Martin Shkreli is currently looking for new lawyers ahead of his next court appearance according to a letter from his current lawyer, Marcus Asner to Judge Kiyo Matsumoto. Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager turned pharmaceutical founder is currently being charged with securities-fraud cases involving him when he was working as a fund manager.
Currently, there is no statement released either by the judge or Shkreli lawyer giving an explanation regarding the changes. In a statement inside the letter, lawyers Marcus Asner and Baruch Weiss said that "We respectfully request a two-week continuance of the scheduled conference so that Mr. Shkreli can finalize his engagement of new counsel and we can properly transition the matter to the new attorneys."
According to The New York Times, Shkreli has been pleading not guilty for the charges and has been taking the matter in his own hand by trying to convince social media users that he is not guilty.
The news company also asked Shkreli in an interview whether the changes of the lawyer is due to his statement made on a TV interview. However, he declined the theory and saying that it is "a dumb theory".
Bloomberg reported that Shkreli had invited a reporter from Fox 5 TV Station into his apartment for the interview and during the interview he made a statement stating that the criminal case against him is "fictitious". The statement made could lead to a serious problem during the court hearing and could be affecting his case.
Shkreli who is the founder of Turing Pharmaceutical has been under authorities target after he increases a life-saving Daraprim drug price by 5,000 percent as reported by Business Insider. The new price which is effective on September last year had caused a public uproar and has garnered the attention of politician across the country.
Although he has been long fired from his hedge fund company, it was revealed that he is still gaining lots of money from different sources. The federal prosecutors disclosed that Shkreli had used money from E-Trade accounts containing $45 million for his $5 million bails.
It was also revealed that he also holds six accounts at E-Trade and an account at Deutsche Bank including several other accounts in other banks.
Shkreli's next court hearing was originally scheduled on Wednesday this week but was postponed due to the lawyers change. He is currently being accused by the government to have committed two fraud which is lying in his hedge funds and deceiving officials at Retrophin Inc.
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