Martin Shkreli resigns from Turing after arrest for securities fraud
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Martin Shkreli, 32, resigned as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals Friday following his arrest Thursday on charges of securities fraud; he was freed on a $5 million bond. Federal prosecutors accuse him of plundering Retrophin, a biopharmaceutical company that he once ran, and using it to "enrich himself" and pay off other investors.
"Shkreli essentially ran his company like a Ponzi scheme where he used each subsequent company to pay off defrauded investors from the prior company," Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Robert Capers said.
Shkreli was recently vilified for hiking the price of a drug used to treat a life-threatening infection by 4,000 percent.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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