Thanks to his securities fraud trial, so-called “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli has sadly re-entered popular culture’s collective consciousness. Footage of the banned Twitter troll telling reporters he “can do whatever he wants” has earned him further public scrutiny, but the new press also garnered Shkreli an investigation by The Daily Beast into his continued use of the very social media platform he’s no longer allowed to use.
According to a late Monday court filing made by his trial prosecutors, Shkreli is allegedly “[engaging] with the press… on digital media” despite the “instructions of his lawyers” not to. The new account in question, which operates with the @BLMbro handle, has since been suspended. Yet The Daily Beast managed to snag several screenshots of the account’s choice tweets and retweets before Twitter purportedly swooped in to enforce the suspension it initially instituted in January.
“The Twitter user @BLMBro has commented on the evidence at trial and issues connected with the trial, both with direct Tweets and by ‘re-Tweeting’ comments that are critical of the witnesses and/or the evidence,” prosecutors said in the filing. They also pinpointed a YouTube video posted by Shkreli on June 25th, in which the defendant apparently claimed the @BLMbro account was his.
Whether or not the suspended @BLMbro account was actually Shkreli’s remains to be seen. Even so, Twitter told The Daily Beast they wouldn’t comment directly on the account’s alleged owner, but did confirm its suspension. Meanwhile, attorney Benjamin Brafman responded to the prosecution’s filing by blaming reporters for “[going] out of their way to try to ‘bait’ Mr. Shkreli into making public statements,” while claiming his client is currently suffering from a “clearly frail emotional state.”
(Via The Daily Beast)