Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE Martin Shkreli is set to begin his trial for securities fraud. Here is a look at his rise to notoriety. USA TODAY 
 
 Pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martin Shkreli arrives at Federal Court in Brooklyn, NY with his lawyer Benjamin Brafman on June 26, 2017. Jury selection in Shkreli's securities and wire fraud trial starts today in the Brooklyn federal court. (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY) 
 
 NEW YORK — Any other securities and wire fraud trial would probably attract little more than a glance from courthouse spectators, let alone the larger American public. 
 
 But the proceeding set to start Monday is not just any trial: It's the Martin Shkreli legal show! 
 
 A year-and-half after his arrest, and following hundreds of tweets, scores of online boasts, dozens of live-streams and his purchase of a unique Wu-Tang Clan rap album for a reported $2 million, Shkreli gets his turn to take on the prosecutors who have charged him with conspiracy and fraud. 
 
 And everyone wants to experience it, it seems. 
 
 No matter that his case has no direct ties to the issue that brought the former pharmaceutical company CEO national notoriety — ordering a 5,000% price hike on a medication for HIV patients and others with compromised immune systems, then refusing to retreat or apologize. Repeatedly. 
 
 And never mind that the man informally dubbed the "Pharma Bro," a 34-year-old son of Albanian and Croatian immigrants, may opt against taking the witness stand in his own defense. 
 
 For the final pretrial hearing last week, many legal interns joined reporters in U.S. District Court, packing it to overflowing. One woman sat on the carpeted floor. 
 
 During legal arguments, Benjamin Brafman, the veteran criminal lawyer who's leading the defense team, indirectly summarized the attraction of Shkreli. He is "traveling to the beat of his very unique drummer." 
 
 Jurors are scheduled to hear dozens of witnesses whose testimony will alternately support and question the eight-count indictment against Shkreli. It accuses him of illegally taking stock from Retrophin — a biotechnology company he started in 2011 and was ousted from in 2014 — and then using it to pay unrelated debts owed to investors in hedge funds he'd previously headed. 
 
 The indictment also accuses Shkreli of defrauding investors in MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare through misstatements and omissions about the financial performance of the hedge funds, how much other investors put in, and how much Shkreli took out. 
 
 In all, he withdrew and spent more than $200,000 from MSMB Capital during the fund's operating life, "far in excess of any permitted fees," the indictment charges. 
 
 While winding down the funds in 2012, Shkreli raised suspicions by telling investors they could redeem their stakes for cash, or take Retrophin shares instead, the indictment alleges. But, instead of paying departing investors with money from the funds, he allegedly arranged to compensate them from Retrophin, via payments for phony consulting agreements. 
 
 Shkreli has pleaded not guilty. So has Evan Greebel, the former Retrophin outside counsel who was also charged in the indictment. In April, the federal judge presiding over the case, Kiyo Matsumoto, ordered separate trials for the men, with Shkreli going first. She ruled that Greebel's legal defense plan to characterize his co-defendant as a liar "would present a serious risk that Shkreli will not receive a constitutionally fair trial." 
 
 The trial is expected to last four to six weeks, attorneys on both sides estimated. 
 
 There's been no decision yet on whether Shkreli will testify in his own behalf, Brafman said during the final pretrial hearing. Afterward, he declined to discuss the defense plans, saying "I really think that we're going to try this case in the courtroom." 
 
 However, the proceeding provided glimpses of the strategies and evidence expected to be weighed by jurors. 
 
 Along with focusing on Shkreli's dealings with the hedge funds and Retrophin, prosecutors appear ready to present evidence about other parts of his financial career. During a work stint at Royal Bank of Canada, Shkreli doubled his allowable trading limit and hid it from the company, prosecutors said during the pretrial hearing. 
 
 Brafman said prosecutors were also expected to call a witness who will testify about Elea Capital Management LLC, the New York-based hedge fund Shkreli launched in 2006 as one of his earliest independent financial ventures. Within roughly one year, the fund had lost all its investment capital through disastrous trades. 
 
 New York court records show the losses resulted in an uncollected $2.3 million default judgment in favor of global financial firm Lehman Brothers, which collapsed in 2008 during the national financial crisis. However, Shkreli failed to disclose the episode to MSMB Capital investors, the indictment against him charges. 
 
 Brafman plans to give jurors an alternative view based on testimony from investors he said were impressed by Shkreli's performance. The list includes Darren Blanton, a biotech investor who profited from stakes in Shkreli's MSMB hedge funds. 
 
 "This is a man who believed in Mr. Shkreli as a scientist, not just as an investment adviser," Brafman said during the pretrial hearing. 
 
 The defense team also plans to show that some investors in Shkreli-led ventures eventually recovered their money, despite earlier losses. Prosecutors said federal laws make clear that an absence of ultimate financial harm does not constitute a legal defense. However, Brafman said the evidence would be relevant for jurors. 
 
 Throughout pretrial proceedings, Shkreli remained quiet inside the courtroom as he jotted notes, periodically swept back his hair with a hand or a pen, and read defense documents. 
 
 But before and afterward, other parts of his persona — one that strives to project a "What, me worry?" air of confidence, and another that appears to delight in drawing attention and confronting critics — regularly emerged. The results in some cases have posed potential challenges for Shkreli's legal defense efforts. 
 
 In July 2016, emerging from the courthouse after the judge set the trial date and Brafman announced he would seek separate proceedings, a seemingly nonchalant Shkreli asked his attorney an unrelated question as reporters listened: "Can I go play Pokémon now? 
 
 After buying the Wu-Tang Clan's "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" one-of-a-kind album in a 2015 auction, Shkreli used some of his frequent live-streams to tease followers about when he might play some of the never-heard tracks. After Donald Trump won the White House in November, Shkreli made good on a promise to air the album via live-stream if the New York billionaire defeated Hillary Clinton. 
 
 Separately, Shkreli jumped in after conservative media outlets raised questions about the July 2016 murder in Washington, D.C. of Seth Rich, a former Democratic National Committee staff member. The outlets suggested there was evidence showing that the killing occurred after Rich had contacted WikiLeaks, the international organization that releases secret information provided by informants. Last year, WikiLeaks released troves of hacked emails damaging to Clinton's campaign against Trump. 
 
 In a Facebook posting, Shkreli promised $100,000 for information about Rich's killer. 
 
 The reward offer and Wu-Tang Clan album purchase brought Shkreli widespread attention. But the episodes also prompted prosecutors to oppose Shkreli's so-far undecided legal motion to reduce his $5 million bail to $2 million, providing funds that would enable him to pay his lawyers and accountants. He evidently has enough free cash, prosecutors contended. 
 
 Brafman responded that Shkreli is worth millions of dollars, but said the holdings are in investments that can't immediately be sold or pledged as collateral. Referring to his famous client's statements via social media and in public appearances, Brafman said Shkreli had made "preposterous promises" he would never be able to keep. 
 
 "Tweeting has become, unfortunately, fashionable," said Brafman, who suggested that Shkreli's promises and boasts were part of an effort to maintain his uniqueness. "When people tweet, they don't always mean what they say." 
 
 Follow USA TODAY reporter Kevin McCoy on Twitter: @kmccoynyc 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2t5aUe5 ||||| NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal prosecutors on Monday asked a U.S. judge for a gag order muzzling former drug company executive Martin Shkreli, on trial for securities fraud charges, arguing that his statements to media could taint the jury and disrupt the case, court papers show. 
 
 Martin Shkreli, former chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals and KaloBios Pharmaceuticals Inc, departs after a hearing at U.S. Federal Court in Brooklyn, New York, U.S., June 26, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson 
 
 Shkreli’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, asked the judge that day to reject the request on the grounds that his client had a First Amendment right to speak freely, according to the filings. 
 
 Shkreli last week told reporters outside the court that an alleged victim of his was not actually a victim because she made money from his investments, attorneys for the U.S. government told U.S. Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in a letter on Monday. He also directly spoke on camera to a journalist and appeared to be commenting on the case on social media platform Twitter under the handle @BLMBro, they added. 
 
 Brafman said Shkreli was in a delicate emotional state, and believed that the press focuses unfairly on some of his negative characteristics. 
 
 “His comments are the somewhat natural, though unfortunate consequence of a young man with a demonstrated history of significant anxiety being at the center of a supremely difficult time in his life,” Brafman wrote in the filing. 
 
 Dubbed the “pharma bro,” Shkreli, 34, gained notoriety for raising the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 percent. The charges he faces stem from his management of pharmaceutical company Retrophin Inc (RTRX.O) and the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management from 2009 to 2014. 
 
 Prosecutors have claimed that Shkreli engaged in a Ponzi-like scheme in which he defrauded investors in MSMB and took $11 million in assets from Retrophin to repay them. Shkreli has pleaded not guilty to charges that include securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. 
 
 Federal prosecutors have asked Judge Matsumoto sequester the jury in the event that the court does not issue the gag order. 
 
 In their letter, federal prosecutors said Shkreli visited reporters in a court breakroom last week and remarked on the credibility of witnesses who testified. 
 
 Prosecutors also wrote that Shkreli on YouTube had identified himself as BLMBro. The BLMBro Twitter account has posted stories critical of witnesses and evidence in the trial, they added. 
 
 Shkreli in January was suspended from Twitter for harassing a female journalist. 
 
 Brafman has argued that Shkreli is a misunderstood genius who earned his wealthy investors millions of dollars. ||||| Just in time for his trial, a theatre in New York has started showing PharmaBro: An American Douchical!. FT Alphaville correspondent Alexandra Scaggs attended the play’s opening last week and discusses it on the blog . We review the facts of the case below, with the help of the lyrics — as a warning, they do contain a notable amount of profanity. 
 
 The trial of Martin Shkreli , the pharmaceutical executive charged with securities fraud, starts on June 26. He infamously raised the price of a life-saving drug for AIDS and cancer patients from $13.50 to $750, bought an exclusive Wu-Tang Clan record for $2m, and then publicly feuded with a member of the rap group. 
 
 He founded two multimillion-dollar companies? Shkreli founded Retrophin in 2011 and took it public a year later. Its market cap is around $674m, and revenues last year were $138m. That checks out! (He eventually got the boot from its board, though.) It is tough to figure out what his second company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, is worth right now. It is private and has not released results since September 2015, when it had a net loss of $14.6m. 
 
 He took a really small hedge fund and turned it into a slightly bigger hedge fund. Not exactly. Complaints from the SEC and DoJ say he started a really small hedge fund, very briefly turned it into a slightly bigger hedge fund, and then turned it into a nonexistent hedge fund by losing all of his investors’ money. Then, the complaints say, he started a second hedge fund, and used that money to pay investors in his first hedge fund. He also allegedly compensated his hedge fund investors through phony consulting agreements with Retrophin LLC. It is complicated. 
 
 He's 32 and worth $100mil, he's living the American Dream! He might have been worth that much when he bought the Wu-Tang album, but probably not anymore. After his arrest, Shkreli posted bail with $45m in an E*Trade account, via Fortune. But it was mostly invested in KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, and he lost $40m when it went bankrupt, Reuters later reported. 
 
 He jacked the price of that cancer pill. He's . . . oh, that's who Martin Shkreli is. The pill in question is Daraprim, which helps treat a parasitic infection that is especially risky in cancer and AIDS patients. It is still owned by Turing Pharmaceuticals. 
 
 I'll buy that album by the Wu-Tang Clan... I'm filthy rich. I do whatever the f--- I want to do. Shortly before his 2015 arrest, Shkreli spent $2m on the only known copy of the Wu-Tang Clan’s album “The Wu — Once Upon a Time in Shaolin”. He’s banned from releasing it to the public for 88 years. Still, he played a few tracks on his YouTube livestream after Donald Trump was elected president, as he had previously promised. 
 
 You really thought you could outsmart me? No one can outsmart me! Do you know how many investors I’ve f----- over through securities fraud? There were at least 22, according to the complaints: Nine at the first hedge fund, and 13 at the second. You can add the total number of Retrophin shareholders to that figure, if you really want. The investors who had consulting agreements with Retrophin did allegedly get paid, but it seems sensible to conclude that being dragged into FBI and SEC investigations counts as getting screwed over, too. 
 
 Fabricated portfolio statements The SEC and DoJ say Shkreli told investors he was outperforming, when in reality he had lost almost all of their money. He also allegedly lied to potential investors about his assets under management and about hiring an auditor. 
 
 Backdated investment records . . . Manufactured a phony loan agreement — and bam! Millions! This is nothing compared to that! Shkreli is accused of taking his second hedge fund’s $900,000 equity investment in Retrophin and changing it into a loan using a backdated promissory note. 
 
 I'm the richest damn Albanian to walk this earth! He might have been the richest Albanian at one point, according to a 2015 report from Fortune. Albanian-American Ferid Murad won a Nobel, but apparently his net worth is not as high as Shkreli’s was. After that $40m loss, however, it is anyone’s guess. ||||| Notoriously chatty “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli has finally opted to shut his trap — declaring Monday he won’t be taking the stand in his own defense. 
 
 “Have you had sufficient time to confer with counsel?” Brooklyn federal Judge Kiyo Matsumoto asked, as he stood flanked by defense attorneys Ben Brafman and Marc Agnifilo. 
 
 A grinning Shkreli clasped his hands and leaned forward toward the courtroom microphone to say, “Yes.” 
 
 Shkreli faces up to 20 years behind bars if convicted of securities fraud charges. He’s accused of using his hedge fund, MSMB Capitol, as a personal piggy bank to feed the pharmaceutical company he formerly headed, Retrophin. 
 
 Shkreli — infamous for jacking up the price of an AIDS drug by 5,000 percent when he ran Turing Pharmaceuticals — is on trial for allegedly running an $11 million Ponzi-like scheme to pay off Retrophin debts. He was ordered not to talk about his case by Matsumoto earlier this month. 
 
 The jurist gagged Shkreli on courthouse grounds after he burst into a room full of reporters to rant about his trial. 
 
 “They blame me for everything,” Shkreli whined to the reporters. “They blame me for capitalism.” 
 
 He even went so far as to call his prosecutors “junior varsity.” 
 
 Shkreli has exhibited unpredictable behavior online as well, getting booted from Twitter four times this year — as recently as Sunday — and using his Facebook to insult those who tune in to his perpetual livestreams. 
 
 “You might wanna lose some weight before you come at me one more time, you nasty a– h-,” he told one viewer on July 11. “I wouldn’t f–k you with my friend’s d–k. Get the hell out of here, b—h.” 
 
 The 34-year-old — who winked and blew a kiss to a Post reporter Monday — was officially barred from Twitter after harassing female journalists. 
 
 Even sheltered jurors aren’t safe from his venom — having read emails sent by the often foul-mouthed Shkreli as part of trial evidence. 
 
 “Do you know how I know you’re an incompetent idiot?” the infamous loudmouth wrote to an accountant who was attempting to untangle his finances in 2013. ||||| At start of securities fraud trial, US prosecutor accuses ex-pharmaceutical CEO of building a bogus hedge fund empire by telling ‘lies on top of lies on top of lies’ 
 
 Martin Shkreli is either a con man who scammed hedge fund investors out of millions or a nerdy genius who made them even richer. 
 
 
 
 The conflicting portraits were offered Wednesday in opening statements at Shkreli’s securities fraud trial, a case colored by the ex-pharmaceutical CEO’s antics on social media which, despite the urging of his lawyers to lay low, have never subsided. 
 
 Potential Martin Shkreli jurors: we can't be impartial over 'most hated man' in US Read more 
 
 “Is he strange? Yes,” the defense attorney Benjamin Brafman told the jurors in federal court in Brooklyn. “Will you find him weird? Yes. But Martin Shkreli, despite all his flaws and dysfunctional personality, is brilliant beyond words.” 
 
 In his opening, the assistant US attorney Karthik Srinivasan accused Shkreli of building a bogus hedge fund empire by telling “lies on top of lies on top of lies”. Though he portrayed himself as a Wall Street wizard, “in reality, he was just a con man”, the prosecutor said. 
 
 Shkreli, sometimes dubbed Pharma Bro, often slumped in his chair and looked bored during jury selection but listened intently and took notes during the government’s opening. As his lawyer spoke, he beamed at times. 
 
 Shkreli, 34, became a pariah in 2015 after a drug company he founded, Turing Pharmaceuticals, spent $55m for the US rights to sell a life-saving medicine called Daraprim and promptly raised the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill. 
 
 The spotlight intensified later that year with his arrest on charges – unrelated to Daraprim – focusing on a pair of failed hedge funds he founded. After he lost investors’ money through bad trades, he secretly looted Retrophin, another pharmaceutical company where he was CEO, for $10m to pay back his disgruntled clients, Srinivasan said. 
 
 “Rather than owning up to his lies and admitting his investments were a failure, the defendant doubled down by engaging in an even bigger fraud,” he said. 
 
 The alleged victims in the case were high-rolling investors who were drawn to Shkreli’s quirky personality and ended up getting their money back – and more – because Retrophin eventually became a successful startup worth $1bn, Brafman said. 
 
 Board members of his companies who made fun of Shkreli behind his back – questioning his sexuality, wondering if he was autistic and calling him Rain Man after the movie character – misunderstood his talents, said the defense lawyer, who referred to his client as a “nerd”, “odd duck” and a “mad scientist”. 
 
 He added: “As Lady Gaga said, ‘He was Born This Way.” 
 
 Jury selection, which started Monday, dragged out until late Wednesday afternoon as the judge sought to find jurors who could ignore the negative press over the price-gouging scandal. Also hard to ignore was Skhreli’s footprint on social media, where he boasted about buying a one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album for $2m and got kicked off Twitter for trolling a female freelance journalist in creepy ways. 
 
 Questioned by the judge during sidebars, prospective jurors described Shkreli as “the face of corporate greed” and “a snake”. 
 
 “In this particular case,” another dismissed juror said Wednesday, “the only thing I’d be impartial about is what prison he goes to.” 
 
 Shkreli is free on $5m bond. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison. ||||| Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceuticals C.E.O. who sledgehammered his way into public consciousness when he raised the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 percent overnight earlier this fall, and then swung again last week when news broke that he was the mysterious buyer who spent an estimated $2 million on a Wu-Tang Clan album at auction, has struck a third time. 
 
 The self-proclaimed hip-hop aficionado and aspiring mixtape dropper now wants to be the one to bail out jailed Brooklyn rapper Bobby Shmurda, according to an interview with the rap Web site Hip Hop DX published Wednesday. 
 
 “We’re actually in discussion to try to bail out Bobby Shmurda. Forget whether you think he’s guilty or not, the guy should not be sitting in jail right now,” he said in the interview. “He deserves a fair trial. 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 fucking problem.” 
 
 Shmurda, whose real name is Ackquille Pollard, was arrested on gun charges and gang conspiracy in December of 2014. His bail was set at $2 million, a fee his record label, Epic, a subsidiary of Sony, has not paid, though it signed Pollard to a seven-figure multi-album deal just months before his arrest. 
 
 Reached by V.F. on Wednesday, Shkreli would not confirm whether the conference call took place or, if it did, whether anything came out of it. He did tell V.F.com, “I stand ready to support Ackquille Pollard at his request.” 
 
 Though he is a professed fan, Shkreli’s support wouldn't come without strings. 
 
 “The guy’s going to have to record for me if he comes out. I’ll just come out and say it,” he told Hip Hop DX. “If I’m gonna post his bail, pay for his trial, get him a ‘Not Guilty’ verdict. . . . With the right lawyer it’s just a matter of money. I see opportunity. 
 
 “The guy’s going to be more popular when he’s out. The guy probably didn’t do shit. . . . He’s New York’s best chance for rap since 50 Cent. It’s not a lot of money for me. Spend a couple million on his defense, a couple million on bail and I’ll get the bail money back real quick. So a million or two for his defense, which is probably $4 million in total, I’m willing to put towards his defense.” 
 
 Shkreli sees a lot of himself in Bobby Shmurda. They’re both from Brooklyn for starters. Plus, Shkreli said, “The guy’s totally irreverent. He doesn’t give a damn what people think. Totally irreverent. Totally I don’t give a fuck.” 
 
 Shmurda wasn’t the only thing on Shkreli’s mind. He used the wide-ranging Hip Hop DX interview to escalate a spat with Robert “RZA” Diggs, the Wu-Tang mastermind and producer that began last week after Bloomberg revealed Shkreli to be the mysterious buyer of the sole copy of the group's album Once upon a Time in Shaolin. Shkreli told the business news outlet that after the meeting, he found that he and Diggs had little in common. In his own statement to Bloomberg, RZA said that the sale of the album to Shkreli was agreed to long before the group learned of his business practices. As a result, he said Wu-Tang “decided to give a significant portion of the proceeds to charity.” 
 
 Shkreli, who referred to himself as “the most successful Albanian to ever walk the face of this Earth,” did not take kindly to that perceived slight, and referred to the situation as an “emerging war” between the two of them as part of an expletive-laden challenge: “I bought the most expensive album in the history of mankind and fucking RZA is talking shit behind my back and online in plain sight. That’s not the way I do business. If I hand you $2 million, fucking show me some respect." 
 
 As for sharing the Wu-Tang album, he has thought about it, but again, nothing comes without strings for Shkreli. 
 
 DX: Have you thought about sharing the album? 
 
 Martin Shkreli: I’m not going to play it for no reason. If Taylor Swift wants to come over and suck my dick, I’ll play it for her. [Laughs] 
 
 And so, having cemented his reputation as a stock-market heavy, it seems as though Shkreli is seeking to earn a similar rep in the hip-hop industry, a world that knows from voluntary bad guys. He said he’s reached out to a few producers and a few artists to “test the waters,” but he wouldn’t put anything less than golden out for fear of embarrassing himself. He’s willing to pay up to avoid such shame. 
 
 “The budget for the album can be fucking $5 million,” he said. “I’ll pay fucking Drake. I’ll pay fucking Lil Wayne. I’ll pay Timbaland to make a beat. I don’t care.” 
 
 Also, he said, he’s talking with DJ Khaled to see if he can help him expand his restaurant. 
 
 Martin Shkreli FOLLOW Follow to get the latest news and analysis about the players in your inbox. See All Players ||||| Martin Shkreli, often described as "the most hated man in America," will spark many Americans' interest in securities and wire fraud for the first time Monday when he stands trial in a federal courthouse. 
 
 The former pharmaceutical chief executive will face charges of securities fraud in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, more than a year and a half after he was arrested in December 2015. Jury selection begins Monday morning. 
 
 Shkreli, 34, will confront an eight-count indictment for cheating the drug company Retrophin, which he founded, out of millions of dollars to pay investors in two hedge funds he ran. He is also accused of defrauding those investors in what prosecutors are calling a Ponzi scheme. 
 
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 Retrophin is paying Shkreli's criminal defense fees, which are believed to be as high as $4.8 million. 
 
 During Shreli's pretrial hearing, U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto rejected his bid to have his bail reduced from $5 million to $2 million, citing a concern that releasing the money would deprive people who have liens against Shkreli from collecting the money they're owed. 
 
 According to his attorney, Benjamin Brafman, Shkreli — who once claimed to be worth as much as $70 million — is now penniless and "doesn't have any cash." 
 
 Earlier this month, Shkreli posted on his Facebook page that he had donated $40,000 to a Princeton University graduate for solving a geometry proof, offered to "put up $100,000" for information that would solve a conspiracy theory and boasted that he recently dined at the same restaurant as Eric Trump. 
 
 Shkreli has also boasted that he owns a Picasso painting and an original Enigma wartime code-breaking machine valued at nearly $300,000, had purchased the domain names of reporters he didn't like and had purchased secret albums by Wu-Tang Clan and Lil Wayne. 
 
 Brafman said those were "preposterous promises" that were made to maintain Shkreli's relevance on social media, and he added that the Wu-Tang album, which Shkreli infamously purchased for $2 million, was "probably worthless." 
 
 Martin Shkreli testifies before a House committee hearing on drug market oversight" in Washington in February 2016. Joshua Roberts / Reuters 
 
 Shkreli also owns an ownership stake in another drug company he founded, Turing Pharmaceutical, that could be valued as high as $50 million. 
 
 Nevertheless, Shkreli has also sent out pleas for money on the internet, offering on Facebook to answer people's questions for $20 a pop and asking his followers to donate Bitcoin to his account. 
 
 Brafman also outlined the millions of dollars Shkreli owes to the IRS, a civil law firm and an accounting firm, as well as other outstanding debts. 
 
 Brafman said at the pretrial hearing that Shkreli is "traveling to the beat of his very unique drummer." 
 
 Judge Matsumoto remained unconvinced. 
 
 Prosecutors are expected to call as many as 57 witnesses, and lawyers on both sides said the trial could last five to six weeks. 
 
 Shkreli rose to prominence after he drastically increased the price of a drug called Daraprim while he was the chief executive of Turing. He pushed the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill, making it unaffordable for many of the pregnant women, babies and other people infected with HIV who primarily use the drug. 
 
 The self-described "pharma bro" defended the price jump, insisting that it was justified. 
 
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 In February, Shkreli invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid testifying to a congressional committee investigating the alleged price gouging. Shkreli's trial is unrelated to the congressional inquiry. 
 
 Since his arrest, America has watched as the "most hated man in America," whom President Donald Trump called a "spoiled brat," has tried to push his own pop culture relevance. 
 
 In his pursuit, he has harassed women on Twitter — which got him booted from the social media site — built a beef with Ghostface Killah, had an Off-Broadway musical written about him and produced long videos of him sitting in front of his computer. 
 
 Despite his continued busy schedule, Shkreli also recently claimed that he would release his first album later this year. But Shkreli, who is not known for his musical talents, said he would keep the world waiting for his melodious progeny if he was found guilty. ||||| Shkreli, known for hiking price of life-saving Aids drug, faces securities fraud charges that could lead to 20-year sentence in a case he calls a ‘witch-hunt’ 
 
 A jury will begin deliberations on Monday in the trial on securities fraud charges against the entrepreneur Martin Shkreli, who faces up to 20 years in prison. 
 
 
 
 Martin Shkreli: I'm not upset about HIV drug hike; it was 'woefully underpriced' Read more 
 
 The 34-year-old gained notoriety in 2015, when he purchased the commercial rights and then ruthlessly increased the cost of Daraprim, a life-saving Aids medication. Since then, he has maintained his reputation with a provocative presence on social media. This year he was suspended from Twitter, for harassing the journalist Lauren Duca. 
 
 As arguments wrapped up in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, Shkreli, known to many as “the most hated man in America”, was accused by government prosecutors of telling “lies upon lies” to investors and regarding himself as “above the law”. Shkreli’s lawyer told the jury his client was a genius and a target for “rich person ‘BS’”. 
 
 In terminology reminiscent of one of his idols, Donald Trump, Shkreli used Facebook to tell his fans he was the victim of a witch-hunt. 
 
 Shkreli was arrested in December 2015. He is accused of running businesses in the style of pyramid or Ponzi schemes, fooling investors while using their capital to pay off others and settle personal debts. He has pleaded not guilty. 
 
 The assistant US attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis told jurors in the month-long trial the defense had given them a “fairytale” portrait of Shkreli, as a hyper-intelligent healthcare entrepreneur who never knowingly deceived investors. 
 
 “It’s time,” she said. “Time for Martin Shkreli to be held responsible for his choices. His choices to lie, deceive and steal. The last four weeks have exposed Martin Shkreli for who he really is – a conman who stole millions of dollars.” 
 
 Shkreli opted not to testify in his own defense. His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said all of his client’s investors had made money. 
 
 Another prosecutor, the US assistant attorney Alixandra Smith, said in closing statements Shkreli had lied about the size of his hedge funds, whether such funds were being audited and their financial health. He even lied about attending Columbia University, she said. 
 
 Shkreli is charged with defrauding investors at two hedge funds he started, MSMB Capital Management and MSMB Healthcare Management. When one of the funds collapsed, Shkreli raised more money and started Retrophin, a pharmaceutical company. He later started another drug company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, and used a loophole in drug licensing laws to buy the rights to long established but niche medications and then hike the prices. 
 
 Shkreli shot to public notice in September 2015 when he raised by 5,000% the price of Daraprim, a drug often used by Aids sufferers, then mocked and scorned critics who said he was putting lives in danger. At a February 2016 congressional hearing into the overpricing of drugs, he refused to testify. 
 
 Martin Shkreli leaks Wu-Tang Clan album in celebration of Trump victory Read more 
 
 Shkreli traded off his notoriety, buying for $2m the sole copy of an album by the Wu Tang Clan and spending many months tantalizing the public about it before broadcasting excerpts on Facebook Live hours after Trump won the presidential election last November. 
 
 Talking to reporters during his trial, he mocked prosecutors as “junior varsity” and said: “The world blames me for almost everything.” He was rebuked by the presiding US district judge, Kiyo Matsumoto, who ordered him to stop talking to the media in the courthouse or outside. 
 
 Last Thursday, Shkreli ranted about the Department of Justice in a Facebook post and referred to Trump campaign slogans. 
 
 “My case is a silly witch hunt perpetrated by self-serving prosecutors,” he wrote. “Thankfully my amazing attorney sent them back to junior varsity where they belong. Drain the swamp. Drain the sewer that is the DoJ. MAGA.”
– Infamous pharma CEO Martin Shkreli is out on $5 million bail after being arrested Thursday on charges of securities fraud, reports the AP, but the 32-year-old is looking at 20 years if he's convicted. (Still, he's "glad to be home.") Some related reading: An innovative music fan filed what Boing Boing calls "the best FOIA ever" over the $2 million Wu-Tang Clan album that Shkreli famously bought. The fan was hoping that the FBI had seized the never-heard album during the arrest, and that he could then make it public through his freedom-of-information request. Sadly, it turns out the FBI didn't seize it. But maybe there's still hope for the album? Vice floats some possibilities. As for the charges Shkreli faces, they don't involve his price-hiking strategies; he's essentially accused of running a "[Ponzi] scheme during his early adventures in the worlds of hedge funds and, eventually, pharma," according to this Slate explainer. His alleged partner in crime, lawyer Evan Greebel, helped the Winklevoss twins start an exchange fund for Bitcoin, notes the Wall Street Journal. Shkreli seems to have been "surprisingly good at fraud," observes this analysis of the SEC case at Bloomberg. But another analysis at the Los Angeles Times thinks the case shows that Shkreli was "an investment hotshot who couldn't get anything right." Thursday's big theme on Twitter after the arrest was "schadenfreude," says this Salon roundup. Catch up with Shkreli's odd interview with high school students before his arrest.