Martin Shkreli resigns from Turing Pharmaceuticals

A day earlier, the former CEO was arrested on securities-fraud charges after allegedly running a “Ponzi-like scheme” at an old job.

Shkreli was charged in an indictment unconnected to the drug price hikes imposed by his company Turing Pharmaceuticals.

Ron Tilles, chair of Turing’s board, will be the privately held company’s interim CEO.

Mr Tilles has worked with private equity and venture capital firms in the pharmaceutical and medical device industry for the past 20 years.

Shkreli stirred public outrage earlier this fall when his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals jacked the price of a drug used to treat a life-threatening infection by more than 5,000 percent. FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Diego Rodriguez while talking about the charges against him said, “describe a securities fraud trifecta of lies, deceit, and greed”. Greebel, like Shkreli, also pleaded not guilty, and he was freed on a $1 million bond.

Federal prosecutors allege Shkreli orchestrated three interrelated fraud schemes from September 2009 through September 2014, using investors’ money from one company he opened to illegally pay off debts owed to a previous business he started.

He also announced this week that he would pay $2m to bail out rapper Bobby Shmurda, who is jailed in NY awaiting trial on charges he denies related to the activities of his rap group, up to and including alleged murder, according to prosecutors.

‘It is no coincidence that these charges, the result of investigations which have been languishing for considerable time, have been filed at the same time of Shkreli’s high-profile, controversial and yet unrelated activities. Last month, Turing said it would offer price discounts of up to 50 per cent to hospitals. Patients normally take most of the weeks’ long treatment after returning home, so they and their insurer still face the $750-a-pill price.

The feds tweeted as much on Thursday, likely responding to hip-hop fans who wanted to know what happened to the rare print of “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin”, which Shkreli reportedly bought at auction.

However, the price of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals shares surged from around $2 to above $40 after the struggling cancer drug developer named Shkreli chairman and CEO in November. After his arrest, its stock fell by more than half Thursday before trading in the company was suspended.