On Friday, Martin Shkreli was convicted for three of eight securities fraud and conspiracy charges for allegedly mismanaging two separate funds. The former hedge fund manager and CEO, who first gained notoriety (and the wonderful moniker “Pharma Bro”) for raising the price of life-saving drugs by a whopping 5,000 percent, has relished his time in the spotlight despite all the negativity. Even when he was arrested in December 2015, the Pharma Bro continued to inspire an inexplicable following of fellow trolls while gaslighting his increasingly volatile detractors.
Hence why Friday’s news was unsurprisingly met with a chorus of huzzahs on Twitter and elsewhere. Besides, Shkreli didn’t do much to deter his critics from offering their takes throughout the trial itself, during which he claimed he could “do whatever he wants.” Nor did reports of prospective jurors’ distaste for his character and appearance help his chances, but through it all Shkreli just couldn’t stop tweeting and live streaming about the trial despite the judge’s specific orders barring him from doing so. (That, and the fact that Twitter banned him from the platform for harassing Teen Vogue‘s Lauren Duca.)
Shkreli’s three convictions may earn him up to 20 years in prison, but the actual sentencing hearing hasn’t even been scheduled yet. Even so, nobody could resist making jail bait jokes.
https://twitter.com/jbillinson/status/893567591037489152
https://twitter.com/Bro_Pair/status/893566591677411328
https://twitter.com/2dAmMuslim/status/893549416736374784
https://twitter.com/PaulChatlain/status/893547637156134912
martin shkreli…welcome to the resistance
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) August 4, 2017
Yet the bread and better of the Shkreli conviction reactions had everything to do with the various artist sketches of the defendant, whose Gollum-like mug had previously been the butt of the internet’s jokes.
https://twitter.com/NasriAtallah/status/893502607083360256
https://twitter.com/throwyrphoneout/status/893488616193708035
https://twitter.com/gaywonk/status/893570682101141504
… Is there a nobel prize for court room artists? Asking for some friends.
("Martin Shkreli", #PharmaBro) pic.twitter.com/Y4QqSoAw36
— 'Rachel Tension' is my drag name (@ritarepulso) August 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/pattymo/status/893549041568497664