Infamous Former Pharma CEO Martin Shkreli Sues Investor from Prison
Martin Shkreli, who gained infamy in 2015 for buying the drug Daraprim, an antiparasite that costs pennies to make, and raising its price to $750 per pill, then later doing all sorts of crazy things, is back at it again, this time from prison.
According to CNBC, Shkreli “filed suit in federal court in Brooklyn against a Florida man, accusing him of fraudulently inducing Shkreli into signing a promissory note that has left him owing $420,000 to the man’s father.” Shkreli claims that the man unfairly pressured him into signing the note, and that the note’s usurious interest makes it invalid under New York law. But as Debra Guzov, the attorney for the defendant George Yaffe points out, Shkreli’s claim is “ironic,” because “the note in question was prepared by Martin Shkreli, so he’s complaining about a document that he actually drafted.”
Shkreli is currently serving a seven-year sentence for two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The FBI accused him of running a Ponzi-like scheme, where he misled investors in his hedge fund, which was crumbling, and then looted a publicly traded company that he ran in order to pay back some of his investors in the hedge fund.
After becoming a villain online for his 2015 appearance on CNBC where he talked about his dramatic price hike for the drug Daraprim, Shkreli basked in his newfound fame. Shkreli would post increasingly strange tweets and videos online, at one point offering $5000 for a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair, in hopes of one day cloning the politician. Shkreli also won a bid for the sole copy of the Wu Tang Clan album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, and leaked a portion of the highly-anticipated Lil Wayne album Tha Carter V, which he obtained on accident by buying the rapper’s former Bugatti.
Shkreli at one point was worth “at least $45 million” according to Fortune. How much of that he has left is unknown. The SEC has barred Shkreli from the securities industry, but he will be eligible for readmission at some point. However, because of his notoriety it is doubtful that he will be able to find anyone that would trust him with their money or to run a business.
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