Martin Shkreli, also known as “pharma bro,” is suing his ex-general counsel and two directors of his former company Retrophin. The lawsuit claims that the parties engaged in fraud to oust Shkreli from the firm in 2015.
The lawsuit, which seeks more than $30 million from the defendants, was lodged just days after Shkreli was transferred to a prison in Pennsylvania. He is serving a seven-year prison term in federal prison for securities fraud.
Gary Lyons, former CEO Stephen Aselage and Margaret Valeur-Jensen have all been named in the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that Shkreli started his biopharmaceutical company from scratch into a business worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The lawsuit claims that Shkreli was illegally ousted from the company that he started.
The lawsuit claims that the defendants were driven by greed, jealousy and their egos.
He claims that the three induced him fraudulently to negotiate his exit from Retrophin. He claims that the three tricked him into signing away all of his rights as founder and CEO of the company without receiving a return.
Retrophin was not named in the lawsuit. The company has declined to comment on the lawsuit along with the three defendants in the case. Shkreli claims that the three defendants paid themselves $35 million from the assets that he created for the company.
Damage estimates reflect what he would receive under his employment agreement with the company. He is seeking unspecified punitive damages on top of the damages for compensation he would have received if he did not sign his rights away.
Shkreli is best known for raising the price of Daraprim by 5,000% while being chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals. He also made headlines when he put a bounty out for Hillary Clinton’s hair. He offered to pay $5,000 to any of his social media followers that could gain access to Clinton’s hair.
