Martin Shkreli was at it again on social media before verdict came
NEW YORK — What do you do if you're one of the most criticized defendants in the nation awaiting a jury verdict on the criminal fraud and conspiracy charges filed against you?
If you're "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli, the often-reviled poster boy for prescription drug price hikes, you turn to social media, of course.
Friday morning, Shkreli mocked a Twitter user who tweeted Twitter founder Jack Dorsey the electronic link to a USA TODAY news story about Shkreli's semi-surreptitious return to one of his favored social media platforms.
"Call 911!!!!!" he tweeted.
He also resumed his unwanted online focus on a female news reporter covering the trial, which centers on charges that he scammed financial investors. Shkreli tweeted that she looked "simply amazing today, and added: #stunning, #engaged, #prenup, #sickweddingbro.
Next, he tweeted that a second female journalist covering the trial "caught my eye several times during this process. Love is a battlefield."
Shkreli, a rap music fan who spent a reported $2 million to buy the Wu-Tang Clan's one-of-a-kind album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, also tweeted that he would "spit bars" a reference to rappers vying to have the last word, after the verdict in his case.
He made the vow after demonstration of how oddly small the world sometimes seem.
The courtroom was cleared for arraignments in a criminal drug and weapons case that featured a different Martin Shkreli — a Bedford, N.Y. man more than 20 years older than the 34-year-old Pharma Bro — as one of the defendants.
You read that right: same judge, same courtroom, different charges, different Martin Shkreli.
The Pharma Bro's father, Pashko Shkreli, shook hands with the older Martin Shkreli, who, after the arraignment, found himself surrounded by news reporters covering the younger Martin Shkreli's trial.
"I don't need that kind of fame," said the older Martin Shkreli.
The younger Martin Shkreli's latest online activity came after he left a live-stream running on the computer in his empty Manhattan apartment for hours on Thursday while he was in Brooklyn federal court awaiting the verdict that had yet to arrive by early afternoon on Friday.
Viewers saw no movement in the YouTube video, but some speculated that Shkreli's cat, Trashy, might jump up on the desktop, as the cat has done on occasion during the pharmaceutical industry entrepreneur's weekly financial investing recaps.
Shkreli also apparently continued using the new Twitter account, Sam@SamTheManTP, the latest under a different name since the social media platform suspended his account earlier this year.
Although the account was blocked to some news reporters covering the trial, others were treated to Sam/Shkreli shooting back at a Democratic congressional candidate who criticized him.
Martin Shkreli apparently back on Twitter as jury deliberations continue
"Every time I see Martin Shkreli's face or hear another story from someone who can't afford their medicine my blood boils" tweeted Fayrouz Saad, who plans to challenge Republican Rep. Dave Trott in a Michigan race.
"You don't like companies doing drug research and market based pricing? How do I fund your opponent," Sam/Shkreli tweeted back.
Shkreli shot to national notoriety in 2015 by ordering a 5000% price hike on a medication used to treat a parasitic ailment that typically afflicts those with HIV and others with weakened immune systems.
However, he was accused not for that, but instead for defrauding investors in in two hedge funds he once headed. An eight count fraud and conspiracy indictment also alleged he repaid the investors with stock and money improperly taken from Retrophin, a pharmaceutical company he previously served as chief executive.
Shkreli pleaded not guilty. A Brooklyn federal court jury found him guilty on three of the eight indictment charges Friday afternoon. He faces up to 20 years in prison on one of the counts but is likely to receive less severe punishment at sentencing.
The seven women and five men weighing the trial evidence had given no public sign of where they stood in their review of the evidence before they delivered the mixed verdict.
One day before the outcome, all parties in the five-week trial got a scare about a potentially tainted jury. One member of the panel reported that she overheard members of a media camera crew saying they had heard that some holdouts were blocking a unanimous verdict.
U.S. District Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto called the woman into the courtroom and questioned her about the supposed account of the jury's secret deliberations. The judge allowed her to rejoin other jurors after the woman said the episode would not affect her impartial review of the evidence, and pledged not to mention the matter to other jurors.
As the wait continued, some of the lines of demarcation between the defense and prosecution sides relaxed a bit on Thursday. A government team member snacked from a bag of Ruffles potato chips on the defense table.
Laughter suddenly erupted in the courtroom, without the jurors present, as all who were there simultaneously recalled defense attorney Benjamin Brafman's reference to the work and planning that goes into manufacturing bags of potato chips.
He used the reference in an effort to help jurors imagine Shkreli's efforts building Retrophin into a publicly-traded company.
"The exhibit," declared Brafman, as the courtroom laughter continued.
Follow USA TODAY reporter Kevin McCoy on Twitter: @kmccoynyc