Martin Shkreli, the infamous drug CEO who raised the price of a life-saving medical treatment in September, was arrested on federal fraud charges this morning.
The FBI is investigating his former hedge fund, MSMB Management, and a pharmaceutical company he once owned, Retrophin Inc., reports Reuters. Shkreli is currently the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals and KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc.
According to Bloomberg, the case, brought on by Brooklyn prosecutors, has nothing to do with Shkreli raising the price of Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 in September. Prosecutors have charged him with illegally using stock from Retrophin to pay off unrelated debts. He had started that company in 2011, but was ousted and sued by the board.
Shkreli has also been accused of taking part in a shell game after MSMB, which is now defunct, lost millions. Evan Greebel, a New York lawyer, was also arrested in connection with the MSMB scheme.
Shkreli’s lawyer, Retrophin and Greebel’s office have all not commented yet. FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser did confirm to Reuters that Shkreli was arrested.
Ever since Shkreli raised the price Deraprim, he has become a lightning rod for controversy. He did once say that he would lower the cost of the life-saving drug used to fight toxoplasmosis, but then changed his mind. Then, he had the guts to say at a Forbes forum that if he had to do it over again, he would have raised the price even higher.
Then, there was the reports that spent millions to buy the new Wu Tang Clan album, which the group only made one copy of. He told Bloomberg that he doesn’t even have immediate plans to listen to the album.