Self-styled “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli goes on trial in New York Monday, but not for any of the prescription Rx-price-gouging or social-media trolling that have made him infamous.
Instead, a Manhattan federal jury will look at charges of securities and wire fraud relating to Shkreli’s alleged $11 million investment Ponzi scheme from 2009 through 2014.
Shkreli, 34, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of using money from his pharmaceutical company, Retrophin, to pay off investors in a prior company after allegedly lying to them and mismanaging their money.
The loathed millionaire has boasted of owning a Nazi Enigma coding machine — “It’s like owning a gas chamber” — and paid a ridiculous $2 million for a single pressing of a Wu-Tang double album. He’s most hated, though, for hiking the price of a life-saving drug for AIDS patients and pregnant women overnight in 2016, from $13.50 to $750.
On Saturday, the US District Judge who is handling the current case gave a split decision to Shkreli and the feds, approving some of Shkreli’s past legal statements as evidence, barring others, and reserving decision on the remainder.