Shkreli gets court date delayed after firing lawyers

On their way out, former legal team asked for two-week continuance.

Beth Mole – Jan 19, 2016 7:26 pm | 62

Martin Shkreli, chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals LLC, exits federal court in New York, US, on Thursday, December 17, 2015. Shkreli was arrested on alleged securities fraud related to Retrophin Inc., a biotech firm he founded in 2011. Credit: Louis Lanzano/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Martin Shkreli won’t appear in court on Wednesday after all.

After a last-minute plea by his now former legal team, Shkreli will get a two-week delay of his January 20 court hearing while he finds new counsel.

Shkreli, reviled former-CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, was charged last month with running a Ponzi-like scheme and defrauding two hedge funds he previously managed and one of the pharmaceutical companies he founded, Retrophin. He has pled not guilty and was released on $5 million bail he posted with a $45-million-dollar E-trade account.

In a letter dated Monday, his now former legal team from the law firm Arnold & Porter asked Brooklyn federal court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto to postpone a hearing in the case that was scheduled for Wednesday. “Mr. Shkreli has indicated that he wishes to replace our firm as counsel and is in the process of retaining new counsel,” lawyers from the firm wrote in a court document filed Monday. “We respectfully request a two-week continuance of the scheduled conference so that Mr. Shkreli can finalize his engagement of new counsel and we can properly transition the matter to the new attorneys.”

The request was granted late Tuesday and the hearing was rescheduled for 10 am on February 3, 2016.

In their letter, the Arnold & Porter lawyers did not say why Shkreli was replacing them. They did not respond to a request for a comment from CNBC reporters. Shkreli responded “No comment” when he was asked about the last-minute switch.

Shkreli initially made headlines last fall as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. While heading the company, which he founded, he jacked up the price of a life-saving drug called Daraprim. The drug, which is used to treat a parasitic infection and often prescribed to AIDS patients and babies, went from $13.50 a pill to $750.

Since his arrest, Shkreli has stepped down as CEO at Turing. He was also fired as CEO from another pharmaceutical company, KaloBios, which filed for bankruptcy shortly after.

In an interview with a local New York Fox News station on Sunday, Shkreli called the lawsuit against him “fictitious.”

“It’s all fictitious,” he said. “The government’s case is fictitious.”