Martin Shkreli’s lawyers ask to drop him as client as ‘pharma bro’ owes $2m in legal fees
Martin Shkreli’s lawyers are seeking to drop him as a client, over claims the price-hiking pharma exec owes them $2.04m (£1.57m).
Philadelphia headquartered law firm Duane Morris LLP asked for a judge’s permission to pull out of representing Shkreli after claiming the imprisoned former hedge fund manager “has no assets” to pay its fees.
The request comes after US authorities banned Shkreli from working in the pharmaceutical industry, after he bought the rights to antiparasitic drug Daraprim and hiked the price from $13.50 to $750 a pill.
The price hiking scandal saw Shkreli given the epithet “pharma bro” as the exec was slated in the press for his arrogance.
The New York native was later sentenced to seven years in prison and hit with more than $64m in fines, after being convicted on two counts of securities fraud.
The exec was subsequently portrayed in Netflix series “Inventing Anna” after being dubbed the “most-hated CEO in America”.
In a filing to a Manhattan Court, Duane Morris said Shkreli did not oppose its withdrawal as the firm said the “pharma bro” would not be harmed by its decision to pull out.
The filing comes after an insurance policy covering Shkreli’s legal costs ran to its limits last October, leaving the businessman with debts of $2.04m.
In 2019, the Wall Street Journal claimed the 39-year-old businessman had continued running his pharmaceutical company while still in prison using a contraband mobile phone.