Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Arrested For Alleged Securities Fraud
Some consider him the most hated man in America.
Bloomberg Business is reporting that pharma CEO and reviled entrepreneur extraordinaire Martin Shkreli has been arrested for “securities fraud related to a firm he founded.”
Shkreli became infamous overnight when he purchased Turing Pharmaceuticals AG and immediately jacked the price for the previously affordable Daraprim, a drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, to stratospheric levels—from $13.50 per pill to $750. His arrest, according to Bloomberg, isn’t related to his recent notoriety:
The federal case against him has nothing to do with pharmaceutical costs, however. Prosecutors charged him with illegally taking stock from Retrophin Inc., a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. He was later ousted from the company, where he’d been chief executive officer, and sued by its board.
Shkreli’s arrest comes after a recent spate of odious public behavior which included purchasing Wu-Tang Clan’s one-off Once Upon a Time in Shaolin and directing sexist wisecracks at Taylor Swift.
Reuters also confirmed Shkreli’s arrest.
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