New charges for ex-pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli
NEW YORK -- Federal prosecutors in New York have filed additional criminal charges against a pharmaceutical executive who was heavily criticized for raising the price of a lifesaving medication.
A new indictment filed Friday in Brooklyn says Martin Shkreli and his former attorney Evan Greebel schemed to defrauded potential investors of his former drug company Retrophin Inc., based in San Diego. They say the two allocated company stock to seven employees to conceal Shkreli's ownership of it.
Shkreli previously pleaded not guilty to charges he lost investors' money through bad trades and looted the pharmaceutical company to pay them back.
Prosecutors allege that in a "Ponzi-like scheme" between 2009 and 2014, Shkreli lost hedge fund investors' money through bad trades, then raided Retrophin for $11 million in cash and stock to pay his disgruntled clients.
Shkreli gained notoriety after a drug company he founded, Turing Pharmaceuticals, spent $55 million for the U.S. rights to sell a life-saving medicine called Daraprim and promptly raised the price about 5,000 percent from $13.50 to $750 per pill.
In February, he infuriated U.S. lawmakers when he exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in a hearing on the issue before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Shkreli's attorney said the new criminal allegations won't change the "flawed theory" of the case. Greebel's lawyer had no comment.