Last month, pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli was found guilty of fraud in federal court, and many saw it as karmic retribution. Shkreli was dubbed “the most hated man in America” after his company raised the price of Daraprim, a life-saving AIDS drug, from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill after acquiring its marketing rights.
Shkreli is currently free on $5 million bail and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years, but if prosecutors get their way, he’ll be in jail much sooner. On Sept. 4, Shkreli made a Facebook post where he threatened former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“So on HRC’s book tour, try to grab a hair from her,” Shkreli wrote. “I must confirm the sequencing I have. Will pay $5,000 per hair obtained from Hillary Clinton. Payment after the sequence matches. Good luck patrollers.” Clinton is scheduled to do a book signing at a Barnes & Noble in New York City on Sept. 12.
Prosecutors argue that his post violates federal and state laws prohibiting threats against the immediate family members of former presidents, and Clinton is the wife of president Bill Clinton. Prosecutors also believe his bail should be revoked because he’s engaged in a “pattern of threats and harassment.” After Clinton became ill at a memorial service at the World Trade Center last year, Shkreli stood outside her Manhattan apartment and live-streamed himself heckling her.
Shkreli is an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, which may account for his dangerous obsession with Clinton. “Donald Trump is a dream for business people like me. … He represents an end to safe space culture and the infiltration of the media by the left. … I think Trump’s going to make pharma great again,” he told Fox Business. “He understands what it’s like to send offensive tweets. He understands what it’s like to be someone like me where a lot of people don’t like him, but there [are] also a lot of people that like him, too.”
