When Evan Greebel, once a respected corporate attorney at a white-shoe law firm, was arrested in 2015, he claimed he had no idea why. I, for one, believed he was telling the truth.
Bob Odenkirk’s cunning and slippery lawyer character Saul Goodman, he was not. Nothing in Greebel’s past suggested he was the type to illicitly scheme, put greed before ethics, do anything that might distress his wife and children, or otherwise stir up trouble.
He was a quiet and thoughtful-looking man in his mid-40s. He was highly involved in his local Reform Jewish congregation and was known for his devotion to his family. His main hobby appeared to be charity work such as organizing a substance abuse treatment center, raising money for animal shelters and helping the homeless.
And yet, in a spectacle that could have been a scene from the Sopranos, federal agents arrived at dawn on Dec. 17, 2015 at his $2 million suburban home in the tranquil town of Scarsdale. They took the polite do-gooder to FBI headquarters in Manhattan, where he was greeted by a horde of news photographers. His face appeared all over the internet alongside sensational headlines within a matter of minutes.
It was all because of Martin Shkreli.
In an interview room at 26 Federal Plaza, Greebel tried to ask why he was there. An FBI agent was coy at first, replying: “As to that I don’t know if I can divulge anything.” After several more minutes of unproductive conversation, the agent finally said: “Well, you’re being arrested for conspiracy to commit wire fraud that has to do with…
