Pharma boss Martin Shkreli arrested

  • 18/12/2015
Martin Shkreli is led to a waiting police car by federal agents following his arrest in the Manhattan borough of New York (Reuters)
Martin Shkreli is led to a waiting police car by federal agents following his arrest in the Manhattan borough of New York (Reuters)

The man labelled the world's worst CEO for hiking the price of HIV medication more than 5000 percent has been arrested and charged in New York for his previous business dealings.

Chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals and KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc, Martin Shkreli, is facing charges of federal indictment related to his time managing hedge fund MSMB Capital Management and heading biopharmaceutical company Retrophin Inc, Reuters reports.

The indictment also charged Evan Greebel, a former partner at law firm Katten Muchin Rosenmann who was Retrophin's outside counsel.

FBI spokeswoman Kelly Langmesser confirmed the arrests of Shkreli and Greebel.

Shares of KaloBios fell 53 percent at US$11.03 in the premarket before trading in them was halted.

After MSMB suffered devastating trading losses in 2011 and ceased trading, Shkreli for months sent fabricated updates to investors touting profits of as high as 40 percent since inception, the indictment said.

He also solicited US$5 million from investors for another fund, MSMB Healthcare Management LP, while concealing his performance managing MSMB Capital and a prior fund and providing investors an inflated valuation of his then-private firm Retrophin, the indictment said.

Shkreli has denied the allegations.

The case is separate from the ongoing drug pricing controversy that had in recent weeks enveloped Shkreli and Turing Pharmaceuticals.

At a Senate hearing on drug pricing last week, a doctor who treats babies with life-threatening toxoplasmosis testified that a course of treatment with Daraprim went from about $1,200 to no less than $69,000.

Reuters