Yahoo Finance 'Pharma bro' branded America's 'most hated man' is misunderstood genius, defence lawyer says
Lawyers defending “America’s most hated man” - former pharma boss Martin Shkreli, who rose to infamy by hiking the price of an HIV drug by 5,000pc - have described him as a misunderstood genius as his fraud trial began in New York yesterday.
The 34-year-old self-styled ‘Pharma Bro’ gained his notoriety by jacking up the price of anti-parisite drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750 when he was chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals in 2015.
The move sparked outrage among patients and helped make high drug prices a hot topic in the US presidential race, with the victor Donald Trump expected to sign an executive order on drug pricing any day.
But the charges against Mr Shkreli - which could land him 20 years in prison if convicted - are unrelated to his time at Turing.
He stands accused of lying to investors and running a Ponzi-like scheme during his time at other firms, related to his tenure at drug company Retrophin Inc and hedge fund MSMB Capital Management between 2009 and 2012.
In opening remarks in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday, the prosecution accused him of telling “lies upon lies upon lies” to swindle investors.
But his defence lawyer Benjamin Brafman said Mr Shkreli's wealthy investors trusted him despite knowing about his erratic personality, and were rewarded in the end, reaping millions of dollars in returns.
"Martin Shkreli didn’t lie to them," Mr Brafman said. "They were betting on Martin Shkreli’s genius."
Mr Brafman also described Shkreli as a socially awkward "nerd" exploited by people around him, a sharp contrast to his villainous media persona.
The case continues.
