Martin Shkreli, the former chief executive officer of Vyera Pharmaceuticals LLC who served time in prison for securities fraud, should be held in contempt of court for violating an order banning him from the drug industry, the Federal Trade Commission argued Friday.
(Bloomberg) — Martin Shkreli, the former chief executive officer of Vyera Pharmaceuticals LLC who served time in prison for securities fraud, should be held in contempt of court for violating an order banning him from the drug industry, the Federal Trade Commission argued Friday.
A year ago, a federal judge overseeing a civil case against Shkreli barred him from “directly or indirectly” participating in the pharmaceutical industry, after finding he had violated antitrust laws by scheming to block generic competition for the drug Daraprim. He was also ordered to pay a group of states as much as $64.6 million.
“Shkreli has flouted the Court’s order and plaintiffs’ efforts to monitor and assess his compliance with the order,” the FTC argued in a court filing Friday. The agency is seeking sanctions for civil contempt.
Shkreli and a lawyer representing him didn’t immediately return a call and emails seeking comment.
In 2018, Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of securities fraud for lying to investors and for manipulating shares of Retrophin Inc., a biotech company he founded. He was released from a low-security federal prison in May, then was required to live in a halfway house until September. Shkreli paid almost $7.4 million to the government as a result of fines and penalties stemming from his criminal conviction.
The FTC claims Shkreli is violating the industry ban as co-founder of Druglike Inc. The company, in a July press release announcing its launch, described itself as “a Web3 drug discovery software platform.”
“We started Druglike because in our experience, traditional drug discovery software is too difficult and expensive to use,” Shkreli said in the release. “Druglike will remove barriers to early-stage drug discovery, increase innovation and allow a broader group of contributors to share the rewards.”
The regulator also said Shkreli has failed to pay any money to the states that sued him.
The FTC claims it demanded information and documents from Shkreli to determine if he is violating the court order.
The case is Federal Trade Commission v. Vyera Pharmaceuticals LLC, 20-cv-00706, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Adds details of FTC argument in sixth paragraph.)
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