Martin Shkreli blames drug price increases for arrest

On Monday morning, the drug firm KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, which Shkreli recently purchased a majority stake in, said that he had been fired as CEO on Thursday, the day of his arrest, and that he also had resigned from its board. The company was slated to go under before Shkreli swooped in with fellow investors to save it from bankruptcy.

Chase joined KaloBios’ board of directors when Shkreli took over the company along with a larger investor group including Marek Biestek and David Moradi.

The California-based KaloBios Pharmaceuticals announced Monday that Shkreli was “terminated” as CEO and resigned from the board, offering no further comment.

Shkreli is accused by federal prosecutors of using shell companies after his now defunct hedge fund MSMB Capital Management lost millions of dollars. Once released on bail, he live-streamed himself playing chess online, strumming his guitar, browsing the dating site OkCupid, and musing on life and business.

KaloBios stock was halted on December 16 after news of the arrest. He planned to acquire the license of a treatment for a parasitic infection, Chagas infection, and escalate the price from a few hundred dollars to as much as $100,000 over a period of 12 weeks, as reported by the Verge.

Martin Shkreli being escorted by law-enforcement agents in NY on Thursday after being taken into custody following a securities investigation.

Meanwhile, Shkreli has said his verified Twitter account is back under his control after it was compromised by a hacker who offered “free money”… He appeared on CNBC to defend drug price increases and told guests at a Forbes healthcare conference earlier this month that he should have raised the price of Daraprim further.

Just 24 hours after Shkreli’s indictment, his firm is cutting him loose.

Martin Shkreli, who was arrested last week on securities fraud charges, has been ousted from his second pharmaceutical company.

On Sunday his Twitter account was hacked and the name was changed to “Martin the God”.

Shkreli has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Authorities say Shkreli ran two troubled hedge funds and while he was CEO of Retrophin, used it as his own personal piggy bank, equating it to a Ponzi scheme.