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Martin Shkreli Arrested on Securities Fraud Charges

379 points by choult 11y ago

gotchange 11y ago
What do they say about karma?
- Jgrubb 11y ago
  Gonna knock you right on the head.
- 15thandwhatever 11y ago
  In this particular case, "karma" appears to be "upsetting the morals of enough people, that regulatory and prosecutorial parties become invested in digging up enough of your past until they find something that sticks". I believe the word you're looking for is "witch hunt". I'm not saying I agree with the guy, or defend his actions in any circumstance. I'm just saying that if you told folks "the world is round" during the flat era, you'd be treated and investigated the same way.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    This has nothing to do with him stating an unpopular truth and being unjustly sanctioned for it. This is simply someone who has no apparent morals and who has pissed off enough people in enough places of authority that some of it pays off in a negative way. That's only a matter of time when this is your chosen life-style.
    - 15thandwhatever 11y ago
      Pissing off people in high places cuts both ways -- for people lacking morals not yet convicted, convicted criminals, AND for people pushing unpopular beliefs way before they're universally accepted as truths (e.g. current climate change debates, the US civil rights movement), and even more so for people whose professional lives advance societies but their private lives are an embarrassment to said people of authority (e.g. Alan Turing, Bill Clinton, and Eliot Spitzer as mentioned in another comment) His high-flying antics, in my opinion, seem to have accelerated a 2012 case (as pionar mentioned) that appeared to be slow moving, until now. I don't particularly like Martin, but I also don't like that his behavior was ignored until his public presence made some authority figures uneasy that their morals were being challenged, especially since his actions w.r.t. pricing were legally allowed. (The "Do we have anything against him?" scenario) You're indirectly advocating a position where everyone should stay in line and never go against the grain, because if you piss off the wrong people of authority, you deserve the negative actions that happen to you over time.
      - jacquesm 11y ago
        Well, you can't have it both ways. Either some of his stuff is prosecutable and then the timing hardly matters as long as it happens within the statue of limitations it's all the same to me. Or, none of it should be prosecuted because someone will always say: "oh, this is because of 'x' that he also did but is not prosecuted for". You can't win like that. If he did something that is illegal then fine, go after him. Clearly being a douchebag and an immoral asshole is not illegal so I don't see any link with this particular case there, other than maybe that being of such a character caused him to do this in the first place.
        15thandwhatever 11y ago
        @jacquesm, Or for a counterpoint: maybe it all comes down to an intentional strategy of timing? And our debate of morality vs. objectivity is late to the game. As in, people of authority are already aware of his actions (versus my original depiction of them as "sleeping giants"), but don't have enough strength (quality evidence, clear-cut violations, etc) to convict so the case proceeds at a glacial pace. i.e. If they were to present the case at that point in time, they'd encounter too many people in the objective camp (me) vs. the moral camp (you), who'd issue a jury verdict of not guilty. But with the very negative, public antics that Martin undertakes, he changes public opinion which directly impacts the makeup of his jurors and additional evidence where if the case was presented at the current time, it'd come out with a guilty verdict. EDIT: left out "and additional evidence" in reply.
        jacquesm 11y ago
        Or because of limited resources they go after the most visible violators as a signal to the rest. Take your pick. But without evidence that this is the case it could also simply be coincidence or slow moving wheels of justice.
  - tux3 11y ago
    You have a point that there is a bit of a witch hunt, however I think there's a big difference between a witch hunt for wrongspeak and being in the spotlight for rising drug prices to absurd levels, then finding out fraudulent behavior. I wish him a fair trial.
  - gotchange 11y ago
    "Witch hunt"? Huh? He's a victim now? You could do better than this man to refute my claim of karma in action without playing the victim card. This douche insisted repeatedly that he is not breaking any laws and playing by the rules to gouge people and I say that the feds aren't breaking any laws here and playing by the rules too. Does it sound 100% fair to target him like this? Maybe not but neither was his scheme to suck the blood of his victims in distress and need. At least he's still got the chance to defend himself and present his case before a judge in a normal trial unlike what he did to those patients where he ordered them to pay him the exorbitant amount (fine) without any legal recourse to reverse that decision. I say that he's in much better position now than what many of his victims are thanks to his greed and selfishness.
  - pionar 11y ago
    >I believe the word you're looking for is "witch hunt". It's not a witch hunt. Dude's been under investigation for 3 years. The article states this: "The Securities and Exchange Commission, which according to court documents opened an investigation into Shkreli in 2012, is expected to file a parallel civil complaint against him, according to people familiar with the matter."
    - 15thandwhatever 11y ago
      Here's another case in the same vein, where a very public CEO with strong opinions had lost a decision in a very nasty sexual harassment case (while stating even more of his strong opinions in the duration of the case) which wasn't going to put a dent in his net worth, but later picked up on securities fraud: https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2015/benjamin-wey-founder-and-president-of-new-york-global-group-arrested-and-charged-in-manhattan-federal-court-for-securities-fraud-arising-out-of-fraudulent-reverse-merger-scheme-involving-chinese-companies https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2015/benjamin-wey... I don't care for their actions, I'm concerned about the subjectivity of legal scrutiny.
- gargravarr 11y ago
  What goes around comes around, as they say...
  - gargravarr 11y ago
    Well, was not expecting the downvotes. Yes, my comment was based on the first impression of the article, like quite a few others, so it was indeed hasty and misinformed. I will say though, there is another adage that applies - 'people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones'. For someone who was under investigation already for financial irregularities, this is some outlandish behaviour that was certain to draw attention, the wrong kind at that. I can only hope justice is served through due process. I won't be unhappy if he's convicted of fraud though.
talideon 11y ago
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
wanda 11y ago
What kind of person would think that they could get away with such blatant extortion and embezzlement? In this day and age?
- MrBuddyCasino 11y ago
  Basically everyone on Wall Street?
  - Angostura 11y ago
    Sorry, but I get really sick of this kind of low quality knee jerk. "Everyone" - really? And no, I don't work in the financial industry.
    - chinathrow 11y ago
      Well, if you look at how the big banks got fined in the last 10 years, it's "Everyone" as in "every big bank".
      - matthewbauer 11y ago
        But that's not everyone working at the big bank.
bloob_blab 11y ago
so there is a god...
- jacquesm 11y ago
  That conclusion seems to be un-warranted from the information presented here.
deleted 11y ago
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jacquesm 11y ago
Shkreli is a total asshole but let's not forget that large pharmaceutical companies use the exact same strategies on many drugs only with prices lowered just enough to stay this side of outrage. Life is 'priceless' and people will pay anything to extend their lives so if all that stands between you and the grim reaper is a patented molecule you can bet that that molecule is an expensive one. Whatever the market will bear is not always something reasonable.
- yummyfajitas 11y ago
  Lets also not forget that if you can't make money off lifesaving drugs, you also won't bother to invent any new ones. It seems to make people angry that greedy folks make money by saving lives, but lets remember that one likely alternative to this is greedy folks don't make money by not saving lives. Putting my investor hat on, I generally believe that making rich people pretty is a far less risky investment than making sympathetic sick people healthy - I won't become public enemy #1 by charging a fortune for Botox 2.0. (None of this is meant as commentary on the specifics of this guy - the media has decided he's a villain, prosecutors can boost their career by targeting him, and I have no way to determine the truth of the matter.)
  - vdaniuk 11y ago
    >Lets also not forget that if you can't make money off lifesaving drugs, you also won't bother to invent any new ones Citation needed. Extremely needed. Counter-anecdote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk edit: wording
    - Malarkey73 11y ago
      If you can make exploitative profits from old drugs why risk your money making new ones?
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
aikah 11y ago
> Prosecutors charged him with illegally taking stock from Retrophin Inc., a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. He was later ousted from the company, where he’d been chief executive officer, and sued by its board.
- Already__Taken 11y ago
  Is it not illegal to not report a crime? How can all the parties involved in public trading have not noticed something they had to report. Aren't parties who are having a debt paid to them interested some diligence the money is legitimate? I mean it's my problem if I unknowingly by a stolen car.
  - wrong_internet 11y ago
    Is it not illegal to not report a crime? Pretty sure this only applies to the ethics standards of psychiatrists, et. al. I don't think a normal citizen is required to report crime.
    - nraynaud 11y ago
      In France it would be the end of their career for a professional bound by secret (doctors, lawyers etc.) to report a crime confessed during a session. But they have pretty persuasive power, I know some lawyers advised some people to confess very gritty crimes to the police. But normal citizens could go to jail for not reporting.
  - eli 11y ago
    I don't know the answer to your question, but the authorities arrested Shkreli's lawyer as an accomplice.
- imglorp 11y ago
  That's a swell business plan if you pay less in fines and settlements than you can steal.
baldfat 11y ago
So what will happen to his eSports League of Legends team and DotA2 team :) Good bye.
deleted 11y ago
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bko 11y ago
I don't know the details of this particular case but whenever I see a very public figure arrested, no matter how reviled, I grow a bit concerned. Despite being sleazy and unethical, his raising of drug prices was not against the law. Financial law was written purposely vague such that it can be used a hammer to arrest those who dissent from the will of those in power. Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister of Ukraine was convicted of "embezzlement and abuse of power". Julian Assange, editor-in-chief of Wikileaks is facing extradition. Elliot Spitzer, former attorney general, was ousted from power due to a prostitution scandal that appeared targeted. Whatever you think about US health care and drug prices, we should not rely on a system that requires individual actors to be good people. We should strive for a system that does not require moral actors to function. Of course I could be wrong. Shkreli arrest could be legit and be purely coincidental to the outrage that he has drawn.
- rmc 11y ago
  > his raising of drug prices was not against the law It should be.
  - msandford 11y ago
    Then why shouldn't giving you a raise be against the law also? EDIT: I'm not defending the guy or the drug industry necessarily, just asking how you'd craft a law that makes drug prices "fair" but also isn't incredibly arbitrary.
    - pjc50 11y ago
      https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/114/hr4207 https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/114/hr4207 https://www.novascotia.ca/just/regulations/regs/fdpricing.htm https://www.novascotia.ca/just/regulations/regs/fdpricing.ht...
    - Karunamon 11y ago
      Because giving someone a raise generally isn't a case of withholding lifesaving treatment from people who have no other options.
gizmo 11y ago
It was alleged that Martin Shkreli harassed an ex-employee, including spouse and their children. Quoted: "I will see you and your children homeless"[1], in a sworn affidavit. Although Shkreli never explicitly denied it, he had implied the accusations were false. Until yesterday, where he bragged about it during an interview with DX: I’m definitely the real fucking deal. This is not a fucking act. I threatened that fucking guy and his fucking kids because he fucking took $3 million from me and he ended up paying me back. He called my bluff. He said, “You’re not fucking going to go after me.” [I said] “Yes I motherfucking will.” I had two guys parked outside of his house for six months watching his every fucking move. I can get down. I don’t think RZA knows that. I think he thinks I’m some powder puff white guy CEO that’s got too much money. No. No, no, no. Not the kind of behavior you'd expect from the CEO of a publicly traded company. [1] http://mic.com/articles/125657/turing-ceo-martin-shkreli-wanted-to-make-former-colleague-and-family-homeless http://mic.com/articles/125657/turing-ceo-martin-shkreli-wan... [2] http://hiphopdx.com/interviews/id.2825/title.martin-shkreli-plans-to-bail-out-bobby-shmurda http://hiphopdx.com/interviews/id.2825/title.martin-shkreli-...
- Nicholas_C 11y ago
  The most confusing thing about this whole Shkreli ordeal is how someone who acts this way and is this young made enough money in the first place to buy out pharma companies. Maybe he inherited it?
  - obstacle1 11y ago
    Life, and especially the capitalism aspect, is a game of imperfect information. As with any other game of imperfect information, aggression plus the intelligence to exploit the information gained from aggression can get you very far in life.
    - Nicholas_C 11y ago
      And extreme luck.
  - 11y ago
bedhead 11y ago
Quick reminder that he was arrested for SECURITIES fraud - this isn't related to drug prices. Feel free to read the lawsuit filed against him by his former company to understand why Martin got arrested. The guy is a pure sociopath. I had long ago predicted this day would come and it's quite nice to see. Will be happier when he's convicted and sentenced. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1438533/000119312515292581/d19898dex991.htm http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1438533/0001193125152...
- 2close4comfort 11y ago
  This was his previous company that parted ways with him when they found out that his crazy talk was really him being totally nuts! It is interesting that Turning was about find backing with his past grievances so visible. I will give him credit he is sticking with the batsh!t craziness it til the bitter end...
- marincounty 11y ago
  People throw around the word sociopath. I have know a few sociopaths. I have been told, I have sociopathic tendencies. That said, I would never take advantage of the poor, weak, or helpless. If you have sociopathic tendencies--work on them! Whatever you do, don't cross that line where you think it's ok to take advantage of the aforementioned. I live among a lot of wealthy sociopaths. They are in complete denial, and actually believe, "Hay it's legal! I did nothing wrong? I'll even go to church, or synagogue!". I look at them with utter disgust. The sociopaths, I know, haven't done the damage to society like this little puke. I don't care about his SEC violations. Every trader--strike that--successful traders; cheated on order to get their wad. They all use inside information. Yes, there's some of you who got luckey on this momentum trading these last few years--great. I'm talking about the series 7 boys who always seen to make money. Raising the price on a drug, a drug that he knew sick patients would be paying "out of pocket" for--that's a true scumbag. The word sociopath is too nice.
  - mikeash 11y ago
    I wonder why you're being downvoted. Reflexive instinct for someone who admits they have sociopathic tendencies?
patorjk 11y ago
Given this guy's character, it's not too surprising. Not only is he greedy, but he seems to take a lot of joy in trolling people. If you look at his twitter feed, he gushes about buying the only copy of Wu Tang's previous album and talks about putting holes in the discographies of other artists. Last week he had a public poll about who he should solicit for a private album. It seems like he takes a lot of glee in riling people up.
- drzaiusapelord 11y ago
  >gushes about buying the only copy of Wu Tang's previous album Seems like people should be a lot more pissed at Wu Tang than this guy. Private album sales from groups with millions of fans is just an asinine idea. Why do they get a free pass here?
  - Bud 11y ago
    Speaking as a performer myself, what Wu Tang Clan did basically amounts to giving a private performance. They're not allowed to do that? Why not?
paki123 11y ago
I get so much joy from this.
AKifer 11y ago
The price of flying too high, there's a reason big pharma executives rarely show in the front media.
- estefan 11y ago
  "flying too high" or acting like a complete, arrogant scumbag?
  - sweezyjeezy 11y ago
    You can act how you want behind closed doors. This guy did it on TV, on Twitter, on reddit etc. etc. That was his mistake.
    - estefan 11y ago
      Jacking up the prices of those drugs was a pretty public act even if he decided it behind closed doors...
sergiotapia 11y ago
He was live streaming last night on YouTube from some hotel. Even gave out his cellphone number and was taking questions about investing and whatnot. Was he arrested this morning? He was streaming at around 3am, 5 hours ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-4D6yj-cR4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-4D6yj-cR4
- desuvader 11y ago
  I believe that is his apartment, unless you meant that he maybe lives at a hotel (?).
ninjakeyboard 11y ago
Wait, so he bought a million dollar record and then stole money that he gouged sick people for to pay it off? If he just kept the drugs at the same price and didn't buy the record the world would be a better place and he wouldn't be going to jail. I thought he said he did the price gouging for the shareholders, not for WuTang.
ehosca 11y ago
when is he running for president?
BrandonBradley 11y ago
I hope Wu-Tang and/or Bill Murray make a move. Right now!
mtalantikite 11y ago
Hopefully this makes Bill Murray's job a lot easier: http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/11/9890908/rza-bill-murray-wu-tang-clan-album-heist http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/11/9890908/rza-bill-murray-w...
meesterdude 11y ago
Best news of the day! Glad that little dipshit has some justice coming his way. But lets not forget, there are many, many more people just like him
- peter303 11y ago
  The system is biased toward drug monopolies. He merely exploited it.
DHJSH 11y ago
For those who are interested in the name: http://i.imgur.com/8YK1jpQ.png http://i.imgur.com/8YK1jpQ.png (Too many hateful people on DailyKos, etc, are reporting that he's of a different nationality)
MrPatan 11y ago
Couldn't have happened to a nicer chap.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
zghst 11y ago
Pretty sure some Feds were looking to pin him after his story broke earlier this year. Protip: Be a quiet or unknown capitalist oppressor
brudgers 11y ago
We're not meant to cheer this as a win for financial fair play. It's meant to evoke our self-righteousness. It's prosecutorial discretion with the same logic that this community decries when applied to other people whose violations of law or social mores we find more sympathetic.
- ohitsdom 11y ago
  I don't understand your argument. "meant to evoke our self-righteousness"- meant by who? What prosecutorial discretion? Sounds like he pretty clearly broke the law, and didn't even try to hide it.
  - brudgers 11y ago
    My gut is that prosecutions for financial market misdealings are about as selective as the issuance of speeding tickets, i.e. most of the time those who can enforce the law look the other way. They do so in part because it's trifling and in part because there's so much of it and so few of them. To put it another way, the amounts involved are rounding error and the article doesn't list any serious effects of the charged misdeeds. Instead it's all about comeuppance for something that was legal. The outrage is over raising the price by a bit player. The big players simply charge a lot to begin with for life saving treatments such as chemotherapy drugs...a lot more than a few hundred dollars a dose. YMMV.
MrZongle2 11y ago
"The password is...schadenfreude".
SwellJoe 11y ago
This guy seems more and more like a comic book villain every day. The next step, I suppose, is when he's sentenced to spend eleven days in a minimum security prison and he falls into a vat of industrial chemicals while working in the laundry. It turns him even whiter and he takes on a silly name, and disappears into the night, embarking on a spree of ne'er-do-wellery. Then again, he's already screwed over a lot more people as CEO of a pharmaceutical company than he probably could as a super villain. It takes the efficiency of capitalism to achieve real evil, I guess.
jaboutboul 11y ago
They only arrested him because he was about to bail out Bobby Shmurda and the feds don't want Bobby Shmurda out.
alistproducer2 11y ago
I started a GoFundMe to support Martin. Please donate so we can keep him stocked with Vaseline while he's doing time in federal prison.
- alistproducer2 11y ago
  Jesus guys, it was just a joke. People are so sensitive.
nomercy400 11y ago
Convenient. To have the guy that abused the system to such extremes that the people and media noticed it, pressuring government to regulate, be taken into custody for something unrelated to this. As if they couldn't have found this a year ago. It really sounds like "let's find some dirt on this guy".
- myblake 11y ago
  Yeah it does, which is not surprising and while pretty fine in this case can be pretty horrible in others.
powertower 11y ago
If you want to see what he does in his spare time - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8gjB1PSXv_oAUSAQ16S0fA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8gjB1PSXv_oAUSAQ16S0fA
dnautics 11y ago
am I the only one bothered by this? As a bit of a disclaimer, I am disgusted by what Shkreli is doing in the pharma business (if anyone doubts this, I run a nonprofit dedicated to the opposite of what he's doing). But what it says is that the SEC is motivated by sometimes petty reasons to go after people that are indirectly related to actual commission of SEC violation. Which of course, every CEO makes pretty much every business day. If the SEC were neutral, why didn't they find and eliminate Shkreli before social media got all hot to trot on hating him? The SEC is basically saying, well, he's unpopular, we have the power to take him out, let's do it. Something about that seems wrong to me.
- yesbabyyes 11y ago
  No, it's not about that. Apparently an interview was published only yesterday, where Shkreli was trash-talking and threatening the RZA. And as we all know, Wu-Tang Clan ain't nothin' to fuck with. QED.
padseeker 11y ago
How will his arrest affect the price of the drug? That is really the only I care about.
- apocalyptic0n3 11y ago
  There's a senate committee currently investigating the common theme of companies buying out-of-patent drugs that have a small market and marking them up immediately after purchase. His arrest might add a bit of fire to the argument, but I suspect it won't have much effect in the long run. For the record, though, they are looking at the industry as a whole, not just his company and the few drugs he did this with.
DominikR 11y ago
I agree that if the allegations are true, Martin Shkreli is an immoral person to say the least, but I wonder about one thing: The whole conduct of the prosecutors doesn't look impartial to me. It seems as if someone was vilified by the media and next thing you know he is arrested and charged with fraud in an unrelated case. As if this was still a society where you had to slaughter the occasional sacrificial lamb to appease the anger of the people.
adamsea 11y ago
What goes around comes around
dang 11y ago
The curiosity being gratified here cannot remotely be called "intellectual". https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- tim333 11y ago
  I googled "intellectual" and the first words were: "An intellectual is a person who engages in critical study, thought, and reflection about the reality of society, and proposes solutions for the normative problems of that society" You could argue Shkreli's behaviour was a problem of society that intellectuals would be curious as to the solution thereof?
  - dang 11y ago
    Sure, one can be intellectually curious about anything. But the Dionysian frenzy we actually see in cases like this has nothing in common with that. What happens when somebody does bad things, especially repeatedly, is that others seize on it as a socially acceptable way to get their anger out. That may be human nature, but it's the epitome of what we don't want here.
toxoid 11y ago
I wonder if he will be able to afford Daraprim when he gets out of jail...

379 points by choult 11y ago

gotchange 11y ago

What do they say about karma?

Jgrubb 11y ago
Gonna knock you right on the head.
15thandwhatever 11y ago
In this particular case, "karma" appears to be "upsetting the morals of enough people, that regulatory and prosecutorial parties become invested in digging up enough of your past until they find something that sticks". I believe the word you're looking for is "witch hunt". I'm not saying I agree with the guy, or defend his actions in any circumstance. I'm just saying that if you told folks "the world is round" during the flat era, you'd be treated and investigated the same way.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  This has nothing to do with him stating an unpopular truth and being unjustly sanctioned for it. This is simply someone who has no apparent morals and who has pissed off enough people in enough places of authority that some of it pays off in a negative way. That's only a matter of time when this is your chosen life-style.
  - 15thandwhatever 11y ago
    Pissing off people in high places cuts both ways -- for people lacking morals not yet convicted, convicted criminals, AND for people pushing unpopular beliefs way before they're universally accepted as truths (e.g. current climate change debates, the US civil rights movement), and even more so for people whose professional lives advance societies but their private lives are an embarrassment to said people of authority (e.g. Alan Turing, Bill Clinton, and Eliot Spitzer as mentioned in another comment) His high-flying antics, in my opinion, seem to have accelerated a 2012 case (as pionar mentioned) that appeared to be slow moving, until now. I don't particularly like Martin, but I also don't like that his behavior was ignored until his public presence made some authority figures uneasy that their morals were being challenged, especially since his actions w.r.t. pricing were legally allowed. (The "Do we have anything against him?" scenario) You're indirectly advocating a position where everyone should stay in line and never go against the grain, because if you piss off the wrong people of authority, you deserve the negative actions that happen to you over time.
    - jacquesm 11y ago
      Well, you can't have it both ways. Either some of his stuff is prosecutable and then the timing hardly matters as long as it happens within the statue of limitations it's all the same to me. Or, none of it should be prosecuted because someone will always say: "oh, this is because of 'x' that he also did but is not prosecuted for". You can't win like that. If he did something that is illegal then fine, go after him. Clearly being a douchebag and an immoral asshole is not illegal so I don't see any link with this particular case there, other than maybe that being of such a character caused him to do this in the first place.
      - 15thandwhatever 11y ago
        @jacquesm, Or for a counterpoint: maybe it all comes down to an intentional strategy of timing? And our debate of morality vs. objectivity is late to the game. As in, people of authority are already aware of his actions (versus my original depiction of them as "sleeping giants"), but don't have enough strength (quality evidence, clear-cut violations, etc) to convict so the case proceeds at a glacial pace. i.e. If they were to present the case at that point in time, they'd encounter too many people in the objective camp (me) vs. the moral camp (you), who'd issue a jury verdict of not guilty. But with the very negative, public antics that Martin undertakes, he changes public opinion which directly impacts the makeup of his jurors and additional evidence where if the case was presented at the current time, it'd come out with a guilty verdict. EDIT: left out "and additional evidence" in reply.
        jacquesm 11y ago
        Or because of limited resources they go after the most visible violators as a signal to the rest. Take your pick. But without evidence that this is the case it could also simply be coincidence or slow moving wheels of justice.
- tux3 11y ago
  You have a point that there is a bit of a witch hunt, however I think there's a big difference between a witch hunt for wrongspeak and being in the spotlight for rising drug prices to absurd levels, then finding out fraudulent behavior. I wish him a fair trial.
- gotchange 11y ago
  "Witch hunt"? Huh? He's a victim now? You could do better than this man to refute my claim of karma in action without playing the victim card. This douche insisted repeatedly that he is not breaking any laws and playing by the rules to gouge people and I say that the feds aren't breaking any laws here and playing by the rules too. Does it sound 100% fair to target him like this? Maybe not but neither was his scheme to suck the blood of his victims in distress and need. At least he's still got the chance to defend himself and present his case before a judge in a normal trial unlike what he did to those patients where he ordered them to pay him the exorbitant amount (fine) without any legal recourse to reverse that decision. I say that he's in much better position now than what many of his victims are thanks to his greed and selfishness.
- pionar 11y ago
  >I believe the word you're looking for is "witch hunt". It's not a witch hunt. Dude's been under investigation for 3 years. The article states this: "The Securities and Exchange Commission, which according to court documents opened an investigation into Shkreli in 2012, is expected to file a parallel civil complaint against him, according to people familiar with the matter."
  - 15thandwhatever 11y ago
    Here's another case in the same vein, where a very public CEO with strong opinions had lost a decision in a very nasty sexual harassment case (while stating even more of his strong opinions in the duration of the case) which wasn't going to put a dent in his net worth, but later picked up on securities fraud: https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2015/benjamin-wey-founder-and-president-of-new-york-global-group-arrested-and-charged-in-manhattan-federal-court-for-securities-fraud-arising-out-of-fraudulent-reverse-merger-scheme-involving-chinese-companies https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2015/benjamin-wey... I don't care for their actions, I'm concerned about the subjectivity of legal scrutiny.
gargravarr 11y ago
What goes around comes around, as they say...
- gargravarr 11y ago
  Well, was not expecting the downvotes. Yes, my comment was based on the first impression of the article, like quite a few others, so it was indeed hasty and misinformed. I will say though, there is another adage that applies - 'people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones'. For someone who was under investigation already for financial irregularities, this is some outlandish behaviour that was certain to draw attention, the wrong kind at that. I can only hope justice is served through due process. I won't be unhappy if he's convicted of fraud though.

talideon 11y ago

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

wanda 11y ago

What kind of person would think that they could get away with such blatant extortion and embezzlement? In this day and age?

MrBuddyCasino 11y ago
Basically everyone on Wall Street?
- Angostura 11y ago
  Sorry, but I get really sick of this kind of low quality knee jerk. "Everyone" - really? And no, I don't work in the financial industry.
  - chinathrow 11y ago
    Well, if you look at how the big banks got fined in the last 10 years, it's "Everyone" as in "every big bank".
    - matthewbauer 11y ago
      But that's not everyone working at the big bank.

bloob_blab 11y ago

so there is a god...

jacquesm 11y ago
That conclusion seems to be un-warranted from the information presented here.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

jacquesm 11y ago

Shkreli is a total asshole but let's not forget that large pharmaceutical companies use the exact same strategies on many drugs only with prices lowered just enough to stay this side of outrage. Life is 'priceless' and people will pay anything to extend their lives so if all that stands between you and the grim reaper is a patented molecule you can bet that that molecule is an expensive one. Whatever the market will bear is not always something reasonable.

yummyfajitas 11y ago
Lets also not forget that if you can't make money off lifesaving drugs, you also won't bother to invent any new ones. It seems to make people angry that greedy folks make money by saving lives, but lets remember that one likely alternative to this is greedy folks don't make money by not saving lives. Putting my investor hat on, I generally believe that making rich people pretty is a far less risky investment than making sympathetic sick people healthy - I won't become public enemy #1 by charging a fortune for Botox 2.0. (None of this is meant as commentary on the specifics of this guy - the media has decided he's a villain, prosecutors can boost their career by targeting him, and I have no way to determine the truth of the matter.)
- vdaniuk 11y ago
  >Lets also not forget that if you can't make money off lifesaving drugs, you also won't bother to invent any new ones Citation needed. Extremely needed. Counter-anecdote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk edit: wording
  - Malarkey73 11y ago
    If you can make exploitative profits from old drugs why risk your money making new ones?
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]

aikah 11y ago

> Prosecutors charged him with illegally taking stock from Retrophin Inc., a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. He was later ousted from the company, where he’d been chief executive officer, and sued by its board.

Already__Taken 11y ago
Is it not illegal to not report a crime? How can all the parties involved in public trading have not noticed something they had to report. Aren't parties who are having a debt paid to them interested some diligence the money is legitimate? I mean it's my problem if I unknowingly by a stolen car.
- wrong_internet 11y ago
  Is it not illegal to not report a crime? Pretty sure this only applies to the ethics standards of psychiatrists, et. al. I don't think a normal citizen is required to report crime.
  - nraynaud 11y ago
    In France it would be the end of their career for a professional bound by secret (doctors, lawyers etc.) to report a crime confessed during a session. But they have pretty persuasive power, I know some lawyers advised some people to confess very gritty crimes to the police. But normal citizens could go to jail for not reporting.
- eli 11y ago
  I don't know the answer to your question, but the authorities arrested Shkreli's lawyer as an accomplice.
imglorp 11y ago
That's a swell business plan if you pay less in fines and settlements than you can steal.

baldfat 11y ago

So what will happen to his eSports League of Legends team and DotA2 team :) Good bye.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

bko 11y ago

I don't know the details of this particular case but whenever I see a very public figure arrested, no matter how reviled, I grow a bit concerned. Despite being sleazy and unethical, his raising of drug prices was not against the law. Financial law was written purposely vague such that it can be used a hammer to arrest those who dissent from the will of those in power. Yulia Tymoshenko, former prime minister of Ukraine was convicted of "embezzlement and abuse of power". Julian Assange, editor-in-chief of Wikileaks is facing extradition. Elliot Spitzer, former attorney general, was ousted from power due to a prostitution scandal that appeared targeted. Whatever you think about US health care and drug prices, we should not rely on a system that requires individual actors to be good people. We should strive for a system that does not require moral actors to function. Of course I could be wrong. Shkreli arrest could be legit and be purely coincidental to the outrage that he has drawn.

rmc 11y ago
> his raising of drug prices was not against the law It should be.
- msandford 11y ago
  Then why shouldn't giving you a raise be against the law also? EDIT: I'm not defending the guy or the drug industry necessarily, just asking how you'd craft a law that makes drug prices "fair" but also isn't incredibly arbitrary.
  - pjc50 11y ago
    https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/114/hr4207 https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/114/hr4207 https://www.novascotia.ca/just/regulations/regs/fdpricing.htm https://www.novascotia.ca/just/regulations/regs/fdpricing.ht...
  - Karunamon 11y ago
    Because giving someone a raise generally isn't a case of withholding lifesaving treatment from people who have no other options.

gizmo 11y ago

It was alleged that Martin Shkreli harassed an ex-employee, including spouse and their children. Quoted: "I will see you and your children homeless"[1], in a sworn affidavit. Although Shkreli never explicitly denied it, he had implied the accusations were false. Until yesterday, where he bragged about it during an interview with DX: I’m definitely the real fucking deal. This is not a fucking act. I threatened that fucking guy and his fucking kids because he fucking took $3 million from me and he ended up paying me back. He called my bluff. He said, “You’re not fucking going to go after me.” [I said] “Yes I motherfucking will.” I had two guys parked outside of his house for six months watching his every fucking move. I can get down. I don’t think RZA knows that. I think he thinks I’m some powder puff white guy CEO that’s got too much money. No. No, no, no. Not the kind of behavior you'd expect from the CEO of a publicly traded company. [1] http://mic.com/articles/125657/turing-ceo-martin-shkreli-wanted-to-make-former-colleague-and-family-homeless http://mic.com/articles/125657/turing-ceo-martin-shkreli-wan... [2] http://hiphopdx.com/interviews/id.2825/title.martin-shkreli-plans-to-bail-out-bobby-shmurda http://hiphopdx.com/interviews/id.2825/title.martin-shkreli-...

Nicholas_C 11y ago
The most confusing thing about this whole Shkreli ordeal is how someone who acts this way and is this young made enough money in the first place to buy out pharma companies. Maybe he inherited it?
- obstacle1 11y ago
  Life, and especially the capitalism aspect, is a game of imperfect information. As with any other game of imperfect information, aggression plus the intelligence to exploit the information gained from aggression can get you very far in life.
  - Nicholas_C 11y ago
    And extreme luck.
- 11y ago

bedhead 11y ago

Quick reminder that he was arrested for SECURITIES fraud - this isn't related to drug prices. Feel free to read the lawsuit filed against him by his former company to understand why Martin got arrested. The guy is a pure sociopath. I had long ago predicted this day would come and it's quite nice to see. Will be happier when he's convicted and sentenced. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1438533/000119312515292581/d19898dex991.htm http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1438533/0001193125152...

2close4comfort 11y ago
This was his previous company that parted ways with him when they found out that his crazy talk was really him being totally nuts! It is interesting that Turning was about find backing with his past grievances so visible. I will give him credit he is sticking with the batsh!t craziness it til the bitter end...
marincounty 11y ago
People throw around the word sociopath. I have know a few sociopaths. I have been told, I have sociopathic tendencies. That said, I would never take advantage of the poor, weak, or helpless. If you have sociopathic tendencies--work on them! Whatever you do, don't cross that line where you think it's ok to take advantage of the aforementioned. I live among a lot of wealthy sociopaths. They are in complete denial, and actually believe, "Hay it's legal! I did nothing wrong? I'll even go to church, or synagogue!". I look at them with utter disgust. The sociopaths, I know, haven't done the damage to society like this little puke. I don't care about his SEC violations. Every trader--strike that--successful traders; cheated on order to get their wad. They all use inside information. Yes, there's some of you who got luckey on this momentum trading these last few years--great. I'm talking about the series 7 boys who always seen to make money. Raising the price on a drug, a drug that he knew sick patients would be paying "out of pocket" for--that's a true scumbag. The word sociopath is too nice.
- mikeash 11y ago
  I wonder why you're being downvoted. Reflexive instinct for someone who admits they have sociopathic tendencies?

patorjk 11y ago

Given this guy's character, it's not too surprising. Not only is he greedy, but he seems to take a lot of joy in trolling people. If you look at his twitter feed, he gushes about buying the only copy of Wu Tang's previous album and talks about putting holes in the discographies of other artists. Last week he had a public poll about who he should solicit for a private album. It seems like he takes a lot of glee in riling people up.

drzaiusapelord 11y ago
>gushes about buying the only copy of Wu Tang's previous album Seems like people should be a lot more pissed at Wu Tang than this guy. Private album sales from groups with millions of fans is just an asinine idea. Why do they get a free pass here?
- Bud 11y ago
  Speaking as a performer myself, what Wu Tang Clan did basically amounts to giving a private performance. They're not allowed to do that? Why not?

paki123 11y ago

I get so much joy from this.

AKifer 11y ago

The price of flying too high, there's a reason big pharma executives rarely show in the front media.

estefan 11y ago
"flying too high" or acting like a complete, arrogant scumbag?
- sweezyjeezy 11y ago
  You can act how you want behind closed doors. This guy did it on TV, on Twitter, on reddit etc. etc. That was his mistake.
  - estefan 11y ago
    Jacking up the prices of those drugs was a pretty public act even if he decided it behind closed doors...

sergiotapia 11y ago

He was live streaming last night on YouTube from some hotel. Even gave out his cellphone number and was taking questions about investing and whatnot. Was he arrested this morning? He was streaming at around 3am, 5 hours ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-4D6yj-cR4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-4D6yj-cR4

desuvader 11y ago
I believe that is his apartment, unless you meant that he maybe lives at a hotel (?).

ninjakeyboard 11y ago

Wait, so he bought a million dollar record and then stole money that he gouged sick people for to pay it off? If he just kept the drugs at the same price and didn't buy the record the world would be a better place and he wouldn't be going to jail. I thought he said he did the price gouging for the shareholders, not for WuTang.

ehosca 11y ago

when is he running for president?

BrandonBradley 11y ago

I hope Wu-Tang and/or Bill Murray make a move. Right now!

mtalantikite 11y ago

Hopefully this makes Bill Murray's job a lot easier: http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/11/9890908/rza-bill-murray-wu-tang-clan-album-heist http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/11/9890908/rza-bill-murray-w...

meesterdude 11y ago

Best news of the day! Glad that little dipshit has some justice coming his way. But lets not forget, there are many, many more people just like him

peter303 11y ago
The system is biased toward drug monopolies. He merely exploited it.

DHJSH 11y ago

For those who are interested in the name: http://i.imgur.com/8YK1jpQ.png http://i.imgur.com/8YK1jpQ.png (Too many hateful people on DailyKos, etc, are reporting that he's of a different nationality)

MrPatan 11y ago

Couldn't have happened to a nicer chap.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

zghst 11y ago

Pretty sure some Feds were looking to pin him after his story broke earlier this year. Protip: Be a quiet or unknown capitalist oppressor

brudgers 11y ago

We're not meant to cheer this as a win for financial fair play. It's meant to evoke our self-righteousness. It's prosecutorial discretion with the same logic that this community decries when applied to other people whose violations of law or social mores we find more sympathetic.

ohitsdom 11y ago
I don't understand your argument. "meant to evoke our self-righteousness"- meant by who? What prosecutorial discretion? Sounds like he pretty clearly broke the law, and didn't even try to hide it.
- brudgers 11y ago
  My gut is that prosecutions for financial market misdealings are about as selective as the issuance of speeding tickets, i.e. most of the time those who can enforce the law look the other way. They do so in part because it's trifling and in part because there's so much of it and so few of them. To put it another way, the amounts involved are rounding error and the article doesn't list any serious effects of the charged misdeeds. Instead it's all about comeuppance for something that was legal. The outrage is over raising the price by a bit player. The big players simply charge a lot to begin with for life saving treatments such as chemotherapy drugs...a lot more than a few hundred dollars a dose. YMMV.

MrZongle2 11y ago

"The password is...schadenfreude".

SwellJoe 11y ago

This guy seems more and more like a comic book villain every day. The next step, I suppose, is when he's sentenced to spend eleven days in a minimum security prison and he falls into a vat of industrial chemicals while working in the laundry. It turns him even whiter and he takes on a silly name, and disappears into the night, embarking on a spree of ne'er-do-wellery. Then again, he's already screwed over a lot more people as CEO of a pharmaceutical company than he probably could as a super villain. It takes the efficiency of capitalism to achieve real evil, I guess.

jaboutboul 11y ago

They only arrested him because he was about to bail out Bobby Shmurda and the feds don't want Bobby Shmurda out.

alistproducer2 11y ago

I started a GoFundMe to support Martin. Please donate so we can keep him stocked with Vaseline while he's doing time in federal prison.

alistproducer2 11y ago
Jesus guys, it was just a joke. People are so sensitive.

nomercy400 11y ago

Convenient. To have the guy that abused the system to such extremes that the people and media noticed it, pressuring government to regulate, be taken into custody for something unrelated to this. As if they couldn't have found this a year ago. It really sounds like "let's find some dirt on this guy".

myblake 11y ago
Yeah it does, which is not surprising and while pretty fine in this case can be pretty horrible in others.

powertower 11y ago

If you want to see what he does in his spare time - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8gjB1PSXv_oAUSAQ16S0fA https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8gjB1PSXv_oAUSAQ16S0fA

dnautics 11y ago

am I the only one bothered by this? As a bit of a disclaimer, I am disgusted by what Shkreli is doing in the pharma business (if anyone doubts this, I run a nonprofit dedicated to the opposite of what he's doing). But what it says is that the SEC is motivated by sometimes petty reasons to go after people that are indirectly related to actual commission of SEC violation. Which of course, every CEO makes pretty much every business day. If the SEC were neutral, why didn't they find and eliminate Shkreli before social media got all hot to trot on hating him? The SEC is basically saying, well, he's unpopular, we have the power to take him out, let's do it. Something about that seems wrong to me.

yesbabyyes 11y ago
No, it's not about that. Apparently an interview was published only yesterday, where Shkreli was trash-talking and threatening the RZA. And as we all know, Wu-Tang Clan ain't nothin' to fuck with. QED.

padseeker 11y ago

How will his arrest affect the price of the drug? That is really the only I care about.

apocalyptic0n3 11y ago
There's a senate committee currently investigating the common theme of companies buying out-of-patent drugs that have a small market and marking them up immediately after purchase. His arrest might add a bit of fire to the argument, but I suspect it won't have much effect in the long run. For the record, though, they are looking at the industry as a whole, not just his company and the few drugs he did this with.

DominikR 11y ago

I agree that if the allegations are true, Martin Shkreli is an immoral person to say the least, but I wonder about one thing: The whole conduct of the prosecutors doesn't look impartial to me. It seems as if someone was vilified by the media and next thing you know he is arrested and charged with fraud in an unrelated case. As if this was still a society where you had to slaughter the occasional sacrificial lamb to appease the anger of the people.

adamsea 11y ago

What goes around comes around

dang 11y ago

The curiosity being gratified here cannot remotely be called "intellectual". https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

tim333 11y ago
I googled "intellectual" and the first words were: "An intellectual is a person who engages in critical study, thought, and reflection about the reality of society, and proposes solutions for the normative problems of that society" You could argue Shkreli's behaviour was a problem of society that intellectuals would be curious as to the solution thereof?
- dang 11y ago
  Sure, one can be intellectually curious about anything. But the Dionysian frenzy we actually see in cases like this has nothing in common with that. What happens when somebody does bad things, especially repeatedly, is that others seize on it as a socially acceptable way to get their anger out. That may be human nature, but it's the epitome of what we don't want here.

toxoid 11y ago

I wonder if he will be able to afford Daraprim when he gets out of jail...