The "most hated" millionaire of the United States

Martin Shkel was condemned for 7 years for financial fraud. He got rich, speculating in medicines

On March 10, the Federal District Court of Brooklyn sentenced the American millionaire Martin Shkleli to seven years in prison for fraud with securities. Shkreli got rich by playing the pharmaceutical market - in particular, buying licenses for some drugs and raising their cost by thousands of percent.

Martin Shkrel made a state with speculation in the pharmaceutical market. The 34-year-old American of Albanian descent created several investment funds that were looking for opportunities for investing with maximum profitability-often entering ethical aspects. In particular, in 2011, Shklyu turned to the American department for sanitary supervision of the quality of food and medicines demanding not to approve “inhaled insulin” - a new drug development of Mannkind. According to Shkrel, the drug did not undergo the necessary studies. After that, the Manankind shares fell sharply and the company Shkreli earned on this. The drug was eventually approved only in 2014.

The most fame of Shkrels brought speculations on the drug Darapime , included in the list of basic medicines. Darapime is a drug for the treatment of toxoplasmosis, which is standard in HIV therapy. The pharmaceutical company Shkrel Turing Pharmaceuticals bought the rights to its production, and then raised the price of the drug by 41 times - from 18 to 750 dollars per tablet. This caused an angry reaction of consumers and politicians, and they began to call the “face of greed” and “the most hated” citizen of America. In response, he trolls critics in social networks - including Hillary Clinton.

The lawsuit against Shkrel was filed by his former biotechnological company Retrophin, which removed him from work in 2014. In August 2015, the company filed a lawsuit against its founder, accusing him of building a financial pyramid, misleading investors and using Retrophin money as his own piggy bank. In particular, he was accused of illegally withdrawing shares from the company to pay for the debt that arose with his MSMB investment fund. According to the prosecution, Shkrels began to lose money of investors and lie to them from the very beginning of his entrepreneurial activity.

Retrophin estimated the damage from his actions at 65 million dollars. In response to the accusation, Shkrel said that he was “not worried” by the company's requirements, and he was preparing to file a counterclaim.

On December 17, 2015, Shklya was detained on Retrophin's charges of financial fraud. He himself denied all the accusations. The millionaire was exempted from bail of five million dollars. The next day, Shklyu resigned from the post of head of Touring Pharmaceuticals, and on December 21 - from the post of head of the Kalobios Pharmaceuticals, a 70% stake in which the millionaire bought a month before. At the end of December 2015, Kalobios filed for bankruptcy, and the actions of Shklyu were included in the list of “worst failures of the heads of companies in 2015” by Forbes magazine.

In February 2016, Martin Shklyu was obliged to answer the questions of the American Congress regarding the prices of drugs. However, he refused to say anything at the meeting, naming only his name and confirming that he hears questions. Later he insulted the members of the congress on his twitter, writing: "It is hard to believe that these imbeciles represent the people in power."

Shkreli is known for his provocative posts and harassment on social networks. In early 2017, the Twitter administration deleted his account with 200 thousand subscribers due to the Russian journalist Loren Duk. A month before, Duka published a column “Donald Trump Gazlaite America” in the TEEN Vogue publication, after which trolls and haters began to attack her on social networks, including Martin Shkrel. He invited her to the Trump inauguration ceremony, pointed out in his profile that he was a little in love with her, and then took his head to the photograph of the journalist and her husband - and made it his photo of the profile. Duka accused him of targeted Harassment (which is prohibited by Twitter policy). He himself stated that his actions could not be considered a Harassment, since Duka did not ask him to stop, and also accused her of disrespect for his right to love her.

In the fall of the same year, Martin Shklya was sent under arrest due to posts on Facebook, which, as the court decided , posed a threat to the company. The prosecutor’s office especially noted the post of Shkrel, in which he offered five thousand dollars for a strand of hair Hillary Clinton. Because of this post, the secret service was forced to strengthen the security of Hillary Clinton. “He does not know who reads him. He cannot know that someone will not perceive his proposal seriously. He incites to an attack on a person for five thousand dollars, ”the judge said .

In August 2017, the jury found 34-year-old millionaire Martin Shkreli guilty of fraud with securities and criminal conspiracy. After the verdict, Shkrel told reporters that he was a victim of witch hunting. Punishment of the millionaire was appointed only six months later. The prosecutors demanded a 15-year prison term for Shkrel, while the defense asked from year to one and a half-since the millionaire pleaded guilty of fraud and repented (although the judge considered that he was insincere).

On March 9, 2018, the court sentenced Shkrel to seven years in prison. He will also have to pay more than 70 million dollars: $ 65 million, Retrophin compensation and another fine to the state in the amount of $ 7.36 million. The property of the millionaire is confiscated-including the only copy of the Once Upon A Time in Shaolin album, the Wu-Tang Clan rap group, which Shklya bought in 2015 for two million dollars (and, as he claimed , was not even about to listen).

Olga Strachovskaya