Martin Shkreli, the former CEO of Turing Pharma, is scheduled to appear before the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on Tuesday, facing fraud charges. His attorney, Ben Brafman, has remained tight-lipped about the upcoming court appearance, which will primarily involve discussing pre-trial motions. However, Shkreli himself is far from routine.
Last year, Shkreli gained notoriety for dramatically increasing the price of Daraprim, a life-saving drug used by cancer and AIDS patients, from $13.50 to $750 per pill overnight. Although the price hike sparked public outcry, Shkreli argued that it was necessary to maintain profits. He was dubbed the "smiling face of Wall Street greed" by Hillary Clinton, while Donald Trump called him a "spoiled brat."
Despite this controversy, Shkreli was not charged with the Daraprim price hike. Instead, he is accused of illegally transferring funds between his companies to cover poor market performance of another company. Brafman defended Shkreli's 5th Amendment rights when he refused to testify before Congress, but the term "unfortunate choice of words" was used to describe his actions on Twitter, where he publicly ridiculed congressmen questioning him .
Shkreli, who boasts 115k followers on Twitter, shares his love for trashy TV, his cat, chess, self-referential rap lyrics, stock market observations, Warren Buffett, Bernie Sanders, and Wu-Tang, among other things. He even reportedly purchased a golden vinyl record for $2 million .
Shkreli seems unfazed by the possibility of a prison sentence. In a tweet following his arrest in December, he expressed confidence in his case, stating that the allegations against him were baseless.
