Federal prosecutors said Tuesday they are mulling additional securities fraud charges against pharmaceutical price-hike bad boy Martin Shkreli. According to CNBC, prosecutors are now “seriously considering” adding further charges against Shkreli relating to his alleged conduct at Retrophin, including securities fraud.
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“We understand we might be facing additional transactions we haven’t heard about before”, Greebel defense attorney Reed Brodsky said of the potential new charges.
Additional charges related to the biopharmaceutical company Retrophin that Shkreli previously led could be filed within the next month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Winston Paes said at a hearing.
Shkreli has pleaded not guilty, and upheld that view Tuesday on Twitter.
Shkreli, nicknamed the “Pharma Bro”, gained worldwide notoriety for hiking the price of an HIV and cancer drug from $13 (£9) a pill to $750.
The government has turned over to defense about 70 gigabytes of evidence in preparation of a trial, according to Paes.
In the current charges, Shkreli and his co-defendant, Evan Greebel, used investor funds from Retrophin to pay more than $7.6 million “through sham consulting agreements” to settle investors’ claims from failed hedge funds.
Martin Shkreli may have become one of the most hated men in America due to price-gouging AIDS patients by increasing the price of the drug daraprim, according to the New York Post, but his federal charges are completely unrelated. “We do not think the indictment will change in any way or affect Shkreli in any way”.
Shkreli has also drawn ire from die-hard Wu-Tang Clan fans after plunking down $2 million for the gangsta rap group’s one-of-a-kind album – and bragging that he bought it only “to keep it from the people”.
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Lawyers for. Messrs. Shkreli and Greebel, who were arrested on fraud charges past year, told a federal judge on Tuesday that prosecutors informed them of the new charges in a recent meeting.
