Martin Shkreli made headlines earlier this month after he shelled out $2 million on the Wu-Tang Clan’s exclusive album Once Upon A Time In Shaolin. Now, the pharm CEO who’s responsible for raising the price of an AIDS medication, Darapim, from $13.50 a pill to $750 each, is making waves across the ‘Net again after authorities arrested him on suspicion of securities fraud.
The charges stem from his prior work at a hedge fund called MSMB Capital Management, the Wall Street Journal reports, where “Mr. Shkreli is accused of misleading prospective investors in MSMB about his prior performance as a manager and the fund’s assets under management in order to induce them to invest.” Furthermore, Shkreli was accused by his investors of paying them back with stock and money by pillaging his biopharmaceutical company Retrophin Inc. A press conference on the matter will be held at noon on Thursday (Dec. 17).
Before his legal troubles, Shkreli announced that his next venture concerns Bobby Shmurda. The 32-year-old said in a recent interview with HipHopDX that he has plans to post bail for the “Shmoney Dance” rapper. The Brooklyn native has remained behind bars since the summer of 2014 after he was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and drug and firearm possession. Many industry heads have discussed Bobby’s fate in the justice system from 50 Cent to Bobby’s Epic Records CEO L.A. Reid. But it seems as if Shkreli planned to take matters into his own hands.
“Forget whether you think he’s guilty or not, the guy should not be sitting in jail right now. It’s insane. He’s from Brooklyn. I’m from Brooklyn. He deserves a fair trial,” Shkreli said. “He deserves good lawyers. He doesn’t have good lawyers. His label is hanging him out to dry and so I have a conference call tomorrow morning with them (December 15). I’ll show up with $2 million bail money no fu*king problem. He’s not going to flee the country. I’m not going to lose anything. I’m going to try to make that happen. That’s one thing I’m working on.”
Developments on Shkreli’s arrest are still forthcoming.