Shkreli Smirks Through New Not-Guilty Plea

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CN) — A fresh count in the indictment charging Martin Shkreli with an $11 million securities fraud could not wipe the smirk from his mug Monday as the so-called pharma bro entered a new not-guilty plea in court Monday.

Federal prosecutors first accused Shkreli of engaging in a "Ponzi-like scheme" one week before Christmas 2015.

Shkreli had been headline fodder long before then, having gained notoriety for his unrelated price-jacking of the life-saving AIDS drug Daraprim.

The 5,000 percent price gouge invited condemnation but no criminal charges, but Shkreli faces prosecution for allegedly defrauding investors of his now-defunct hedge fund.

The government says Shkreli tried to pay off those investors by raiding millions from his publicly traded biotechnology company Retrophin.

Court records show that Retrophin sued Shkreli in Manhattan after ousting him as its CEO. Shkreli faces at least 13 lawsuits in various New York jurisdictions.

His former attorney Evan Greebel is also charged with securities and wire fraud for allegedly furthering the scheme when he worked at Katten Muchin Rosenman from 2012 to 2014, serving as lead outside counsel to Retrophin.

Shkreli, 33, had the top button of his shirt loose as he breezed his way through a short arraignment today.

With the new indictment, Shkreli now faces eight charges, and Greebel now stares down two counts.

Shkreli and Greebel have not yet sought to try their cases together, but Shkreli's attorney Ben Branfman indicated that he may assert a reliance of counsel defense.

The new count accuses Shkreli of hiding his control of unrestricted Retrophin shares from investors.

While Branfman pushed for more time to digest the additional charge, Assistant U.S. Attorney Winston Paes said this is already well-trodden ground.

The Securities and Exchange Commission already accused Shkreli of similar misconduct in their civil complaint, the prosecutor said.

Branfman said that the seemingly small change made a big difference.

"I'm happy he's saying nothing new, but we're talking about millions of documents," he said.

U.S. District Judge Kiya Matsumato granted the defense some more time to process the additional information, setting another hearing for July 14.

Shkreli kept mum as his lawyer delivered a terse statement outside of court.

"We do not believe that the new count of the indictment with respect to Mr. Shkreli adds anything to the flawed theory of the case with respect to Mr. Shkreli personally," he said.

If Shkreli seemed fazed that he could face up to 20 years behind bars, the executive did not show it before, during or after the hearing.

Roughly 30 minutes after leaving federal court, Shkreli took to social media to broadcast his daily routine before hundreds over viewers watching him on Periscope, a popular social media platform.

Despite staying silent for the press, Shkreli made small talk online about a restaurant where he takes his dates, and his love for Dunkin' Donuts coffee.

"I could just live off donuts, man," he said on Periscope. "Donuts and coffee. I should have been a cop."

Shkreli noted that he is not an official Dunkin' spokesman, but he said that he would try to maximize its profits, if he ran the company.

The accused pharmaceutical fraudster also showed chutzpah to spare in February, when he smirked his way through a congressional hearing for spiking Daraprim's price from $13.50 to $750 per pill as the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals.

At the hearing, Shkreli repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination, and later panned his congressional inquisitors on Twitter.

"Hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government," he tweeted at the time.

The new indictment like the old one does not charge him with any conduct related to Daraprim.

Courthouse News reporter Nick Divito contributed to this report.

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