The Most Hated Man In America: Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli with Kyle Prue and Miles Bonsignore | 71

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Martin Shkrelli always has a smug smile on his face, whether he's running his massive pharma company, trolling his critics on Twitter, or even right now, while sitting in a courtroom on trial for massive fraud.

Despite the fact that Martin may be the most hated man in America because he jacked up the price of a life-saving drug, he's not worried about his court case.

He's got millions to spend on wine, a one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang clan album, and the best lawyers money can buy.

Speaking of which, Martin's lawyer is about to begin his opening statement.

Martin is confident his lawyer will be able to find a way to get the jury on his side.

He puts his hands behind his head, closes his eyes, and leans back to enjoy his defense.

Martin's lawyer starts addressing the jury.

But wait, did his lawyer just say something about how weird Martin is?

And now his lawyer is talking about how nuts Martin is?

What the heck is going on?

Martin looks over at the jury to see how they're taking all this.

A dozen faces scowl back at him.

They don't just find him a little unlikable.

They all look like they want to punch him in the face.

Wait, did Martin's own lawyer just say that he also wants to punch Martin in the face sometimes?

Looks like that smug smile isn't going to be on Martin's face much longer, either because of prison or a right hook from his own attorney.

When my drug company went public, i.e., became millionaire.

I was probably 28 or something.

He raised the price of a drug used by AIDS patients.

The internet exploded with rage.

He was even called a disgusting specimen of humanity.

We

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I'm your host, Misha Brown, social media superstar and author of How to Piss Off Internet Trolls, 109 Things to Say to Shatter Their Wi-Fi Confidence at Don't Cross a Gay Man.

And today, we're talking about Martin Shkrelli, better known by his super villain moniker, Pharmabro.

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Now, everyone, on our show today, I'm so excited.

And I have to say that, hopefully, so he won't sue me for my opening.

It is an actor, a writer, and content creator.

His new book, How to Piss Off Men, 109 Things to Say to Shatter the Male Ego, recently hit shelves.

It's none other than Kyle Prue.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I am going to sue you, but that was very nice.

I love that.

Also on our show is a podcaster and YouTuber.

You may know him from the Try Guys YouTube channel or from his very successful podcast, Perfect Person.

It's Miles Bonsignore.

Welcome, Miles.

Hello.

Happy to be here to discuss the flop.

We love flops.

So, okay, before we get into the story of him, I got to ask, what do you both know about Martin Shkrelli?

All I know him is he's kind of like a little shriveled guy.

He sort of is like a little toad that needs to be squashed.

I can picture his little rat face perfectly.

Right.

Yeah,

I want to put him in a mason jar and shake it really hard.

You want to make sort of handmade whipped cream with a Marvel.

Yeah, yeah.

I want to make an aioli.

Nice.

Today's episode is all about Martin Shkrelli, the Pharma Bros CEO whose massive drug company financed his lavish lifestyle, but who went from trolling on Twitter to rotting in a jail cell.

What's so crazy about Martin is that he had all the makings of a classic inspirational American story.

Like if he hadn't decided to fully embrace his dark side, Martin is born in 1983.

He grows up in Brooklyn with parents who are immigrants from Eastern Europe and they work as janitors.

As a kid, he gets interested in chemistry when he learns that one of his family members has treatment-resistant depression.

But there's something Martin likes more than chemistry sets.

Cash.

So he also gets interested in investing.

And chasing those bucks is where Martin immediately puts most of his energy.

When he's just 17, he gets a gig working as an intern at a hedge fund.

What do you think that says about Martin that he starts working at a hedge fund?

Yeah, it seems like he got a taste for evil sort of quick.

When I was 17, I was having a coffee and enjoying my friends.

I wasn't sort of interested in hedge funds and investing at all.

Enjoying your friends.

This sounds extremely salacious.

Oh, trust me, I was enjoying them.

I was enjoying them so hard.

I mean, when you're 17, you have the kind of energy that is sort of bottomless.

You know, like to be an internet a hedge fund, like I would rather do it at 17 than like 28.

I couldn't do it now.

By the way, that hedge fund Martin's working at is run by Jim Kramer.

Jim Kramer, as you may recall, is that over-caffeinated shouty guy who hosts Mad Money on CNBC.

Oh my God.

Yes.

My favorite guy.

The idea of these two interacting like in any capacity whatsoever is enough to fry my brain insane this makes me want the biopic cameo of jim kramer like so bad

you know like paul giamatti like walking in for like two minutes of the movie that'd be great well while there martin may or may not have learned the secret to what makes jim kramer so sweaty and disheveled, but he does learn about a way to make massive investment profits, researching biotech company stocks and shorting companies that he thinks aren't going to be up to snuff what do you know about short selling i watched the big short so i kind of know everything there is to know about it um it's when something go bad but you think it gonna go bad before it go bad yeah

yeah you're basically purchasing insurance on a stock should it drops you make money I also saw the big short recently.

Yeah, basically it just means that instead of betting that a company's stock price is going to go up, you're betting that it's going to go down.

That's the oversimplified version.

It's the perfect type of investing for someone like Martin, who always embraces the negative side of things and loves being a villain.

It does feel like the nerdy way to be a bully.

Yes.

I'm actually going to short your stock.

I wish I could do this to people.

Yeah.

Shorting other influencers of stock.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm like, great video.

I just purchased two shares on your downfall.

So in 2006, Martin starts a hedge fund of his own, and things immediately go south because Martin takes a big risk that does not pay off.

In 2007, he puts down $2.6 million,

betting that the stock market is going to tank.

He's wrong, though he's only off by a few months.

As you may recall, by 2008, the Great Recession would be in full swing.

So sorry, bad timing, Martin.

That's also in the big short.

Because of his bad gamble, Martin winds up owing Lehman Brothers $2.3 million.

They sue him, and then he refuses to pay up.

How do you think he's going to get out of this situation?

I think I have an idea.

By the way, I don't like that now when like rich people do bad things, it's just like, I'm actually not going to pay that.

People are just owing millions of dollars and they're just saying no, which really is a toddler's way out and I don't appreciate it.

Well, Martin, he gets bailed out because before his debt comes due, Lehman Brothers collapses in that great recession I mentioned.

As if the great recession weren't bad enough already.

It also helped out Martin Shkrelli.

So

what do you think he learned?

Nothing.

Nothing.

It's the fucking dorks, man.

It's like, oh, the person I owed money to disappeared and went bankrupt.

Clearly, there's a divine protection that resides over me.

Well, in 2008, Martin starts another hedge fund named MSMB Capital Management.

And at this new fund, he continues to focus on shorting stocks.

And Martin doesn't just short a stock and then sit back and hope the price goes down.

Martin is seen bashing companies on the internet whose downfall he would benefit from.

When he bets against a company called Mankind, Martin writes a letter to the FDA to try to get them to say no to one of the company's products.

He even gets into a public shouting match with Mankind's CEO.

As a result, Mankind's share price goes down 66% and Martin makes a big profit.

To bet against Mankind is

so fitting.

It's gauche.

It's on the nose.

Yeah, it's a little too written for the movie.

Yeah, I feel like the script needs one more pass.

Exactly.

But Martin's favorite move to drive a company stock down, thus earning him big money, is to talk trash about that company online.

And if there's one thing we'll see today, it's Martin loves talking trash online, especially on Twitter, the ultimate trash talking social network.

But as Martin hits the big time and the money rolls in, he starts buying up all kinds of pricey art and collectibles.

He buys a Picasso, a manuscript signed by Isaac Newton, a World War II-era Enigma code machine, and letters written by Charles Darwin and mathematician Ada Lovelace.

I don't think this guy should have art.

in his house.

I think he's a toad, and I do think that he shouldn't shouldn't be allowed to look at paintings.

He strikes me as the kind of guy who wouldn't know about art.

Like that it wouldn't have come across his desk, you know?

Like, you know, paintings?

And he's like, paintings?

What are you talking about?

No, no.

When I was 17, I worked at a hedge fund.

I've been being homophobic on Twitter for the last 20 years.

I've never seen a painting.

Well, in 2011, Martin starts a new company called Retrofin.

Now, his plan for the company is basically to find obscure drugs, buy them, and then massively raise their price.

And obviously, this is terrible if you are someone who depends on one of those drugs for your health.

It's completely taking advantage of vulnerable people.

But here's the really messed up thing.

There's nothing illegal about doing this.

It's totally unethical, but it's totally legal.

That's awesome, man.

We live in such a cool place.

It's really great.

such a cool place.

I feel like you said that, like, we were going to be really surprised by it.

I can't keep getting tricked, you know?

It turns out that's not illegal.

I'm like, yeah, well, that's right.

Martin's new company and his ethically questionable strategy catapult him into success.

Less than two years later, he snags a spot on the 2013 Forbes 30 Under 30 list.

Which is, it's pretty much like

a wait list for prison.

It's like an open table for getting put in jail.

It's a Resi for a cell block.

Yeah.

But also, was he, sorry, was he on the Forbes 30 under 30 for just like being really rich?

Because everything he did was dumb and bad.

He just was rich about it.

He was on the list because Forbes was particularly impressed that he blew up a merger between two pharma companies and annoyed Pfizer until they fired one of their board members.

I like the idea.

You know, they do categories.

They're like streamers, creators, fashion, douchebags.

Like

that is a good category.

There'd be a lot of contenders there.

Little guys who look like rodents who we just can't wait to choke.

You know who else once made the Forbes 30 under 30 list?

The star of one of our previous big flop episodes, Sam Bankman Freed.

I thought you were going to say Elizabeth Holmes, also Elizabeth Holmes.

Wait, that's Chris.

So, Sam Bankman Freed, and I guess it's just because, like, previous to being criminals, they're just kind of quote-unquote innovators in the space and then they do bad stuff.

Yeah, there is a very almost indiscernible fine line between innovator in the space and felon.

Right?

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So between 2012 and 2014, Martin and Retrofin rake in $100 million in investor money.

Though, to be fair to those investors, many of them thought that Retrofin was going to be researching new drugs and new treatments, not just taking old drugs and charging insane prices for them.

But Martin's shady behavior isn't just limited to price gouging.

Behind the scenes, Martin is taking money from Retrofin and using it to pay off debts that got racked up when he was running his previous firm, MSMB,

and also some lawsuits that he was dealing with himself.

Now, you're very much not allowed to do this.

Just because you started both companies doesn't mean they're your personal piggy bank.

So when Retrofin board members get wind of this in September of 2014, they very wisely replace him as CEO and Martin leaves the company.

So he was committing fraud, and they were like, hey, man, you should go home.

Honestly, on a lot of these flops, the company's just like,

you can stay.

It's okay.

I'm going to need you to clock out, big dog.

Wait, he was spending like millions of dollars of company money.

And it's like, I'm going to need you to log out of Slack.

Like five minutes ago.

But Martin, as most sewer rats do immediately bounces back setting up another new pharma company that he calls touring and at touring martin is basically going to be doing the same thing he did at retrofin buying up drugs and charging people way too much money for them question

if you were martin what would you do at your next company would you just keep trying to do the same thing Let me put myself in the mindset.

If I was Martin Skrilly, I mean, this guy's so rich.

He can basically do do whatever.

Like, he's just after power.

I guess I keep doing my bad behaviors.

But if I was Martin Skrelly, I think I'd log off by a boat and then just kind of hang out in a cool place.

Yeah, if I woke up in Martin Shkrelly's body, I would choke myself to death.

So one of the first drugs that Martin targets with his new company, Touring, is called Dereprim.

It's not a very well-known drug, but it's on the World Health Organization list of essential medicines.

And that's because Deraprim is used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that you can get from eating undercooked food or from exposure to cat poop.

And if you're elderly or have immune system issues or are pregnant, toxoplasmosis can pose a serious risk to your health.

So in August of 2015, Turing acquires Deraprim and immediately raises the price.

Now, before Martin, Dereprim cost $13.50 per pill.

How much do you think Daraprim costs after it gets the Martin Shkreli treatment?

Wasn't it like, I feel like it was in the thousands of dollars.

No, it was like, I'm going to say $3,000 a pill.

A little less than that.

It was $750.

Oh, then that's fine.

Oh, that's good.

Yeah.

That's really smart business.

Weird.

That's what he says, too.

It'd be really funny if by the end of this, we got really on board.

Yeah.

Well, you just can't keep him down.

Let's free Martin, man.

So Martin charges $750 for just one pill.

And again, this is legal.

It is just totally wrong.

The move makes headlines in the New York Times and immediately draws outrage.

In September of 2015, the HIV Medicine Association and the Infectious Diseases Society of America write a letter to Martin protesting the price raise.

This is also all happening during the primary season leading up to the 2016 presidential election.

Don't know if you remember it.

So it immediately becomes a campaign issue.

And it turns out that hating Martin brings people together in a bipartisan way.

Barney Sanders calls Martin a poster boy for drug company greed.

And even Donald Trump says that guy is nothing.

He's zero.

He's nothing.

He ought to be ashamed of himself.

Oh my God.

Well, Martin decides to do some press to try to explain his move.

So let's take a look at a clip from one of those interviews.

Why was it necessary to raise the price of Daraprim so drastically?

Well, it depends on how you define it so drastically, because the drug was unprofitable at the former price.

So any company selling it would be losing money.

And at this price, it's a reasonable profit, not excessive at all.

Yeah, but if you are not making a profit at $3,

you can make make a profit at $6.

Correct.

This is like, it's like, we're just barely breaking even.

It's like, well, double it from $3 to $6.

It's just business, man.

Like, it's, look, my hands are tied.

Like, I had to raise the price to $700.

It gets to the point where the BBC says Martin might be the most hated man in America.

And no one hates him more than the internet.

So to take a look at some of the things folks are saying online about Martin, let's play a game.

Now, I'm going to read you an internet comment about Martin with one word removed, and you have to fill in the blank.

Ready?

Yeah, hell yeah.

First one: Martin Shkrelli is a morally bankrupt blank.

Ooh, I'm gonna go with shrew.

Ooh,

shit boy.

The answer is he's a morally bankrupt sociopath.

I like shitboy better.

Yeah.

Second one, another commenter says, Martin is a blank monster.

Oh, I'm going to go with shitboy.

That's what I was going to say.

Maybe unmitigated.

He was called a garbage monster.

All right.

One more.

Finally, one Twitter user wrote, there are bad people in the world.

And then there is Martin Shkrelli.

Not even a blank.

Not even a person?

That's a pretty good one.

We're going to give it to you.

Ding, ding, ding.

Not even a human.

Okay.

Hell yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

So do you think those comments are fair?

Yep.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yeah.

There we go.

We're all in agreement.

I'm on board.

I mean, we all love a villain.

You know what I mean?

It's good to sort of halog on and have everyone clown on the same person, especially when they really deserve it and they look like a toad.

So it's like all kind of a win-win.

Well, how does he feel about it?

How does he feel about people hating him so much?

He loves it.

He says, it's fun to see people get so animated.

And when people come at him, Martin is more than happy to punch back.

He gets up in his critics' mentions, calling them them idiots and tweets things like, hedge funds down 20% have a lot of fucking balls to criticize me.

Try hedging, dipshits.

Charming.

Such a burn for Dorks.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Try hedging, idiots.

Whatever.

You suck.

Try your underwear over your head, loser.

But here's like my general kind of like feeling.

It is extremely, extremely hard to dunk on somebody who has a humiliation fetish, which I do think is like,

I'm not kidding, like clearly something at play here.

Like, I think there is some kind of like thrill that he is getting out of being so detested.

Yeah, I don't, like, it's, it's, I'm like, we're like part of it now.

Feeding the monster.

We're pleasuring him now.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Martin has decided to fully own his villain era, and he's given up on even remotely trying to defend himself.

During During a Q ⁇ A at a Forbes summit, when he's asked if he would have done anything differently, he replies, raise the price higher.

And I could have raised it higher and made more profits for people.

And not only is he not defending himself, Martin decides he's going to throw all his energy into being a little online troll.

And he just goes ahead and admits that's what he's doing.

He flat out tweets, I am the original internet troll, child.

Again, doesn't really have a way with words.

And this strategy leads him to posting things that are basically designed in a lab to piss people off as much as possible.

He posts pictures of him drinking $1,000 bottles of wine and selfies of him in a helicopter and next to a pool in the Hamptons.

In fact, let's take a look at a photo of him from one of his tweets.

Okay,

so like, what's up here, right?

Like, this is a...

Flow Rider music video.

Which one is Flow Rider and which one is Martin?

No idea.

It's hard to say.

It's almost impossible to discern.

I'll also say like everyone obviously hates him.

This tweet didn't perform well.

Like he's millions of people are aware of who this guy is and only has 26 faves.

So in another one of Martin's posts, he also makes some claims about his love life that I think are pretty sus.

He tweets 50 to 100 date solicitations a day for me, the world's most eligible bachelor.

Sorry, but you have to be a shareholder to meet me.

I think Martin looked at the bot section of Instagram and he had like a bunch of solicitors.

And he's like, there are horny women all over the city ready to meet me.

You wouldn't believe how many hot singles are in my area.

But I'm waiting for one that has a portfolio.

Yeah.

Well, at this point, Martin should be spending less time bragging about how he's doing on dating apps and more time worrying about his legal trouble because he's under investigation by the feds.

So why do you think he's being investigated?

His vibe, his aura, he's just negative Nancy attitude.

If I were at the FBI,

I'd see tweets like that and I'd be like, we're gonna go check this shit out.

I feel like, I'd be like, yo, Tom, come here.

Let's just shake this tree, see what falls out, right, brother?

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When you see what's left, it starts to look like a crime scene.

Are we really safe?

Is our water safe?

You destroyed our top.

And crimes like that, they don't just happen.

We call things accidents.

There is no accident.

This was 100%

preventable.

They're the result of choices by people.

Ruthless oil tycoons, corrupt politicians, even organized crime.

These are the stories we need to be telling about our changing planet.

Stories of scams, murders, and cover-ups that are about us and the things we're doing to either protect the Earth or destroy it.

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Well, the investigation has nothing to do with Martin's price gouging.

Like we said, raising those drug prices may be completely immoral, but it's also completely legal.

But remember how Martin was shifting money around all his different companies, using cash from Retrofin and using it to pay off those MSMB debts.

The government has been investigating that.

They think he's basically been running his businesses like a Ponzi scheme.

But Martin's still trying to keep his, I don't give a fuck, internet troll image.

And how does he do that?

By getting even more online.

In November of 2015, he starts live streaming on YouTube.

He streams himself playing video games, playing the guitar.

He even streams himself while he's sleeping.

And these streams are sometimes 10 hours long.

And during them, he has chats with viewers.

And no surprise, he likes to argue with them.

I feel bad for him that he got into it like right before Twitch.

He could have monetized.

He was just doing that for the love of the game, which is really the saddest part altogether.

I am curious what games he was playing.

I'm kind of like, was he good?

Like, was he an elite?

Like, was he an elite gamer?

Or like, what's up?

Well, Martin's biggest outrage comes when the Wu-Tang clan releases their mythical album once upon a time in shaolin they make one copy of the record and it's priced at two million dollars and martin is the one who ends up buying it it's the most expensive album ever sold and people are pissed that he's the one to have the album and in response to the outrage martin says haven't even listened to it yet

so i think the reason it is so, so infuriating is because he is the least Wu-Tang person alive.

Agreed.

He embodies the opposite of the Wu-Tang philosophy.

He embodies big wiggles energy and he's like, got the album.

Also, like, I think you're honestly in Kyle about him having a humiliation kink.

I'm just like, when will it be enough?

Like, he's just, you know, it's time after time.

He keeps reminding people that he's a little, what's he, what you say, shitboy.

Yeah.

Well, it's like sometimes I like see things on the internet where someone's like this guy DM'd me a picture of his extremely tiny penis and was like no please don't post this like it's like we're getting tricked we're getting tricked by dunking on people who that is the only thing that will get them off well it's not just Wu-Tang fans who are outraged by this Wu-Tang clan member ghostface killer weighs into dunk on Martin too let's take a look

the guy right here that planned on

12-year-old body is one of the best burns I've ever heard in my life.

Yeah, Peter Pan looking ass.

Like, we really got him.

I would like to see an insult battle between Wu-Tang Clan and Martin Shkrelly, though.

Yeah.

He'd be like, try hedging.

And then they'd kill him.

They'd beat the shit out of him.

He'd beat him to a bloody match.

Well, and by the way, Ghost isn't just making fun of Martin's appearance.

He also savages his business practices and his general ethics as a human being.

Let's watch.

The problem I had with him when I was being interviewed was that he just, he he has no respect for life you know I mean he raised the price you know I've been in on him from what $1350 to $750 a pill for these age victims and it was just like yo how could you do something like that's 5,000%

that's all said totally how would you feel if you were getting called out by a member of the Wu-Tang clan God, it would be so embarrassing.

But again, like, he's already at the bottom of the pit of the embarrassment.

I think, like, I don't know who could shake, you know what?

The only person that could possibly shake him up would be if Musk came after him, his number one guy.

Like this, you know, Martin Skretley's got to love Elon.

It's also interesting, like a lot of these habitual kind of trolls or instigators or like antagonists, whatever you want to call them, do develop cult-like followings.

That's like kind of like our country's whole thing right now.

But it is interesting that like Martin never got fanboys.

There's no like gang behind him.

Like

just sort sort of universally despised and hated.

And not even able to turn that into any kind of traction whatsoever is just a Herculean failure of charisma.

Well, it's not just Kyle Prue and Wu-Tang that ends up taking Martin down.

It's the FBI.

On December 17th, 2015, they arrest Martin on charges of fraud.

After the arrest, the official Twitter account of the New York FBI answers the question on everybody's mind, what happened to that Wu-Ting clan album?

But they announced they did not seize the album during the arrest.

So Martin may be in handcuffs, but the Wu-Ting clan will have to wait to get justice.

Now, the day after his arrest, Martin resigns as the head of touring.

And as you can imagine, nothing makes the internet happier than when bad things happen to Martin.

I will say, the day he got to prison must have felt like Black Friday.

Thorbuster specials.

So naturally, the people are tweeting out their zingers with one user posting, Martin Shkrelli's bail was set to be at $500,000, but they raised it to $27.5 million just for him.

It's so funny because they could have made a profit at $500,000.

They could have made a profit at $500,000.

So how do you think this trial is going to go for him i mean he's so unlike he's so unlikable there's no world where it doesn't get settled out and again i wear he's going to get on the stand and be like look at my tiny little penis like the guy is just trying to get hate he doesn't care if he's in prison right he wants this this is the one man who you cannot make a jury of his peers.

It's funny that you should say that because Martin's trial starts in June of 2017 and his defense team immediately runs into a huge problem and that is people hate him so much it was almost impossible for them to find jurors who aren't already biased against him.

So Miles and Kyle, could you alternate doing dramatic readings of these comments from potential jurors?

Yes, absolutely.

I'm aware of the defendant and I hate him.

I think he's a greedy little man.

When I walked in here today, I looked at him and in my head, that's a snake.

Not knowing who he was, I just walked in and looked right at him and was like, that is a snake.

That's someone that did not know who he was and just had a bad feeling about him.

It's like, oh, oh, oh, oh.

The vibe in here is just slithery.

The only thing I'd be impartial about is what prison this guy goes to.

Yeah.

Your honor, totally he is guilty and in no way can I let him slide out of anything.

It's my attitude toward his entire demeanor, what he has done to people, and he disrespected the Wu-Tang clan.

That's diabolical.

Now, none of those people wound up being selected for the jury, but it's clear that the hate for Martin has gone from online to IRL.

Even Martin's own lawyer admits there are times when he wants to punch Martin in the face, which is not great.

Your lawyer can't be like shit talking you, but he's so bad that your lawyer had to be like, Look, I want to kill the guy, too.

Like, I can't handle it.

That was his opening statement.

He was like, Listen, like, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I mean, this guy blows.

Like, don't get me wrong.

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, can you imagine being me right now?

I mean, you're joking, but during his opening statement, Martin's lawyer literally says, Is he strange?

Yes.

Will you find him weird?

Yes.

Man, what a burn.

If I were his lawyer, I would say, Martin, there's no way we can call you to the stand.

No way.

Like, this is an instant lose if anyone has to look at you.

Martin, don't even come.

Like, stay in prison.

I'll deal with this.

It's going to be worse of your year.

Just zoom in, bad connection.

Please just zoom in, bad connection.

Throughout the case, Martin, as you might expect, he continues running his mouth online.

He tweets about the prosecutors, things like hard to accept that these imbeciles represent the people in our government.

He also posts on Facebook, this was a bogus case from day one.

Heard that defense before, but he did not go on the stand.

Now, lots of other people testify, though, and it does not go well for Martin.

No, it does not.

MSMB investors tell the jury about all the different ways that Martin lied to them.

They say he lied about how big his hedge fund was, how much money it was making, and how well it it was doing.

He said it was an average hedge fund, but it was

when he pulled it out, it was below average.

And he wanted me to tweet about it and laugh about it a lot.

Also, like being in a business meeting with Shkrelli and being like, everything this guy says is bullshit.

He's so smug.

Like, how could you possibly trust him to do anything?

Evidence in the case also includes emails in which Martin berates a lawyer about his retrofin scheme and testimony from one of Martin's former business partners who says that Martin threatened his wife.

If Martin Shkraly threatened my wife, I would run him over with a truck.

All I need is an excuse.

This guy.

You are a fun-sized Snickers.

My wife would devour you.

My wife would crush this guy bone to bone to bone.

Literally.

But if you're a member on the jury, like you can't be feeling good about Martin Shkrelly at this point.

No.

So you may not be surprised to hear that he is, in fact, found guilty.

And when he's facing his sentencing, Martin's cocky persona finally crumbles completely.

He breaks down and cries while reading a statement pleading for the judge to show him some leniency.

Let's take a look at the courtroom sketch of that moment.

Oh my god.

See, this is what he wants, man.

He wanted us to see this.

He knew we're playing into his trap, and I don't even care.

Is he holding a tissue?

Holding a tissue.

Wow.

Sobbing.

I like that they did, like, this is like basically drawn in like watercolor.

It's very abstract.

Yeah.

Courtroom sketch artists have become quite artistic.

Yeah.

It's kind of

like the most quickly advancing medium.

Yeah.

So, if you're the judge, what would you feel?

And how would you react to his breakdown in court?

I mean, if you're trying to get leniency now, like you basically dug your own grave for your entire life, like you've been a little dickling for this entire process to be like, please, please, please, please, don't put me.

And it's like, you're so unlikable, it was hard to find a jury.

Like, you have to go away.

I've never done this in my life, but I would point at him and I would laugh as hard as I possibly could, which is not a good show of decorum, but that's why I'm not a judge.

Yeah.

Yes.

Well, this actual judge is also not moved.

Martin is sentenced to seven years in prison and has to pay the government $7.36 million.

Yeah.

The judge also says that if Martin can't pay up, it's okay for the government to take his assets in order to cover the money.

And you know what we want.

You know what we're getting.

That Wu-Tang album.

That's right.

Well, once he's behind bars, Martin lands in more hot water and in solitary confinement.

He uses a smuggled cell phone to keep running one of his businesses and also keeps posting on social media.

I hate to give this to him, but he is an all-time poster.

Yeah.

To post from prison is awesome, actually.

He's like still nagging people like you're a fucking loser.

It's the first begrudging respect I'm willing to throw out that that's pretty funny.

You gotta respect the guy, okay?

Yeah, he reportedly created a new secret Twitter account where he tweeted about how most of his friends are women, bashed remote work, and said white supremacy isn't as important as you think.

Three weird takes.

It's also like, where are you at with that third one?

White supremacy isn't as important as you think.

Like, even white supremacists are like, what?

Like, everybody is not on board.

Are you on the team or not, brother?

It's a little, it's a little confusing where he stands.

So then in 2020, during the pandemic, Martin asks to get released so he can help research a COVID cure, a request that a probation officer describes as delusional.

This request to be released is denied.

When America needed him most, his request was denied.

It's like when Batman goes to go get help from the Riddler, right?

It's like Fauci meeting

through the glasses with Strelly.

It's like, Nick, but you're the only one who could solve this.

But if there's one thing we know about Martin, it's that one spectacular failure is never enough to stop him.

In 2021, he asks to be released early again.

This time, he says that he's at higher risk of getting COVID because he has mental health issues that make his immune system weaker.

Listen, Martin, we all had mental health issues during COVID.

He's like, I'm more likely to get COVID because I'm really insufferable.

Yeah.

Well, a judge, once again, basically tells Martin to get the fuck out of here.

No.

I'd be like, give him COVID.

Everybody lined up and spit on him.

Let's just spit on Martin.

With his second attempt to get an early release denied, that's it for Martin.

He's stuck in prison.

No more helicopter rides, no more expensive wine, and no more posting on social media.

So instead of being thought of as a financial genius, the brilliant head of a pharma company, he's a jailbird and still one of the most hated men in America.

So let's do a little, where are they now?

Well, Martin was released from prison in 2022.

He's banned for life from working in the pharmaceutical industry and from working as an officer or director of any publicly traded company.

So naturally, he started his own sub stack.

Oh, man.

What could he possibly have to say?

I don't even know.

It's just like slurs.

It's just every slur.

Just in a row.

And in order to pay off his debts, he did wind up having to sell that Wu-Tang clan album to a collective of NFT investors.

So Martin went down, but Wu-Tang is forever.

So here on the big flop, we like to be positive people and kind of end on a high.

So are there any silver linings that you can think of that came about from Martin Shkrelli?

Justice does feel that it was served slightly.

It's like this guy was the biggest dick ever, and he did go to prison for seven years and kind of like weep openly.

So, I like that.

I think it's like a good reminder to me: if you're the most hated man in America and you're like basically betting everybody, like, nothing's gonna happen to me, I suck for real.

And then it was like, okay, he like wept openly and was in prison for seven years.

So, like, that's a huge plus for me.

I like that he got out just in time for people to start killing healthcare gougers.

I think that's pretty, I think that's, I think that's awesome.

If I'm Skrelly, I am terrified.

I'm like, holy shit, I'm clutching my pearls for sure.

Yeah, I mean, I think we can stretch it out and say that he did inadvertently help raise awareness about pharmaceutical company greed and outrageous prescription drug prices.

He also raised awareness about whatever condition he has that makes him unable to stop posting on social media, no matter how much people yell at him.

And more at risk of covid

and more risk of covid

so now that you both know about martin shkrelli the pharma bro with the oh so punchable face who went from millionaire ceo to prison would you consider this a baby flop a big flop or a mega flop i feel like this is a mega flop i feel like he sort of bet everybody he was like

nothing's gonna happen at all it's gonna be so fine like i suck and then he fell on his face completely.

Yeah, mega flop.

I can't think of a way that things could have gone worse for him.

Especially now that he, knowing that he has a sub stack that, like, no one reads, that's awesome.

Yeah, that rocks.

Well, thanks so much to our pharmacist recommended guests, Kyle Prue and Miles Bonsignore, for joining us here on the Big Flop.

And of course, thanks to all of you for listening.

If you're enjoying the show, please leave us a rating and review.

We'll be back next week to talk about some folks who helicopter parented too close to the sun and the college counselor who helped them buy their kids into prestigious universities.

It's William Singer and the Varsity Blues scandal.

Bye.

Bye.

Bye.

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