Martin Shkreli: Drug-price hike led to arrest

In his first interview since being charged Thursday for allegedly misleading investors in his hedge funds and raiding a public company to cover the losses, Martin Shkreli told The Wall Street Journal his arrest was actually because of the huge drug-price hike his company conducted earlier this year.

“‘Trying to find anything we could to stop him’ was the attitude of the government,” Shkreli said, flanked by his lawyers in a midtown Manhattan conference room Sunday afternoon. “Beating the person up and then trying to find the merits to make up for it — I would have hoped the government wouldn’t take that kind of approach.”

He referenced Turing Pharmaceuticals AG's hike of the drug Daraprim by around 5,000 percent.

“Quite frankly, it was not something I expected, and definitely not something I deserve given the facts,” he said.

Read more from The Wall Street Journal.