Pharmaceutical mogul Martin Shkreli charged with fraud

Martin Shkreli, the former hedge fund manager vilified for buying a pharmaceutical company and jacking up the price of a life-saving drug more than fiftyfold, has been arrested on securities fraud charges unrelated to the furore.

The boyish-looking 32-year-old entrepreneur — a relentlessly self-promoting figure who has called himself “the world’s most eligible bachelor” on Twitter and recently plunged into the hip-hop world by buying an unreleased album by the group Wu-Tang Clan — was in custody awaiting an appearance in federal court in Brooklyn.

He was charged in a seven-count indictment unconnected to the drug price hikes imposed by his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals.

The charges instead involve his actions at another drug company, Retrophin, which he ran as CEO from 2012 to 2014.

The indictment said Shkrelia and others orchestrated three interrelated fraud schemes from 2009 to 2014.

VIDEO: Martin Shkreli walks in a throng of photographers after arraignment on securities fraud charges: https://t.co/NSNBtbOBAI

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 18, 2015

It said they fraudulently induced investors to put their money in two funds and misappropriated Retrophin’s assets to satisfy Shkreli’s personal and professional debts.

Shkreli is charged with securities fraud and conspiracy.

Shkreli’s Turing Pharmaceuticals spent $55m in August for the US rights to sell Daraprim, a drug for a rare parasitic infection, upping the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill.

The drug is the only approved treatment for toxoplasmosis, a disease that mainly strikes pregnant women, cancer patients and Aids patients.

The move sparked global outrage and a Senate hearing on drug prices.