SHKRELI ARRESTED FOR SECURITIES FRAUD; $KBIO CUT IN HALF

Oh well, that didn’t last very long. The less than a month old CEO of KBIO, asshole in Chief, Martin Shkreli, was arrested this morning for being an asshole–and also committing securities fraud.

Here’s the scoop.

Complex financial maneuvers were used to conceal the payments, Retrophin said. For example, the company accused its former CEO of fraudulently reclassifying a $900,000 equity investment that MSMB made in Retrophin as a loan. He then allegedly had Retrophin pay off that loan to settle another unrelated legal dispute.

The Securities and Exchange Commission, which according to court documents opened an investigation into Shkreli in 2012, is expected to file a parallel civil complaint against him, according to people familiar with the matter.

Shkreli spoke cavalierly of the company’s lawsuit, saying, “The $65 million Retrophin wants from me would not dent me. I feel great. I’m licking my chops over the suits I’m going to file against them.”

Earlier, he had denied wrongdoing in a post on InvestorsHub after Retrophin disclosed it had received a subpoena from federal prosecutors and the preliminary findings from its own investigation of Shkreli. He called the company’s allegations “completely false, untrue at best and defamatory at worst.”

“Every transaction I’ve ever made at Retrophin was done with outside counsel’s blessing,” he said on the investment blog in February, without identifying the lawyers.

Shkreli started his career interning for “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer while still a teenager. After recommending successful trades, Shkreli eventually set up his own hedge fund, quickly developing a reputation for trashing biotechnology stocks in online chatrooms and shorting them, to enormous profit.

Widely admired for his intellect and sharp eye, he pored over medical journals and self-trained in biology. He set up Retrophin to develop drugs and acquire older pharmaceuticals that could be sold for higher profits.

Turing, which is less than a year old and has raised $90 million in financing, has followed a similar strategy with the purchase of drug patents, including Daraprim.

Shkreli recently bought a majority stake in KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc. after Turing received a warning from the New York attorney general that the distribution network for Daraprim may violate antitrust laws. State officials made their concerns known to Turing and Shkreli in an Oct. 12 letter obtained by Bloomberg.

KaloBios recently acquired the license for benznidazole, a standard treatment for Chagas, a deadly parasitic infection most common in South and Central America. The firm announced plans to increase the cost from a couple hundred dollars for two months to a pricing structure like that for hepatitis-C drugs, which can run to nearly $100,000 for 12 weeks.

“Some of these companies seem to act more like hedge funds than traditional pharmaceutical companies”
With the onslaught of federal charges and looming regulatory actions, Shkreli could be banned from running a public company, which could put the future of KaloBios into question. Shares of the firm fell 50 percent in pre-market trading. It’s less clear what the impact could be on Turing, which is privately held.

The charges also show that a small group of health care firms—ones that acquire the rights to drugs and significantly increase their prices—is drawing the scrutiny of regulators and prosecutors, with a possible chilling effect on aggressive drug-pricing strategies.

Legislators are already paying attention. A hearing of the Senate Special Committee on Aging on Dec. 9 scrutinized such tactics.

Before Shkreli started Turing, Retrophin raised the price of Thiola, used to treat a rare condition causing debilitating recurrences of kidney stones, from $1.50 a pill to $30.

“Some of these companies seem to act more like hedge funds than traditional pharmaceutical companies,” said Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who ran the recent hearing.

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.”

Who knows what the fuck is going on here? Fact is Marty made an absurd amount of enemies over the past month, including the Wu Tang Clan.

Son, Wu Tang Clan ain’t nothing to fuck with. Too funny.