Twitter blows up over Martin Shkreli’s arrest

The chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals and KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc is having one hell of a year.

Authorities believe that Shkerli used Retrophin’s stock to repay millions in losses that he generated while running the hedge fund. Prosecutors are alleging that he did so by making secret payoffs to former investors and disguising them as “consulting arrangements”.

The backlash, however, led the privately held company to say last month it was cutting the cost of the drug.

But Shkreli, who is also very active on Twitter, dismissed a retweet of Clinton’s criticism with a popular Internet acronym.

FILE – In this October 1, 2015 file photo, AIDS activists pour cat litter on an image of Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli in a makeshift cat litter pan during a protest highlighting pharmaceutical?drug pricing in NY.

Shkreli was publicly vilified after his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of a drug for a rare parasitic infection from $13.50 to $750 per pill.

On October 16, 2013, when Shkreli initially questioned this new approach, Greebel explained, “We can call it a settlement agreement, but given [the auditor’s] recent behavior they may require it to be disclosed in the financials”.

Calls to an attorney that has represented Shkreli in the past were not immediately returned.

“A new chapter for Retrophin began the day the company replaced Martin Shkreli more than a year ago – and that decision has been vindicated by today’s indictment”, said the company’s statement.

“Shkreli essentially ran [Retrophin] like a Ponzi scheme”, U.S. Attorney Robert Capers said Thursday, according to CNN Money, adding that he used the company “as his personal piggy bank”.

Federal prosecutors alleged that for five years, Shkreli lied to investors in two hedge funds and bio-pharmaceutical company Retrophin, all of which he founded. Also arrested was Evan L. Greebel, a corporate lawyer, who worked with Retrophin and whose name appears on numerous company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Capers said it was unclear if Shkreli had hiked up the price of the drug, which is used to treat toxoplasmosis in cancer and AIDS patients, to pay back debts. Bernie Sanders, also running for the Democrat nomination, refused to accept a campaign donation from him.

The charges relate to Shkreli’s management of New York-based hedge fund MSMB Capital Management, whose closure he announced in 2012, and his time as CEO of Retrophin from 2012 to 2014.

He said at he time: “We’ve agreed to lower the price on Daraprim to a point that is more affordable and is able to allow the company to make a profit, but a very small profit”.

Wu-Tang Clan’s $2 million album is still in Martin Shkreli’s clutches.