Martin Shkreli resigns as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals amid fraud case

After a busy couple of days being arrested and charged with securities fraud, posting $5 million bail, and losing his job as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Martin Shkreli unwound by live streaming.

Disgraced pharma magnate Martin Shkreli defaulted to his defense-by-Twitter ways on Saturday to label allegations of fraud lobbed against him as “baseless and without merit”.

Shkreli was arrested on Thursday and charged with securities fraud.

Shortly after his arrest, former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli live-streamed himself playing chess and browsing dating site OkCupid. The accusations are that he operated a Ponzi scheme when he ran a NY hedge fund. “He lied to the investors in both funds as to how the investments were doing”.

It began after Turing Pharmaceuticals spent $55 million in August for the USA rights to sell Daraprim, a 62-year-old drug for a rare parasitic infection, and promptly raised the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill. The Brooklyn man’s arrest was confirmed Thursday by Federal Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser.

Several classmates say that when they heard about Mr. Shkreli’s gift, they could not help but wonder whether it was meant as a sly act of one-upmanship. He was also revealed to be the purchaser, for $2m, of the only copy of the new album by the rap group Wu-Tang Clan.

On Friday, Community Solutions, a homelessness charity, said it would give back the entire $15,000 it received from Shkreli. After ousting him from the company, the board sued Shkreli.

He also solicited $5 million from investors for another fund, MSMB Healthcare Management LP, while concealing his performance managing MSMB Capital and a prior fund and providing investors an inflated valuation of his then-private firm Retrophin, the indictment said.

Although Turing said it would provide the drug for free to qualified uninsured patients with incomes below 500 percent of the federal poverty level, the company has refused to lower the drug’s price, except for a 50 percent price cut for hospitals. Shkreli said he had one drink, but that he was a lightweight.

Last month, Shkreli was named chairman and CEO of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, a struggling cancer drug developer.