Price-gouging CEO indicted on securities fraud charges

by Bradford Richardson - 12/17/15 2:04 PM ET

The pharmaceutical executive known for jacking up the price of a lifesaving drug by more than 5,000 percent was indicted Thursday by federal authorities on securities fraud charges.

Martin Shkreli was charged in a seven-count indictment unrelated to his tenure as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, where he raised the price of toxoplasmosis drug Daraprim to $750 per pill, up from $13.50, earlier this year.

{mosads}The charges stem from his work at another drug company, Retrophin, which he headed from 2012 to 2014.

The indictment alleges Shkreli and his lawyer Evan Greebel, who was also arrested Thursday, “engaged in a scheme to defraud Retrophin by misappropriating Retrophin’s assets through material misrepresentation and omissions in an effort to satisfy Shkreli’s personal and unrelated professional debts and obligations.”

“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.”

Both men could face up to 20 years behind bars if convicted.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also charged Shkreli with a parallel civil complaint Thursday, alleging he misappropriated funds from two hedge funds he ran from 2009 to 2014.

The SEC says Shkreli misled prospective investors in MSMB Capital Management about the size and performance of the company and unlawfully used $120,000 from the group for personal expenses.

Turing Pharmaceuticals spent $55 million earlier this year to acquire the rights to sell Daraprim, a 62-year-old drug that treats a rare infection that mostly strikes pregnant women, caner patients and AIDS patients.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) had reviled him as the “poster boy for drug company greed.”

Tags Martin Shkreli