Jackass drug CEO gets another pink slip

Martin Shkreli after being arrested for securities fraud on Thursday.

Retrophin, which fired him more than a year ago when it was first alleged that he misappropriated funds.

Mr Shkreli, who came to prominence after his company raised the price of a lifesaving HIV drug by 5,000%, has pleaded not guilty to the fraud charges.

Shkreli was arrested last week for engaging in what US prosecutors said was a Ponzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund MSMB Capital Management and Retrophin Inc (RTRX.O), a company he headed before he took the helm of Turing Pharmaceuticals.

He also told The Wall Street Journal he believed that federal authorities targeted him over the drug price hikes and his in-your-face style defending his decisions via statements and videos in social media and interviews with news organizations.

He’s being replaced on an interim basis by Ron Tilles, who has been chairman of Turing’s board of directors since the company was founded late previous year.

Shkreli has often used Twitter to parry with critics, project what some call a “pharma-bro” persona-which includes a love of hip-hop that led him to buy an unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album for $2 million-and even make industry connections.

Shkreli became CEO of KaloBios on November 19th after acquiring 70 percent of the company’s outstanding shares. In another tweet, Shkreli’s hackers wrote, “I got anal aids now good thing the pill is right here for $700 [sic]”, an obvious nod to the heated controversy about Shkreli hiking up the price of a popular lifesaving AIDS drug to $750 per pill. “The indictment doesn’t use that word”, said 32-year-old Shkreli. The drug to be tested was KB003, which was being developed to treat a form of leukemia.

Within a day of his arrest Shkreli was regularly spending hours live-streaming mundane aspects of his life on YouTube and posting tweets defending his business practices. Prior to the move, the stock of KaloBios was trading at under $1 before he made the move, and it subsequently rose to as high as $39.50, which gave the company a market value of over $100 million.

A series of seven tweets at midday EST on Sunday from Shkreli’s account included: “Anyone want free money?”