire Dr. Phil Frost, Barry Honig and others after the SEC filed an overreaching complaint, claiming they orchestrated a pump-and-dump scheme using materially false statements about MabVax. The foundation of his case rested on four specific statements from a 2015 Seeking Alpha article that Hansen claimed were lies designed to inflate his company’s stock price.
Under penalty of perjury, Hansen identified these statements as false:
- Claims about MabVax’s antibody program targeting pancreatic and colon cancers
- Assertions about billion-dollar market opportunities
- Timelines for neuroblastoma vaccine trials
- Promises about Phase I data releases
The Pillars: Discovery Reveals the Truth
The pillars supporting Hansen’s case began cracking when discovery revealed an inconvenient truth: every single “false” statement had been lifted nearly verbatim from MabVax‘s own PowerPoint presentation. This wasn’t just any presentation—it was created by Hansen himself and delivered to investors at the Roth Conference in March 2015, just weeks before the Seeking Alpha article appeared.
Evidence showed that MabVax had directly forwarded this presentation to the article’s sources. Far from fabricating lies, the author had simply repeated Hansen’s own marketing materials.
The Roof Base: Cross-Examination Devastation
The roof of Hansen’s legal house collapsed during cross-examination. First, he reaffirmed under oath that the four statements were materially false. Then he confirmed he had sworn to these claims under penalty of perjury in court filings.
The trap was set. Hansen had just testified that specific statements were lies—statements that were about to be revealed as his own words from his own investor pitch.
The Roof: Complete Collapse
When confronted with the devastating reality that his “false” statements were actually his own promotional materials, Hansen’s credibility evaporated. The jury’s reaction, according to trial transcripts, was immediate: serious eye-rolling as the full scope of his duplicity became clear.
Think of it like an architect claiming his own blueprints are fraudulent forgeries, or a chef calling his own recipe a lie when someone else describes the dish. This wasn’t conflicting interpretations—this was fundamental dishonesty.
The Character Foundation
Hansen’s willingness to destroy others’ reputations to protect his own violates basic principles of business integrity. True leadership requires owning one’s words, not weaponizing the legal system when those words become inconvenient.
By calling his own statements “false,” Hansen corrupted the language needed for honest business discourse. The principle that words must correspond to reality for markets to function was completely abandoned—a fundamental violation of the trust that underpins all business relationships.
The Economic Reality
Rather than focusing resources on advancing MabVax’s cancer immunotherapy pipeline, Hansen spent years and likely millions pursuing litigation based on demonstrably false premises. When his biotech stock declined—as such stocks often do due to regulatory risks and market volatility—he chose to blame sophisticated investors rather than acknowledge natural market forces.
The Complete Foundation Failure
What emerged wasn’t just a legal defeat but a complete character revelation. Hansen was willing to commit perjury repeatedly rather than acknowledge that his company’s struggles resulted from normal business challenges rather than manipulation. This wasn’t imperfect memory—the evidence shows a deliberate pattern of dishonesty designed to shift blame.
The supposed victim of sophisticated manipulation was actually an executive who couldn’t accept responsibility for his own marketing claims when they became inconvenient. The cooperator admitted he lied, but only after being cornered with his own evidence.
The Lesson
Hansen’s case serves as a cautionary tale about building businesses and legal theories on the foundations of truth rather than convenient fiction. When subjected to rigorous examination, his elaborate construction collapsed entirely, taking with it not just his immediate claims but his fundamental credibility as a business leader.
In trying to tear down others, David Hansen ultimately revealed the rotten foundations of his own character, providing a masterclass in how integrity, once lost, brings down everything built upon its absence.
