The internet is going to be doing some major rejoicing today because 32-year-old Martin Shkreli — former hedge fund bro turned pharmaceutical entrepreneur who notoriously jacked up the price of a life-saving drug used to treat AIDS and cancer patients from $13.50 to $750 per pill, and later further infuriated the internet by paying millions to own the one-and-only copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album — has been arrested on securities fraud charges.
The charges actually have nothing to do with the pharmaceutical price jacking, however, as Shkreli was taken into custody at his midtown Manhattan apartment Thursday morning (lol) accused of illegally taking stock from his former biotechnology firm Retrophin, Inc. and using it as his own personal piggy bank (where have we heard this before?) to pay off the debts of investors who lost money at his hedge fund MSMB.
The federal charges follow a civil lawsuit filed by Retrophin back in August, to which Shkreli at the time responded to by saying: “The $65 million Retrophin wants from me would not dent me. I feel great. I’m licking my chops over the suits I’m going to file against them.” Shkreli also claimed that the suit was just a way for the company to get out of paying him severance after he was ousted from the board in September of 2014. But now that the federal government has stepped in, perhaps Shkreli will be singing a different tune. Either way, we’re sure he’ll do great in prison.
Here is the last Twitter exchange Shkreli had prior to his arrest:
Here's Martin Shkreli's last Twitter exchange before his arrest pic.twitter.com/k9qmQpKWfG
— Christopher Ingraham🦗 (@_cingraham) December 17, 2015
(Via New York Times and Bloomberg)