The life of ‘Pharma bro’ Martin Shkreli, who was convicted of securities fraud and faces up to 20 years in prison

Martin Shkreli, a former pharmaceutical CEO, was found guilty of securities fraud on Friday – but that was hardly the first time he’s been in the news.

Shkreli has been a controversial figure in the public eye ever since he hiked costs of Daraprim, an AIDS treatment drug that has no generic option, from $13.50 to $750 per pill overnight in 2015.

The move was met with widespread criticism, including from both then-presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Here’s a look at Martin Shkreli’s life, and how he got to where he is today:

Martin Shkreli had humble beginnings. On March 17, 1983, he was born in Coney Island Hospital to Albanian and Croatian immigrant parents, who both worked as janitors in Brooklyn.

Source: NBC News

Shkreli learned about stocks as a child, from a neighbor named Marty who would play chess with him in the 1990s.

Source: CNN Money

Shkreli was an ambitious child. “I kept thinking even as a young kid — at 10 or 11 years — I could have a company as big as Eli Lilly or Merck,” said Shkreli. He ended up buying his first stock shares, in the computer company Compaq, at age 12.

Source: CNN Money

Shkreli continued to buy stocks as a teen, collecting shares of Amazon when it went public in 1997. While other kids knew the batting averages of their favorite Yankees players, “I knew everything about all the public companies,” Shkreli recalled.

Source: CNN Money

Shkreli credited his time at Hunter College High School as the reason for his success — though he dropped out before he could graduate. As a thank you, he donated $1 million to it in 2015, but locals weren’t happy and called the gift “blood money.”

Source: CNN Money

Shkreli started working on Wall Street at age 16, after dropping out of high school. He landed an internship with Cramer, Berkowitz & Co., founded by CNBC’s “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer (who had left by that time.)

Source: CNN Money

CNN Money reported that people familiar with Shkreli in high school said he was “captivated by Wall Street and would put in insane hours” to learn its ins and outs.

Source: CNN Money

Shkreli received a business degree from Baruch College in 2004. However, he describes his college time as going through the motions, and insists high school was where he really learned.

Source: CNN Money

Shkreli had his first run-in with the law before he turned 18. He told Cramer’s fund to short a biotechnology stock in 2000. As Shkreli suspiciously predicted, the stock fell, and Cramer’s fund profited. However an SEC investigation found no proof of wrongdoing on Shkreli’s part.

Shkreli worked at UBS and Intrepid Capital Management before starting his own hedge funds.

Source: CNN Money

During his decade on Wall Street, Shkreli became known for shorting biotech stocks. He would also publicly criticize companies he didn’t like on Twitter.

Source: CNN Money

Speaking of Twitter, Shkreli is banned. He was suspended in January 2017 for repeatedly harassing journalist Lauren Duca, and the suspension became permanent in May. He set up a new account, but Twitter quickly took it down.

Source: The Verge

He opened his first hedge fund in 2009, MSMB Capital Management, where he continued shorting biotech stocks. In February 2011, Shkreli founded Retrophin, a pharmaceutical company.

However, things went downhill. The same month he founded Retrophin, he placed a bad bet shorting Orexigen Therapeutics, which that lost his hedge fund $7 million. He gave up $1 million from other trading losses, and MSMB was forced to stop all trading, having only $60,000 in assets left.

Source: CNN Money

Shkreli attempted to hide the losses and sent MSMB progress reports to investors as if the company were still healthy.

Source: Reuters

Shkreli then funneled money from Retrophin to pay off MSMB’s debts, and his own, from February to September of 2015.

Source: CNN Money

The FBI accused Shkreli of making fake, backdated transactions to create the appearance that MSMB Capital had invested in Retrophin

Source: CNN Money

While the public was unaware of his alleged financial misgivings, Forbes named Shkreli one of its top 30 under 30 in finance list.

Source: CNN Money

Source: Forbes

It didn’t take long for Retrophin’s investors to catch on. Seven demanded Shkreli return their money. Shkreli settled with the investors for $11 million, however he didn’t ask Retrophin’s board before doing so. When an auditor in August 2013 asked questions, Shkreli covered up the $11 million settlement in the form of sham “consulting” agreements

Source: CNN Money

Retrophin’s board kicked Shkreli out in 2014. He called the directors “insane” on his Twitter account.

Source: CNN Money

In 2015 Shkreli formed Turing Pharmaceuticals and bought the rights to market Daraprim, a toxoplasmosis treatment used by AIDS patients. The drug has no generic alternative. Shkreli hiked the price of the drug from $13 to $750, causing widespread backlash, including from then-presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. He said the company needed to profit from the drug, and said everyone who needed the drug would have access to it.

Source: The New York Times

A Washington Post reporter went on a Tinder date with Shkreli in September 2015. She described herself as being as outraged as everyone else about the drug price hike, but also said she had a surprisingly nice time on the date. Shkreli took her to a Japanese restaurant and ordered a $120 cup of tea, before saying “I’m not really a big tea drinker,” when she asked how it was.

eSource: The Washington Post

Shkreli tried to donate $2,700 to Bernie Sanders’ campaign in October, 2015. Sanders rejected the donation and instead sent the money to an HIV clinic. Shkreli tweeted “SO ANGRY AT @BernieSanders I COULD PUNCH A WALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1”

Source: CNN Money

Shkreli bought KaloBios Pharmaceuticals in November 2015. Shares of the company soared after he announced his intent to raise the price of a drug used to treat Chagas disease. The US Senate Special Committee on Aging began investigating Turing the same month. Shkreli also began to live-stream hours of his life at a time on YouTube, where he defended his actions.

Source: CNN Money

Martin Shkreli was revealed to be the single buyer of the Wu-Tang Clan’s album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.” The group released just one copy on auction and Shkreli paid $2 million for it. He played the album for the first time over live-stream.

Source: CNN Money

In December, Shkreli was arrested on suspicion of securities fraud. He stepped down as CEO of Turing, and then live-streamed himself for five hours on YouTube. He was fired from KaloBios the same month.

Source: CNN Money

On August 4, 2017, Shkreli was found guilty of three counts of securities fraud. He faces up to 20 years in prison, but he remained optimistic, because he was found not guilty on a key charge that he had looted Retrophin to make payments on behalf of his hedge fund. Shkreli had insisted before the trial that he would be found “so innocent” that the jury and prosecutors would have to apologize to him.

Source: Business Insider

Source: BBC

“This was a witch hunt of epic proportions,” Shkreli said afterward the verdict. “Maybe they found one or two broomsticks, but at the end of the day we’ve been acquitted of the most important charges in this case, and I’m delighted to report that.”

Source: Business Insider

After the conviction, he went on another YouTube live-streaming marathon, insisting there was a “50-50” chance he’ll actually go to prison. “When you throw spaghetti at the wall, some of it sticks,” Shkreli told his audience. “And some of this s— stuck.”

Source: Business Insider