Lawmakers postpone hearing to question Martin Shkreli
WASHINGTON -- House lawmakers have postponed a Tuesday hearing to question former pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli, reviled for hiking the price of a lifesaving drug, due to the blizzard over the weekend.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform plans to reschedule the hearing on exorbitant drug price increases by Shkreli's former company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, and other drugmakers.
Staffers for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said the hearing will take place Thursday Feb. 4 instead. The House of Representatives postponed all votes this week due to the storm.
The delay increases the likelihood that Shkreli will attend.
However, Shkreli questioned the process in a Friday tweet to lawmakers:
Lawmakers subpoenaed Shkreli earlier this month. But last week his lawyer requested he be excused from attending the hearing, since his terms of bail forbid him from leaving New York. The case involves a previous company he founded before Turing.
However, a federal judge in Brooklyn on Monday reportedly said she would amend the terms of Shkreli's bail to let him travel for the hearing.
KaloBios Pharmaceuticals (KBIO) said it terminated Shkreli as CEO on the day of his arrest last month on charges of securities fraud. The 32-year-old hedge fund manager is accused of misappropriating more than $11 million in assets from publicly traded Retrophin (RTRX) to pay back investors he had defrauded over a five-year period between September 2009 and September 2014.
The Department of Justice requested Sunday that a New York judge allow Shkreli to travel to Washington, according to a legal filing.