Pharma Bro's Set For U.S. Fraud Trial in 2017

A federal judge on Thursday scheduled a trial for June 2017 in the U.S. government's securities fraud case against former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, who became a lightning rod last year for criticism of soaring prescription drug prices.

U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, in Brooklyn, New York, set a June 26, 2017, trial date in the case against Shkreli and Evan Greebel, a former lawyer for Retrophin Inc, a biopharmaceutical company which Shkreli headed until 2014.

Shkreli, 33, went on to run Turing Pharmaceuticals, where he sparked outrage among patients and U.S. lawmakers for raising the price of a drug used to treat a dangerous parasitic infection by more than 5,000 percent, to $750 a pill.

His criminal case arose from alleged conduct between 2009 and 2014, during Shkreli's management of Retrophin and the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management.

Prosecutors said Shkreli engaged in a Ponzi-like scheme in which he defrauded investors in MSMB, and misappropriated $11 million in assets from Retrophin to repay them.

Shkreli has pleaded not guilty to charges that include securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He has said that he did not commit a crime.

The case is U.S. v. Shkreli, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00637. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler and Tom Brown)