------------------------------ OMB APPROVAL ------------------------------ OMB Number: 3235-0362 Expires: January 31, 2005 Estimated average burden hours per response.........1.0 ------------------------------ UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION Washington, DC 20549 FORM 5 ANNUAL STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP Filed pursuant to Section 16(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, Section 17(a) of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 or Section 30(h) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 |_| Check box if no longer subject to Section 16. Form 4 or Form 5 obligations may continue. See Instruction 1(b). |_| Form 3 Holdings Reported |X| Form 4 Transactions Reported ________________________________________________________________________________ 1. Name and Address of Reporting Person* Hoffman Mark S. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Last) (First) (Middle) c/o Palisade Capital Management, Inc. One Bridge Plaza, Suite 695 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Street) Fort Lee New Jersey 07024 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (City) (State) (Zip) ________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Issuer Name and Ticker or Trading Symbol Opticare Health Systems, Inc. (OPT) ________________________________________________________________________________ 3. I.R.S. Identification Number of Reporting Person, if an entity (Voluntary) ________________________________________________________________________________ 4. Statement for Month/Year 12/02 ________________________________________________________________________________ 5. If Amendment, Date of Original (Month/Year) ________________________________________________________________________________ 6. Relationship of Reporting Person(s) to Issuer (Check all applicable) |X| Director |X| 10% Owner |_| Officer (give title below) |_| Other (specify below) ____________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________ 7. Individual or Joint/Group Filing (check applicable line) |X| Form filed by One Reporting Person |_| Form filed by More than One Reporting Person ________________________________________________________________________________ ================================================================================ Table I -- Non-Derivative Securities Acquired, Disposed of, or Beneficially Owned ================================================================================ 5. 6. 4. Amount of Owner- Securities Acquired (A) or Securities ship 2A. 3. Disposed of (D) Beneficially Form: 7. 2. Deemed Transaction (Instr. 3, 4 and 5) Owned Direct Nature of Trans- Execution Code ------------------------------- at the End (D) or Indirect 1. action Date, if (Instr. 8) (A) of Issuer's Indirect Beneficial Title of Security Date any ------------ or Fiscal Year (I) Ownership (Instr. 3) (mm/dd/yy) (mm/dd/yy) Amount (D) Price (Instr. 3 & 4) (Instr.4) (Instr.4) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mr. Hoffman is a Member of Palisade Concentrated Holdings, LLC, the General Partner of Palisade Concentrated Equity Partnership, LP, the COMMON STOCK, direct par value $0.001 12/26/2002 X 17,375,000 A $0.14 19,375,000 I owner of the shares of Common Stock. Mr. Hoffman is also a Managing Director of Palisade Capital Management, LLC, the investment advisor to Palisade Concentrated Holdings, LLC. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ==================================================================================================================================== * If the form is filed by more than one reporting person, see instruction 4(b)(v). FORM 5 (continued) Table II -- Derivative Securities Acquired, Disposed of, or Beneficially Owned (e.g., puts, calls, warrants, options, convertible securities) ================================================================================ 10. 9. Owner- Number ship 2. of of Conver- 5. 7. Deriv- Deriv- 11. sion Number of Title and Amount ative ative Nature or Derivative 6. of Underlying 8. Secur- Secur- of Exer- 3A. 4. Securities Date Securities Price ities ity: In- cise Deemed Trans- Acquired (A) Exercisable and (Instr. 3 and 4) of Bene- Direct direct Price 3. Execut- action or Disposed Expiration Date ---------------- Deriv- ficially (D) or Bene- 1. of Trans- ion Code of(D) (Month/Day/Year) Amount ative Owned In- ficial Title of Deriv- action Date if (Instr. (Instr. 3, ---------------- or Secur- at End direct Owner- Derivative ative Date any 8) 4 and 5) Date Expira- Number ity of Year (I) ship Security Secur- (mm/dd/ (mm/dd/ ------ ------------ Exer- tion of (Instr. (Instr. (Instr. (Instr. (Instr. 3) ity yy) yy) (A) (D) cisable Date Title Shares 5) 4) 4) 4) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Common See Common Stock, Table 1, Stock $0.14 12/26/02 X 17,375,000 Immed. 1/25/02 par 17,375,000 N/A 29,205,995* I item 7 Warrants value above. $0.001 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ==================================================================================================================================== Explanation of Responses: * Palisade Capital Management, L.L.C. ("Palisade"), a New Jersey limited liability company, is a registered investment advisor that has discretionary authority over the accounts of its clients. Palisade is the beneficial owner, on behalf of its clients, of (i) 19,375,000 shares of OptiCare Health Systems, Inc. (the "Company") common stock, par value $.001 per share (the "Common Stock"), (ii) an immediately exercisable Warrant ("Warrant") to purchase up to 400,000 additional shares of Common Stock, and (iii) 2,920,599.50 shares of the Company's Series B 12.5% Voting Cumulative Convertible Participating Preferred Stock, par value $0.001 (the "Series B Preferred Stock"), immediately convertible into 29,205,995 shares of Common Stock. The Warrant, the shares of Series B Preferred Stock and all shares of Common Stock are held in the account of Palisade Concentrated Equity Partnership, L.P., a private investment limited partnership formed by affiliates of Palisade under the laws of the State of Delaware (the "Partnership"). /s/ Mark S. Hoffman 3/06/2003 --------------------------------------------- ----------------------- **Signature of Reporting Person Date ** Intentional misstatements or omissions of facts constitute Federal Criminal Violations. See 18 U.S.C. 1001 and 15 U.S.C. 78ff(a). Note: File three copies of this Form, one of which must be manually signed. If space provided is insufficient, see Instruction 6 for procedure.