Notorious pharma CEO Shkreli arrested on fraud charges
Man who made news for raising price of AIDS drug accused of securities fraud
Ex-pharmaceutical company CEO Martin Shkreli said Saturday the fraud allegations against him are “baseless and without merit.”
“I am confident I will prevail,” Shkreli tweeted.
Shkreli, 32, and a former hedge fund manager, pleaded not guilty Thursday in Brooklyn federal court was released on $5 million bail. He was charged with securities fraud and conspiracy.
Prosecutors said that between 2009 to 2014 Shkreli lost some of his hedge fund investors’ money through bad trades, then looted a pharmaceutical company where he was CEO for $11 million to pay back his clients.
Shkreli, resigned from Turing Pharmaceuticals soon after he was arrested. He will be temporarily replaced by Ron Tilles as the company searches for a permanent CEO.
He is known for being the so-called the most hated man in America” for jacking up the price of the only approved drug for a life-saving parasitic infection by 5,000 percent after acquiring rights to it.
Shkreli, a flagrant self-promoter who recently said he should have hiked the price of anti-parasitic drug Daraprim even more, was paraded in handcuffs by the FBI after his arrest. He pleaded not guilty to charges of securities fraud and conspiracy, which carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison if he's convicted.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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