Martin Shkreli, the former hedge fund
manager vilified in nearly every corner of America for buying a
pharmaceutical company and jacking up the price of a life-saving drug
more than fiftyfold, was arrested Thursday on securities fraud charges
unrelated to the furor.
The
boyish-looking 32-year-old entrepreneur -- an unapologetically
aggressive businessman and relentlessly self-promoting figure who has
called himself "the world's most eligible bachelor" on Twitter and
recently plunged into the hip-hop world by buying an unreleased album by
the Wu-Tang Clan and reportedly promising to help have jailed Brooklyn rapper Bobby Shmurda bailed out -- was taken into custody in a gray hooded sweatshirt and awaited an appearance in federal court in Brooklyn.
He was charged in a seven-count
indictment unconnected to the drug price hikes imposed by his company,
Turing Pharmaceuticals. The charges instead involve his actions at
another drug company, Retrophin, which he ran as CEO from 2012 to 2014.
The indictment
said Shkrelia and others orchestrated three interrelated fraud schemes
from 2009 to 2014. It said they fraudulently induced investors to sink
their money into two separate funds and misappropriated Retrophin's
assets to satisfy Shkreli's personal and professional debts.
Shkreli "engaged in multiple schemes
to ensnare investors through a web of lies and deceit," U.S. Attorney
Robert Capers said in a statement.
Shkreli was charged with securities fraud and conspiracy. His attorneys had no immediate comment.
A second defendant, lawyer Evan
Greebel, of Scarsdale, New York, was charged with conspiracy. It was not
immediately clear who would represent him.
If convicted, both men could get up to 20 years in prison.
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