Enlarge / Martin Shkreli arrives at Brooklyn Federal Courtroom on the primary day of his securities fraud trial in 2017. (credit score: Getty | Kevin Hagen)

In an effort to keep away from being held in contempt of court docket, former pharmaceutical govt and convicted fraudster, Martin Shkreli, made an eyebrow-raising argument to a federal decide Friday, stating that his firm Druglike, which he beforehand described as a “drug discovery software program platform,” was not engaged in drug discovery. As such, he argued he’s not in violation of his sweeping lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical trade.

Final month, the Federal Commerce Fee and 7 states urged a federal decide in New York to carry Shkreli in contempt for allegedly failing to cooperate with an investigation into whether or not he violated the ban. The FTC mentioned Shkreli failed to show over requested paperwork associated to Druglike and sit for an interview on the matter.

Within the submitting Friday, Shkreli claims that he responded to the FTC’s requests “promptly and in good religion.” He acknowledged that when the FTC contacted him concerning the investigation final October he didn’t have a lawyer and did not know tips on how to correctly reply to the FTC’s investigation. However, he continued to categorically deny that Druglike violated his lifetime ban.