Internet’s most hated CEO arrested on fraud charges

He didn’t speak to reporters.

Despite the long-term investigations, Shkreli has been in the news recently for dramatically hiking the price of the life-saving drug, Daraprim, as the head of Turing.

From September 2013 to March 2014, Shkreli, with assistance from Greebel, “fraudulently induced Retrophin to issue stock and make cash payments to certain disgruntled investors in Shkreli’s hedge funds who were threatening legal action”, the complaint adds.

Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli-whose decision to increase the cost of that company’s life-saving Daraprim medication by an astonishing 5,500 percent lead to his meteoric rise as internet villain par excellence-was arrested by federal authorities early Thursday morning, reports Bloomberg. Shkreli later said he would back down on the price hike, but he has not done so yet. Instead, charges against Shkreli may include securities fraud stemming from his time as CEO of Retrophin Inc., a pharmaceutical company he started.

Shkreli is accused of misusing Retrophin funds to allegedly pay off millions in debts to investors of MSMB Capital Management, Bloomberg reported.

He was later charged during the indictment, but he was released after posting $5 million bail. His company then increased the price from $13.50 per pill to $750.

“As alleged, Martin Shkreli engaged in multiple schemes to ensnare investors through a web of lies and deceit”, said Robert Capers, US Attorney for the Eastern District of NY.

A seven-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn federal court Thursday charged Shkreli with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud. On Twitter, Shkreli calls himself a “gaming enthusiast.” The drug is the only approved treatment for a rare parasitic infection called toxoplasmosis that mainly strikes pregnant women, cancer patients and AIDS patients.

The arrest is unrelated to the drug-pricing row or his current companies Turing Pharmaceuticals and KalaBios.

Calls to an attorney who has represented Shkreli in the past were not immediately returned. That move earned him endless amounts of public derision and prompted members of Congress to launch investigations into the high price of prescription drugs, as well as becoming the target of presidential candidates, including Donald Trump referring to Shkreli as a “spoiled brat”.