In a Tuesday court hearing, a federal judge delayed setting a trial date for Martin Shkreli, the disgraced founder and ex-CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals who was indicted on seven counts of securities fraud charges last December.
Shkreli and his lawyer requested the delay after learning recently that prosecutors are considering filing more charges against the embattled former executive and his ex counsel, Evan Greebel, who was already charged with one count of wire-fraud conspiracy. The new potential charges—along with the initial ones—relate to allegations that the pair ran a Ponzi-like scheme, in which they funneled millions of dollars out of Retrophin, another of Shkreli’s pharmaceutical companies, to cover losses from two hedge funds Shkreli managed.
In the Brooklyn federal court Tuesday, prosecutors told the judge that they would decide if they would file new charges within the month.
Shkreli and his current defense lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, told the judge they would like to wait and see what the prosecutors decide and have time to prepare a defense against any new charges before a trial date is set. In response, District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto said she understood and didn’t want to push Shkreli if he wasn’t ready.
Outside the courthouse, Brafman told reporters: “I think that today was a good day for Martin Shkreli.”
On Monday, Brafman filed a letter with the court that said that Shkreli may use a “reliance of counsel defense,” which means that Shkreli may claim ignorance and blame Greebel for any alleged instances of fraud.
Both Shkreli and Greebel have pled ‘not guilty’ to the charges. Shkreli is next scheduled to appear in court June 6.
Though the fraud charges have kept Shkreli in the headlines, he initially became infamous as the CEO of Turing, which dramatically raised the price of an anti-parasitic drug called Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent. While Shkreli left Turing shortly after he was charged with fraud, the company is still reeling from reactions to the price hike. On Monday, Impax Pharmaceuticals, which sold Shkreli the rights to Daraprim, sued Turing for more than $20 million. Impax claims that Turing broke their sales contract by failing to reimburse Medicaid rebates and provide pricing data.
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