Drug Price Gouging ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli Arrested By FBI For Securities Fraud

The man who raised the price of a life-saving AIDS and cancer drug 5500% was just arrested for something entirely unrelated to his drug price gouging.

Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli was arrested by the FBI early Thursday morning on securities fraud charges. The 32-year old fast-playing former hedge fund manager wunderkind turned drug company chief earned him the nickname “pharma-bro.”  Shkreli became known nationwide after purchasing the rights to a little-known and old but life-saving drug, and increasing the price from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill, a 5500% increase. That drug, Daraprim, Shkreli admitted, costs about $1 to make.

Shkreli has been the target of a federal investigation since at least January. The case involves a company he founded, Retrophin, from which he was later fired.

UPDATE: Bigger Than Trump: 9 Things About Martin Shkreli That Happened Today After He Was Arrested

“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,” Bloomberg Business reports.

UPDATE: Martin Shkreli Ran Companies ‘Like A Ponzi Scheme’ Prosecutor Charges (Video)

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, who initially had refused to lower the price of Daraprim several months ago, ultimately conceded after national disgust forced him to give in. He promised to lower the cost within a month, but would not say by how much. He later reneged on that public promise. 

UPDATE: Martin Shkreli Loses $26 Million After Being Arrested

More recently, Shkreli made headlines for being the sole purchaser of the only copy of a new Wu-Tang Clan album. The price? Two million dollars.

And this week news broke that Shkreli was repeating his scheme of price gouging with another life-saving drug, Benznidazole, which is used by 300,000 patients to battle the deadly parasitic infection known as Chagas disease. The World Health Organization put Benznidazole on its list of essential medicines.