Imprisoned 'pharma bro' Martin Shkreli files lawsuit claiming he was defrauded
Pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli, who is currently serving time in prison, filed a lawsuit on Friday against three executives at his former drug company Retrophin.
The so-called “pharma bro” said Retrophin’s chair of the board of directors, CEO and general counsel illegally ousted him from the company and stole $30 million. He claims these people benefited from his removal and were driven by “egos, jealousy and greed.”
The suit was filed in federal court in Manhattan.
Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of securities fraud for allegedly running his businesses like a Ponzi scheme. While he lost millions of investors’ dollars on bad trades, he is said to have paid them back with profits he made from his drug company Retrophin.
Shkreli is also known for price gouging. In 2015 he infamously raised the price of his HIV drug, Daraprim, by 5,000 percent – to $750 per pill from $13.50 – a decision he defended at the time.
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A judge found Shkreli responsible for $6.4 million that investors put into his funds as a result of fraud and $4 million for trying to inflate the stock price of Retrophin by attempting to prevent investors from selling their shares.
The Wall Street Journal reported that, while behind bars, Shkreli was running pharmaceutical company Phoenixus AG using a contraband cellphone. Since then he has been in solitary confinement.