Martin Shkreli sacked as CEO as fraud charges laid

But in a statement issued on Monday, the company said Mr Shkreli had been “terminated” as CEO and “resigned from his position as a member of the board of directors” at the end of last week. The drug in question which was to be tested, known as KB003, is being developed to treat one form of leukemia.

After Shkreli disclosed in November that he had taken a large stake in the struggling drug firm, KaloBios shares soared.

Shkreli was arrested last week on securities fraud charges. Capers said the probe began in 2014 when Shkreli was still CEO of Retrophin, a separate drug company which fired him more than a year ago.

Shkreli resigned on Friday as chief executive of the other company he ran, Turing Pharmaceuticals, after his arrest on securities fraud charges relating to alleged activities at one of the companies Shkreli previously ran. The charges carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison if he’s convicted.

Amid a deluge of criticism from patients and politicians, Shkreli pledged to lower Daraprim’s price, but later reneged and instead offered hospitals a 50 percent discount – still amounting to a 2,500 percent increase.

Daraprim, sold exclusively through Walgreens under a deal with the Chicago-area pharmacy retailer, is a treatment for toxoplasmosis, a rare parasitic disease that can cause severe brain damage and death in people with compromised immune systems, including those with AIDS.

The price-gouging scandal sparked widespread criticism and condemnation before Shkreli was arrested.

In a separate incident, on Sunday, Martin Shkreli had lost control of his Twitter account to hackers, hours after he took to Twitter to plead his innocence, his spokesman said. Posts including “I am now a god”, “Anyone want free money?”

It’s been a tough few days for Martin Shkreli – not that the “most hated man” deserves sympathy. Since his release, he has live-streamed himself playing online chess and guitar on YouTube.

Shkreli will be replaced on an interim basis by Ron Tilles, Turing Pharma’s chairman, at the privately held company, which has offices in NY and Zug in Switzerland.

Kayne Scholer partner Evan Greebel, who served as Retrophin’s outside counsel, was also arrested last week.