Alger Boyer was the Head of Sales at Rodman & Renshaw who blocked the first attempt to downgrade the investment banking client. The surprise was due to a claim by Mr. Boyer that he was going to join the Investment Policy Committee (IPC) that reviews research reports by analysts before they are published. This claim by Mr. Boyer was highly unusual because salesman had never been part of the IPC process before, which historically had been composed of research analysts and the Head of Compliance. The inclusion of a salesman on the IPC increased the risk that news of the investment downgrade would leak unequally to Rodman's clients, which was a violation of NASD regulations. Furthermore, Mr. Boyer had not passed the Series 24 regulatory exam at the time and therefore was not licensed to act in a supervisory capacity according to NASD regulations.

The analyst was also surprised by the request from Rodman's Head of Sales to speak with Halozyme's management again because he had already spoken with Halozyme's CFO after the market closed on Friday, February 24 2006. When told by Mr. Boyer that he would not be allowed to publish the downgrade until after talking with the Halozyme management a second time, the analyst accused Rodman's Head of Sales of trying to delay the downgrade until after the marketing trip that had previously been scheduled for the following Monday (February 27, 2006) and Tuesday (February 28, 2006). However, because the approval of the IPC was required in order to lower an investment rating, the analyst scheduled to meet with the Halozyme CFO on the following Monday and then submit the downgrade report afterwards.

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