Brafman told the judge that he plans on filing a motion for severance – meaning the two men would be tried separately.
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A federal judge scheduled the former pharmaceutical executive to be tried on June 26, 2017, in a securities fraud case.
The 33-year-old businessman and social media enthusiast has pleaded not guilty to charges he illegally used Retrophin, a biotechnology company he once headed, as a personal piggy bank by taking company stock and using it to pay investors he’d burned in hedge fund investments.
Greebel served as the company’s former lawyer.
“We’re not just going to be sitting on a beach waiting for the June trial date”, said Brafman, who has represented celebrities including Sean “Diddy” Combs, Jay Z, Michael Jackson, Mafia boss Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano and former International Monetary Fund boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn. When asked if his client is blaming Greebel, Brafman said, “I don’t think there is a finger of blame to point”.
Like a child who’s misbehaved and now seeks forgiveness from a pushover parent, Shkreli appeared to be seeking respite from his impending trial. Among other things, the lawyers for both sides squabbled over whether prosecutors had adequately disclosed potentially exculpatory evidence in their possession to the defendants as required by law. “To the extent that both defendants may be innocent – and one is a lawyer and our client relied on his advice – doesn’t necessarily mean that either of them committed a crime. It may mean that both can not have a joint trial, however”.
Since then, the pair have had their court proceedings delayed after Shkreli fired his legal team and federal prosecutors added additional charges.
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Shkreli, 33, achieved notoriety a year ago as chief of Turing Pharmaceuticals for raising the price of the drug Daraprim from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill overnight, and then repeatedly invoking the Fifth Amendment during a congressional committee hearing on drug prices. He was ousted in 2014, and the company sued him for $65 million in connection with his alleged looting. Shkreli repeatedly defended the increase as justified, even as critics noted that pregnant women, babies and people infected with the HIV virus are primary patients of the medication.
