"For them [the U.S. Attorney] to suggest that Mr. Rosenfeld's consulting agreement is evidence of fraud, when the only time he has ever been challenged on that, the independent arbitrator ruled in his favor and made Retrophin pay him the balance of the fee, is to me, just stunning. They would try to offer his consulting agreement on paper and suggest that it represents fraud.
I mean I just don't understand this."
How credible are the government's witnesses?
We'll help you keep score....
Jackson Su: former COO of MSMB Capital — for the 1st time in anyone’s experience, the judge stopped the direct exam, called the witness a lawyer and the government had to give him immunity otherwise he was going to invoke his 5th amendment rights because he likely violated numerous federal compter hacking laws (I kid you not). Also, because of his own foolishness, he owes another person nearly $1,000,000 and blames Katten and Mr. Greebel. He was also upset he did not receive freely trading shares, regularly modified the capitalization table to increase his own share position (without authority) and arbitrarily assigned dates to signature pages.
Corey Massela: former outside CFO who worked with Jackson Su to adjust share ownership positions without supporting evidence, was fully aware of all agreements and departed his last partnership under less than ideal circumstances.
Steve Richardson: Long term director who used to be one of the most senior HR executives at American Express. Despite telling all the board members he reviewed, commented on and approved of the CEOs employment agreement, he now claims he only read 1 paragraph. He also suffered from serious memory challenges during cross exam. Richardson said Mr. Shkreli promised him 5% of the company (is that worth $50mm now?), but was always asked to wait and never received the shares. It also seemed like they had an unusually close relationship for professionals, but more common for intimate friends.
Steve Aselage: Director, former CEO and current CEO. He absolutely wins the award for memory problems. He remembered very little on cross exam despite a perfect grasp of the information on direct. Notably, he didn’t deny the board was informed of all settlement and consulting agreements, specifically approved at least two of them, would rather settle potential litigation than fight, routinely ignored the advice of counsel, knew that there was extensive commingling of money, assets and employees and didn’t read anything or ask a single question despite what sounds like 6 digit compensation for board service and is now 7 digit compensation as the CEO.
Well compensated for a board room coup
2014: $8.5 million
2015: $5.4 million
2016: $3.9 million
2017: ???? million