Convicted pharma bro Martin Shkreli is in the news once again, this time over a legal disagreement with one of his former investors. In a lawsuit filed at a Brooklyn federal court on Friday, Shkreli alleges that Lee Yaffe, a Wall Street broker and former business associate, directed his father to start a wrongful legal action that resulted in a $420,000 in Yaffe’s favor back in December.
Yaffe, who served as a prosecution witness in Shkreli’s conspiracy and securities-fraud trial, testified that his father, George Yaffe, had invested $100,000 in Elea Capital only to lose everything when the hedge fund collapsed. Yaffe says that his father then spent the next five years trying to get his money back. Via Bloomberg:
The younger Yaffe told jurors that after failing to get his father’s money back, he eventually made a deal with Retrophin to provide consulting services for $200,000 and 15,000 shares of the startup. But he never actually provided any services. Yaffe later sold the stock and testified he eventually had to pay the money back after reaching an agreement with the government to avoid being prosecuted.
However Shkreli is claiming that he’s the one who has been wronged, by having his hand forced to sign the agreement, and that both father and son were experienced investors who knew the risks involved when putting money into a hedge fund:
Shkreli also claims that after Elea’s implosion, Lee Yaffe leaned on him, insisting he “man up,” and repay the elder Yaffe. Shkreli argues he was pressured into signing a promissory note for $250,000, which Shkreli claimed was “more than double” the original investment.
“The promissory note was the product of fraudulent representations made by Lee Yaffe that Mr. Shkreli must do the ‘right thing,’” Shkreli said in his suit.
The lawsuit is hardly surprising since Shkreli seemingly has little else to do for the rest of his seven year sentence other than make trouble for his perceived enemies. At least going through his lawyers should keep him out of solitary confinement — where he landed himself earlier this year by using a contraband cellphone to conduct his business from behind bars. Idle hands, etc.
(Via Bloomberg)