Controversial pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martin Shkreli is likely to argue that he was acting on his attorney’s advice during his forthcoming fraud trial.
Shkreli and Evan Greebel, who served as outside counsel for Retrophin—where Shkreli was CEO—were indicted on securities and wire fraud charges late last year amid allegations that Shkreli used company stock to pay back investors that lost money in his hedge funds.
USA Today reports that Shkreli’s attorneys told a court hearing last week that their client has strong “reliance-on-counsel” claims, which would prevent the co-defendants from being tried together.
Attorneys for Shkreli added that they wouldn’t blame Greebel and stressed than their argument “doesn’t necessarily mean that either of them committed a crime.”
A trial in the case was scheduled for next June; both Shkreli and Greebel pleaded not guilty.
Shkreli first rose to prominence as one of the most visible examples of alleged price-gouging by the pharmaceutical industry.
Turing, another pharmaceutical company he founded, raised the price of the AIDS drug Daraprim from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill—or 5,000 percent.
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Filed Under: Drug Discovery
