Shkreli, CEO Reviled for Drug Price Gouging, Arrested on Securities Fraud Charges

[deminks]

http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2015-martin-shkreli-securities-fraud/

A boyish drug company entrepreneur, who rocketed to infamy by jacking up the price of a life-saving pill from $13.50 to $750, was arrested on securities fraud related to a firm he founded.

Martin Shkreli, 32, ignited a firestorm over drug prices in September and became a symbol of defiant greed. The federal case against him has nothing to do with pharmaceutical costs, however. Prosecutors charged him with illegally taking stock from Retrophin Inc., a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. He was later ousted from the company, where he’d been chief executive officer, and sued by its board.

In the case that closely tracks that suit, federal prosecutors accused Shkreli of engaging in a complicated shell game after his defunct hedge fund, MSMB Capital Management, lost millions. He is alleged to have made secret payoffs and set up sham consulting arrangements.

Shkreli’s extraordinary history—and current hold on the public imagination—makes the case more noteworthy than most involving securities fraud. The son of immigrants from Albania and Croatia who worked as janitors and raised him deep in working-class Brooklyn, Shkreli both epitomizes the American dream and sullies it. As a youth, he showed exceptional promise and independence and, after dropping out of an elite Manhattan high school, began his conquest of Wall Street before he was 20.

(end snip)

Affluenza is a vile disease.

[get the red out]

1. NICE!

Glad being a sociopath didn't pay in this case.

[Sherman A1]

2. Perhaps

a bit of Karma Kickback for this "charming" gentlemen......

[LiberalArkie]

3. Best line.

George Scangos, CEO of biotechnology giant Biogen Inc., went further, saying in an interview, “Turing is to a research-based company like a loan shark is to a legitimate bank.”

[StandingInLeftField]

4. Bury him.

And forget the location.

[Divernan]

5. Hedge fund owners are a vile disease/blood-sucking grifters

Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

No exceptions.

Know what I'm sayin'?!?!

[LuvNewcastle]

6. Yay!

[Aerows]

31. I know!

What a jackass he is, and I hope they put him under the jail.

[meow2u3]

7. Karma's a bitch, Pharma Bro!

Now the Feds ought to throw the book at this sociopath.

[smirkymonkey]

29. Exactly what I was going to say!

I really hope this little punk gets what is coming to him.

[Lochloosa]

8. You know...my day was not starting off so well. That's now changed...

[BeanMusical]

11. Same here.

[eShirl]

9. aw boo hoo

[beam me up scottie]

10. .

[BumRushDaShow]

12. I suppose

HBO is now furiously working on their next biopic to feature this guy. The story writes itself.

[Laser102]

13. So glad they nabbed this little narcissistic jerk. Hope he goes away for a long time.

Yes it is karma.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. Karma is ALWAYS at work

[ProfessorGAC]

16. What A Great Picture!

Extremely appropriate for the thread and really funny!

[bullwinkle428]

15. K&R. Maybe the Wu-Tang Clan will write a new song about him!

[Scuba]

17. On another thread, someone labelled this "pharma karma." Freaking perfect.

[malaise]

18. Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah hahahahahahha

Greed will kill yah - enjoy your prison stay scumbag

[deutsey]

19. A Christmas miracle!

Thank you, Santa!

[Iggo]

20. Oh, what a beautiful morning!

[cwydro]

21. Very glad to hear this.

I hope it costs him a bundle to defend himself.

[Chan790]

22. Unfortunately, not before he did more harm.

Yesterday (Edit: actually, more like last month), he began the process to get FDA approval for benznidazole, the only known treatment for Chagas disease--a parasitic illness common in Latin America, with the intention of charging a course-of-treatment cost to rival that of current Hep-C treatment-courses. (about $100,000 per person)

While we've known how to treat Chagas for decades, its treatment was never submitted to the FDA by mutual understanding. Nobody patents it or applies for manufacturing approval, and the FDA will import whatever is needed from Brazil where it is produced and approved and distribute it for free. Because the majority of people needing the treatment are immigrants in poverty and refugees, it never made much sense for any American company to submit anyways...that changed with the ACA and large numbers of patients needing it now being on Medicaid. Now Pharma-Bro Shkreli sees a windfall of federal monies in his pockets if he corners the market; fuck him to hell, I hope he goes to prison.

Here's a good Atlantic article on it: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/12/pharma-bro-martin-shkreli-chagas-fda/420249/

[Overseas]

24. I hope this can be reversed.

[Overseas]

23. K&R. Glad to hear it.

This case shows what kind of person he is. Willing to cross any boundaries for personal gain.

[Paladin]

25. Great Christmas present. (nt)

[sufrommich]

26. That should make everyone's Christmas a little merrier!

[marmar]

27. Quelle surprise !!!

I cannot believe such a fine, upstanding business leader would engage in fraud!


Sadly, he is the face of contemporary capitalism.

[Unknown Beatle]

28. Sounds like he angered all the right people.

He dismissed his critics with insults and when that happens, and you're small fry, you get arrested. I mean, there's a lot of people that should be arrested on Securities Fraud, including Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein, those two are up to their necks in all kinds of reckless and illegal schemes, but they're free because they don't insult the right people and don't act like spoiled brats.

[Javaman]

30. this is my take away from this:

if you are a heartless douchebag and try and turn that into a virture, then you will be investigated and arrested.

however, if you are a heartless douchebag and screw people out of their savings illegally, but don't try to turn that into a virtue, you are free to walk.

that, in a nutshell, is how wall street works.

I will cheer along with everyone else that this fucking creep got his just desserts, but there are literally thousands of assholes like this right now, getting away with worse and nothing happens to them.

it's the American way. we got our pound of flesh with this guy who is very easy to hate, but what of the others? Hey what are the kardashians doing?

[corkhead]

32. hopefully he will be trading in cigarettes soon