Enlarge / Martin Shkreli outside federal court in Brooklyn, New York on Thursday, June 29, 2017. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg)
During Martin Shkreli’s federal trial this week for alleged securities and wire fraud, a former investor explained how she got involved with the now-infamous ex-pharmaceutical CEO and what followed. In short, she testified that she was swindled by Shkreli after he made big promises to overcharge vulnerable patients.
As lawyers painted dueling pictures of Shkreli as a con-man and a “strange” yet brilliant financial mind, the investor, Sarah Hassan, laid out a story from 2010 that started with buzz in the hedge-fund world. She described a smooth-talking Shkreli, false name-dropping, and a winning business plan of sticking it to patients with rare diseases.
After investing $ 300,000 in one of the hedge funds Shkreli managed at the time, Hassan put in another $ 150,000 into Shkreli’s then-new pharmaceutical company Retrophin. According to the New York Times, she described his successful business pitch like this: “You can make a lot of money on orphan drugs because the price per patient is quite high.”
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