Martin Shkreli is in bigger trouble than he thought

MARTIN Shkreli, the CEO who jacked up the price of lifesaving medicine by 5000 per cent, is in even bigger trouble than he thought.

Martin Shkreli (right) former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, exits federal court with his lawyer Benjamin Brafman. Picture: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images/AFP

FEDERAL prosecutors said on Tuesday they are mulling additional securities fraud charges against pharmaceutical price-hike bad boy Martin Shkreli.

Assistant US Attorney Winston Paes told Judge Kiyo Matsumoto that the charges would relate to further allegations that Shkreli and his co-defendant Evan Greebel “defrauded” Shkreli’s biopharmaceutical firm Retrophin.

The superseding indictment containing the new charges, which were not specifically disclosed during a brief hearing in Brooklyn federal court, would be filed within a month and is not expected to add additional defendants, Paes said.

Shkreli — who became one of most hated men in America for jacking up the price of lifesaving cancer drug Daraprim by more than 5000 per cent in order to turn a profit — is charged with running an unrelated $US11 million ($14.7 million) Ponzi scheme, feds said.

The former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals allegedly paid off debts from two failing hedge funds and covered some personal expenses by skimming assets from Retrophin.

The feds allege Shkreli, 33, and Greebel, a lawyer for Retrophin, tried to cover up their money manoeuvring when auditors started getting suspicious.

Lawyers for the two men said they first learned of the potential superseding indictment on Tuesday morning.

Shkreli, donning a mismatched grey suit and scuffed dress shoes, said nothing as his high-powered lawyer Benjamin Brafman addressed the throng of reporters outside the courthouse.

“Substantively, we do not believe that this indictment will change in any way that affects Mr Shkreli in a negative fashion and we still believe that the charges in this case are very defensible,” Brafman said.

Both Shkreli and Greebel, who were arrested last December, have pleaded not guilty and each faces up to 20 years in prison.

They’ll return to court June 6.

The government has turned over to the defence about 70 gigabytes of evidence in preparation for a trial, according to Paes.

Shkreli has also drawn ire from diehard Wu-Tang Clan fans after plunking down $US2 million ($2.7 million) for the gangsta rap group’s one-of-a-kind album — and bragging that he bought it only “to keep it from the people”.

This article originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission.