Martin Shkreli is known for a number of things. Jacking up the cost of a life-saving drug for AIDS patients by 5,000 percent. Grinning his way through a House hearing as he pleaded the Fifth. Spending millions to buy the only copy of a Wu-Tang album and then being in no hurry to listen to it. Badgering a journalist on Twitter until his account was suspended.
But today, jury selection begins in federal court as 34-year-old Shkreli goes on trial for something else entirely: securities fraud charges. Prosecutors say he was swindling investors in his hedge fund well before he became "the most hated man in America."
Federal agents arrested Shkreli in December 2015, and the SEC charged him with committing "a series of frauds" between October 2009 and March 2014.
Before he made headlines as the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Shkreli founded a pharmaceutical company, Retrophin, and a pair of hedge funds, MSMB Capital Management and MSMB Healthcare. Prosecutors say he committed a series of frauds while managing the funds between October 2009 and March 2014.
More:
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/26/534411641/pharma-bro-martin-shkreli-goes-on-trial-on-securities-fraud-chargesWith any luck at all, we'll not have to see his smugly grinning face for a century or so.
