The infamous “Pharma Bro,” has been found guilty of three charges by a federal jury in New York City. He now faces several years in prison when sentenced at a later date.
Shkreli, a 34-year-old former pharmaceuticals company CEO and hedge fund manager who has been called the “most hated man in America and the “face of corporate greed,” was charged in the Eastern District of New York with eight counts of securities and wire fraud.
1. Shkreli Was Arrested Amid Growing Hatred for His ‘Pharma Bro’ Persona & After a Price-Gouging Scandal, but the Fraud Charges Aren’t Related
.Shkreli was accused of misappropriating funds from Retrophin Inc. to pay off the debts of his failed hedge fund, MSMB Capital Management, according to Reuters.
He closed MSMB in 2012 and was CEO of Retrophin from then until 2014, when the company’s board removed him from his position. Reuters reports that he used $11 million dollars from Retrophin to fund settlement agreements and sham consulting deals to pay off the MSMB debt.
2. He Was Called ‘Evil,’ a ‘Snake’ & a ‘D*ck’ by Potential Jurors, Leading to a Lengthy Selection Process
Shkreli outside of court in 2016.
Shkreli’s notoriety made for a difficult jury selection, causing the process to stretch for three days. A jury of five men and seven women was finally selected on July 28 after more than 250 potential jurors were dismissed, ABC News reported.
During the process, Shkreli faced harsh words from several members of the Brooklyn jury pool, according to the New York Post.
“In my head, I said, ‘That’s a snake,’” one woman said, according to the Post. A man said, “I think he’s a very evil man.”
3. Prosecutors Argued Shkreli Lied to Investors While Falsely Claiming He Was ‘Some Sort of Genius in the Investing Industry’
Martin Shkreli listens during a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Capitol Hill February 4, 2016.
Federal prosecutors argued in their closing argument that Shkreli repeatedly lied to his investors in a brazen con, according to the New York Times.
Shkreli “lied to investors to get their money into the funds and then lied to them so they wouldn’t take it out,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alixandra Smith told jurors on July 5. She said investors testified that Shkreli had claimed to be managing a fund worth up to $40 million, when it actually only held a few hundred dollars. Smith said Shrekli then used a Ponzi-like scheme to raid a second fund to pay back an investor who had asked for his money, according to the Times.
“The defendant was lying not only about the ability to get a redemption, but also about where that money was coming from,” Smith told the jury.
4. The Defense Claimed Shkreli Was a ‘Hermit Scientist’ With No People Skills Who Doubled or Tripled His High-Roller Investors Money
Shkreli did not testify during the trial that lasted more than five weeks. He told the judge on July 24 that he would not be taking the stand in his own defense, Bloomberg reported.
He explained his decision on Facebook with a Jay-Z song quote, “plead the fif when it comes to the fam im like a dog i dont speak but i understand.”
During closing arguments, Shkreli’s defense attorney, Ben Brafman, portrayed him as a “misunderstood eccentric” who slept on the floor of his office in a sleeping bag for two years while launching a successful pharmaceutical company, according to the Associated Press. Brafman said his company made the alleged victims of his fraud rich.
5. Shkreli, Who Had to Be Told to Be Quiet Near Court by the Judge, Was Livestreaming on Facebook & YouTube After Each Day of the Trial
Martin Shkreli.
Marin Shkreli continued to host livestream videos on YouTube and post on Facebook, including taking shots at Anthony Scaramucci, writing “in for comms director,” on July 31 after “the Mooch” was fired, and bashing the U.S. Attorney’s office as the trial was going on.
“My case is a silly witch hunt perpetrated by self-serving prosecutors. Thankfully my amazing attorney sent them back to junior varsity where they belong. Drain the swamp. Drain the sewer that is the DOJ. MAGA,” he wrote on July 27, after the second day of his trial.
Shkreli, a Brooklyn native whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Albania and Croatia, attended Hunter College High School and graduated from Baruch College in 2014. After college, Shkreli worked at Cramer, Berkowitz and Company, the hedge fund founded by TV personality Jim Cramer. He began working on Wall Street as an intern at the same company when he was 17. After four years there, he worked as a financial analyst at Intrepid Capital Management and UBS Wealth Management before founding his first hedge fund, Elea Capital Management, in 2006.
Shkreli has claimed he is worth $70 million, down from a purported $100 million prior to his arrest, according to Bloomberg. He has said he owns a Picasso painting, an unreleased album, the original “Enigma” machines used to break German codes during World War II and an unreleased Wu Tang Clan album he spent $2 million on, Bloomberg reported He has paid his attorneys $4.8 million, according to Bloomberg, and recently promised a Princeton University student $40,000 for solving a mathematical proof. He also offered $100,000 reward in the Seth Rich murder case. But his attorney said he often boasts about his self worth on Twitter. He was arguing that Shkreli’s bail should be reduced from $5 million to $2 million so he can begin paying back creditors.
“Tweeting has become, unfortunately so fashionable, but it’s not always true. When people tweet, they don’t always mean what they say,” his attorney wrote. “Some of these preposterous statements Mr. Shkreli made are his way to remain relevant.”
Shkreli also shared a story from Crain’s New York with the headline “Pharma’s bad boy is getting a raw deal,” writing, “Finally, a thoughtful article,” just hours after the jury began its deliberations.
Shkreli, who often holds marathon livestreams from his computer chair in his home office, streamed a video for several hours the night before the verdict was reached.