A charity for the homeless said it is returning a $15,000 donation to Martin Shkreli, the infamous “pharma bro” who was arrested last week for securities fraud.
Mr. Shkreli, an pharmaceuticals entrepreneur who faced public backlash in September after his then-company Turing Pharmaceuticals Inc raised the price of a life-saving HIV/AIDS drug by 5,000 percent, is now facing unrelated criminal securities fraud charges.
Community Solutions, a homelessness charity, said it will return the entire $15,000 it received from Mr. Shkreli on moral grounds, The Guardian reported.
“We serve people who depend on access to AIDS meds every day, and as an organization I don’t think we can keep this money,” Jake Maguire, a spokesman for the New York-based organization, said Friday.
“When it’s so clear, like this, I think our position is that the right thing to do is obviously just to give that money back. We try hard to make sure that our money is coming from places we’re comfortable with.”
Federal prosecutors have accused Mr. Shkreli, 32, of using assets from his former company, Retrophin, to illegally pay off debts at the hedge fund he managed.
Mr. Shkreli has pleaded not guilty and is confident he will be cleared of charges, a spokesman told The Guardian Thursday.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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