Start-up's lawyer refuses to show Gabi Picker proof of $370m. deal with British MSI for medical wonder.
By SHARON WROBELmedicine 248.88(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
The chief executive of SafeSky resigned on Thursday after he was denied access to documents, which allegedly show that there is an agreement with Taiwanese company Micro-Star International Ltd. over the sale of a stake in SakeSky's controversial Life Keeper medical patch.
Shlomi Hadar, the attorney of Dr. Gabi Picker, announced the resignation as new doubts over the deal were raised. Hadar was prevented from getting a copy of the memorandum of understanding which covers SafeSky's supposed sale of a 37 percent stake in its Life Keeper device to MSI for $370 million.
SafeSky's Like Keeper, which the company claims is a device which can warn patients of potential heart attacks, has in recent days been embroiled in an emerging scandal over both the product and the deal.
The first reports on Monday about the patch and the deal hyped as one of the greatest inventions and one of the biggest purchases in Israeli history have since been picked to pieces by local media.
On Tuesday, it emerged that one of the partners in the company, Arik Klein, who has served prison time for fraud, allegedly forged e-mail correspondence in which he pretended to represent MSI in the purchase.
"There is no deal. We have not been contacted by SafeSky and we have never contacted them," Jade Hang, spokesperson at MSI's Taiwan headquarters, told The Jerusalem Post in a phone interview Wednesday.
Much doubt has also been raised over the existence and viability of the patch, since until now SafeSky has not presented a patent or proof of clinical trials for the device.
Meanwhile, Klein and co-founder Amos Buchnik continued to insist on the existence of the patch and the deal - details of which they said will be presented in a press conference next week. "Right now, there are two options," said Klein in a Channel 2 interview Thursday. "Either there's a breakthrough or I'm a psychopath."