Turing CEO Martin Shkreli Arrested for Securities Fraud

Federal authorities arrested Martin Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals last week. Shkreli was the center of price-gouging controvery of Daraprim. Securities Exchanges Commission (SEC) said the arrest was based charge of securities fraud in his old company.

Martin Shkreli with Turing Pharmaceuticals obtained manufacturing rights to produce Daraprim, the trade mark of Pyrimethamine from Impax Laboratories. Daraprim is a life-saving medicine to treat parasite infection.

Following the purchase of rights, Turing Pharmaceutical removed all Daraprim and its generic Pyrimethamines from the market, When all the medicines have gone, Martin Shkreli raised its price to the ceiling from $13.50 to $750. An action which sparked outrage all over the country.

Last Thursday, SEC accused Martin Shkreli on the charge of fraud of more than $1 million in investors' money from his two hedge funds: MSMB Capital Management and MSMB Healthcare. ABC News reported that Shkreli was arrested in a gray hoodie and taken into federal court in Brooklyn, where he pleaded not guilty.

Following the arrest, Robert Weissman, president of the watchdog group Public Citizen said the arrest was , "Al Capone was brought down for tax evasion, but he committed many worse crimes," Weissman said. "So if Shkreli's arrested for securities violations, it's a comparable justice."

Shkreli started his career as a hedge fund manager, and his first adventure in pharmaceutical industry was during his tenure MSMB Capital Management with his partner Marek Biestek. In 2011, he founded Retrophin, Inc. as a biopharmaceutical company and buying rights for obsolete drugs to treat kidney stone. Shkreli then sold the drugs at higher price, from $1.50 to $30 per pill.

His endeavor in Retrophin went sour after he was ousted in 2014 from the company he founded, because the boards found him conducting "irregular trading" of company's stock. SEC also accused Shkreli for running Retrophin like a Ponzi-scheme and swindled $11 million of investors money, and the charges against him was also charges of "a securities fraud trifecta of lies, deceit, and greed"

However, Shkreli insisted that his arrest was made based on the case of drug price hike. The 32-year old is also known as an avid social media addict, as he often livestream his daily activities and twit profusely. In an interview with Wall Street Journal he said about his way to get people's attention. "What do you do when you have the attention of millions of people? It seemed to me like it would be fun to experiment with,"

CNN reported that after the arrest, U.S. Attorney Robert Capers said at a press conference that the drug price hike played no role in the investigation of the charges against him. Capers said the probe had began in 2014 when Shkreli was still CEO of Retrophin.

Turing Pharmaceutical has replaced him as CEO and Shkreli is now released on $5 million bail.