This story was updated to reflect a response from Martin Shkreli.
The bad-boy ex-CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals Martin Shkreli is on the lookout for new legal representation.
Shkreli’s current lawyer, Marcus A. Asner of Arnold & Porter LLP, filed a letter on Monday with the Federal District Court in Brooklyn, the New York Times reports. The letter states that the former pharma exec is in the process of retaining a new legal team, without providing any explanation as to why.
Shkreli’s infamy comes from his time at Turing, where he raised the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000%, a move that branded him “the most hated man in America.”
He was arrested last month under suspicion of securities fraud and has been accused of illegally taking stock from a drug company he once headed in order to pay off investors in an unrelated hedge fund. Shkreli maintains his innocence and in a recent television interview with Fox 5 News, he claimed that “the government’s case is fictitious” and took issue with his “most hated man” moniker.
I am confident I will prevail. The allegations against me are baseless and without merit.
— Martin Shkreli (e/acc) (@MartinShkreli) December 19, 2015
When the Times inquired as to why he’s looking for new lawyers, Shkreli said it was “a dumb theory” that it comes as a response to the Fox interview.
Asner could immediately be reached, and Shkreli would not comment.
