Free Republic

Martin Shkreli isn’t challenging the government any longer. The ‘Pharma Bro’ fraudster convicted of misleading investors to the tune of $10.4 million—has just been sentenced to 7 years in prison. Journalists in the courtroom, reporting on Twitter, said the judge thought Shkreli was truly remorseful now, but that a minimal sentence would not serve to deter him from future fraud. Prosecutors had been seeking a 15-year prison sentence. Not long ago, he put a bounty on Hillary Clinton’s hair. Two weeks ago, he was still arrogant and challenging the government, crying ‘conspiracy’. Last week, he started begging for mercy. Today,...

Notorious "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli and former presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton have at least one thing in common: they both wanted to have other people to collect someone else's DNA. Eight years before this week's abrupt jailing of Shkreli for offering Facebook followers a $5,000 bounty for a sample of Clinton's hair, then-Secretary of State Clinton requested that American diplomats collect "biometric information" — such as DNA — from their foreign counterparts, classified documents show. Those documents detailing a U.S. diplomatic spy effort, obtained in 2010 by Wikileaks, offer yet another bizarre twist to the already bizarre story of how...

Judge: Shkreli’s offer to pay a $5,000 bounty for a Hillary Clinton hair was ‘solicitation of an assault’NEW YORK — Former pharmaceuticals company CEO Martin Shkreli had his bail revoked and was headed to jail Wednesday while awaiting sentencing for a securities fraud conviction. A judge heard arguments about whether the provocative online antics of Shkreli, dubbed the Pharma Bro, were bad enough to put him behind bars and decided to have him taken into custody immediately.

THE COURT: The purpose of jury selection is to ensure fairness and impartiality in this case. If you think that you could not be fair and impartial, it is your duty to tell me. All right. Juror Number 1. JUROR NO. 1: I’m aware of the defendant and I hate him. BENJAMIN BRAFMAN [lawyer representing Shkreli]: I’m sorry. JUROR NO. 1: I think he’s a greedy little man. THE COURT: Jurors are obligated to decide the case based only on the evidence. Do you agree? JUROR NO. 1: I don’t know if I could. I wouldn’t want me on this...

Martin Shkreli, the eccentric former pharmaceutical CEO notorious for a price-gouging scandal and for his snide "Pharma Bro" persona on social media, was convicted Friday on federal charges he deceived investors in a pair of failed hedge funds.

American businessman and investor Martin Shkreli is putting up $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person responsible for the murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. Shkreli, former chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals and KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc., made the announcement via his Facebook page Friday. Rich, 27, was the voter expansion data director at the DNC, according to Roll Call, and had been employed for two years. Rich also worked on a computer application to help voters locate polling stations, and had just accepted a job with Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. [ ] Shkreli is...

Get out your tiny violins. Martin Shkreli, the man America loves to hate, appears to have lost $15 million in bitcoins after he tried to buy the rights to Kanye West's new album. The now-ex-CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, who hiked the price of HIV medication by 5,000 percent, was trying to buy Kanye West's album from his record label so he could sell it on to his fans.

Martin Shkreli, who drew national scorn for hiking the cost of a life-saving drug 4,000 percent overnight, has been arrested, according to multiple reports early Thursday.The 32-year-old founder and CEO of Turing Pharmaceutical made headlines in September for raising the price of Daraprim, often used to treat HIV and AIDS patients, from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill after buying the rights to the drug.His arrest is reportedly not related to that price increase.Shkreli is accused of illegally taking stock from a biotechnology firm he launched in 2011 called Retrophin Inc., Bloomberg reported, and using it to pay off...

"News that Turing, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and other drugmakers have bought rights to old, cheap medicines that are the only treatment for serious diseases and then hiked prices severalfold has angered patients. It's triggered government investigations, politicians' proposals to fight "price gouging," heavy media scrutiny and a big slump in biotech stock prices." "Turing's Shkreli, under fire from all sides, said late last month that he would lower the price of Daraprim, but hasn't so far. A Turing spokesman didn't respond to a request for comment Thursday but recently noted the company is capping patient copayments at $10."

I don't see any other logical reason for him speaking the way he did.

Gripe as we might, consumers understand that price increases do happen. What’s not as easily understood is how the price for something can go from $13.50 one day to $750 the next — especially when it’s a generic drug used to save lives. For decades, Daraprim (pyrimethamine), an anti-parasitic used to treat malaria and toxoplasmosis, had been made by GlaxoSmithKline and sold for as little as $1/tablet until not that long ago. Then in 2010 GSK sold the drug to CorePharma, which began to raise the price. Within a year, revenue from Daraprim jumped nearly ten times even though the...

At a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Shkreli repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which says no person shall be compelled in any criminal case "to be a witness against himself." Wearing a sport jacket and collared shirt rather than his usual T-shirt, he responded to questions by laughing, twirling a pencil and yawning. Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican, asked Shkreli what he would tell a single, pregnant woman with AIDS who needed Daraprim to survive, and whether he thought he had done anything wrong. Shkreli declined to answer....