Pharma Bro (2021) Movie Script

1
Anybody has the power to become
famous by doing something destructive.
Mr. Shkreli, do you wish to
make an opening statement?
On the advice of counsel, I will
not be giving an opening statement.
Do you think you've done
anything wrong?
On the advice of counsel, I
invoke my Fifth Amendment privilege
against self-incrimination
and respectfully,
decline to answer your question.
What do we consider to be
this dark part of human nature?
You're in a unique position.
You really are, sir.
You have a spotlight.
You could use that attention
to come clean,
to right your wrongs.
The way I see it,
you can go down in history.
Now we're looking at where
we start to think of villains in life.
They have this fascination
with evil.
And once you see somebody as a villain,
you are then ready to make them fit,
and assume they must have
the other qualities as well.
I know you're smiling,
but I'm very serious, sir.
And if you show up immediately
ready to relate to him as human being,
does the villain need a friend?
To Mr. Shkreli, since I have
you in front of me, let me say this.
I truly believe you could become
a force of tremendous good.
There's so many people that
could use your help, you know?
You're a bro and you embody
the problems with
the pharmaceutical industry.
But it's not real.
That's a character
he kind of puts on.
Everybody thinks
he's this big piece of shit,
and he's got what he deserves.
Character and ethics,
I think it really matters.
It's not him, dude,
he's a symptom of the problem.
The story's not over yet.
I can't tell his story
unless I get to know him.
We're sitting here watching
his live stream, every week,
and he's right downstairs.
September 11th here.
It's October first.
2016, it's been a good year.
January 20th,
Operation Find Shkreli.
Okay, Martin Shkreli, I get it.
This is New York winter.
I feel like I've been
watching Martin Shkreli
for, like, a straight year
of my life right now.
No Martin Shkreli to be seen.
Naked shower guy from the
building over is back.
He pretty much tells you
everywhere he's going, all the time.
That's Martin.
June 26th, day one of the trial.
I feel like a real journalist
right now.
Yep.
Real journalism
happening right here.
Anytime something new happens,
cut it out,
put it on a board,
mark it, edit it,
save his live stream, that's how
you make this movie, I guess.
I don't have to do a thing. Martin
Shkreli is making this movie.
He's making this movie
every single day.
What I want to figure out is how this guy
became the most hated man in America.
- Martin Shkreli.
- Martin Shkreli.
Price gouging Pharma Bro.
Pharma Bros.
One of the most
hated guys in the country.
The most hated man in America.
He's the guy who
bought the rights
to a lifesaving drug,
then immediately hiked the price
from $13.50 a tablet to $750.
That's price gouging,
pure and simple.
Martin Shkreli doing
what he does best,
looking like
a real slapable prick.
If you could rewind the clock,
I wonder if you would
do anything differently?
I probably would've raised the price
higher, is probably what I would've done.
- Are you listening?
- You can change the system.
He's a sociopath.
That's how
the game's played here.
That's how capitalism
in America is played.
Federal prosecutors charge
Martin Shkreli with securities fraud.
Even the courtroom sketch
artist couldn't resist making.
Shkreli look like
Gollum on trial.
He was the person
who paid $2 million
for the one and only copy
of Wu-Tang Clan's mythical
Once Upon a Time in Shaolin CD.
How's the album?
One hundred percent,
none of your business.
Shkreli came outside, where
protesters zeroed in on him.
Stupid piece of.
You think there's absolutely
nothing wrong with what you're doing?
Absolutely.
- Does anyone wanna ask questions?
- Bring it on.
Okay, so we found Martin's
number online.
Apparently he answers it
on all of his livestreams.
So we're gonna give him a call.
Hello.
Hey, Martin?
Hey, can you hear me?
Yeah. Who is it?
Hey, when are you
being sentenced?
I'm just wondering...
Woah, hey! I asked you a
question. Do I know you?
No, I just, I saw people
calling in on your livestream,
so I thought I would
ask a question.
Yeah.
No, don't call me.
Okay, sorry.
No problem.
Bye.
The first time
I ever talked to him,
I just called him up, and...
It's like a hotline.
I think I enjoy that the most,
because it's the playing with fame thing.
It's just like,
"Hi, yeah, I'm a person
you've heard of. Call me."
Hello?
- Hello.
- Yes.
Hey, hey, Martin Shkreli?
Yeah.
What is this webcast?
Is this something
that you do...
often or is it just
a one-time thing?
He would have
these multi-cam chat rooms,
bunch of people
on video talking,
and there would be
even more people watching.
When you're the smartest guy
in the room,
you love making it known
to other people
who think they're better
or smarter than you.
So I can see why he was
trolling a lot of the people.
People just call him and
they don't know what to say,
and they're just like,
"Oh, you picked up."
And he's like,
"Yes, you called me."
Is this Martin?
No, it's fucking Lucifer.
How may I help you?
No, you've reached Santa Claus.
Yeah, it's the North Pole.
What present can I get you?
Fucking moron!
These poor people here, I
can smell them from the Internet!
Okay. I'm watching you on Periscope.
I'm a little bit behind you right now.
Yeah, it sounds like you're
mentally a little bit behind. What's up?
There's no sense of allocation
of fairness or anything like that.
You know, if you're just
calling him randomly,
he's like, "Yeah, it's my time,
I can do whatever I want."
You can call me at
6-4-6-2-1-7-2-7-8-3,
if you've got some fucking,
little, testicles.
Little fucking balls.
You may know, I webcast my day.
I sit there and eat a bagel. I'm a
normal dude, money's stacking up.
That's great. I hope
it keeps stacking up.
His livestreams,
after that first hour,
it is boring as hell.
It's kind of ironic. He isn't
the most entertaining villain...
in terms of the things
that he's physically doing.
You're like,
"You're just a person.
"And you're
a very weird person."
Right, you want some
chicken, kitty? Here you go.
I call into his livestream,
and it's the easiest way
- to get a film made...
- Yeah.
You get every question answered.
Yeah, he would continue
just taking in the people that,
you know, wanted to attack him and
showing them a little of who he was.
You can't sit down,
have a one on one
with all of America,
but he sure fucking tried.
If you wanna punch me, come
find me. 48th Street, 2nd Avenue.
Let's just say,
it's not gonna end well.
You're gonna meet
my friend here.
Blow you a kiss.
After many livestream
conversations, it's about time
to move in to Martin Shkreli's
apartment building. Whoo!
It's not me
trying to be deceiving.
This isn't me
trying to be sneaky.
I thought if I moved into this
building, I could get closer to him.
I could get the truth.
I could figure out
if he's really an asshole,
like the world
makes him out to be.
How do you become
the most hated man in America?
Price gouging,
harassment, stealing?
Or is it being
a total douchebag?
Fame or infamy
was a performance art.
Whether we like it or not,
Martin Shkreli has made his way
into pop culture,
unique, polarizing.
Maybe it'll even
go down in history.
So to understand this, we need
to understand the beginnings,
the small European mountain
town of Shkrel, Albania.
Made it to Albania.
There's the mountains.
Every single building and store in
this area has Shkrel as the name.
What I've gathered
from the locals,
you take the Shkreli last name with you,
represent pride for the Shkreli region.
The question is
what do these guys really think
of their hometown hero,
Martin Shkreli?
As I'm learning, the last name
Shkreli arises from battle and courage.
Maybe that's why Martin Shkreli
won't back down to haters,
it's in his name.
Well, there you have it.
Albania's forever grateful
to Martin Shkreli.
In my
Albanian community,
people look up to me
for making it in America.
They're proud of me
and my accomplishments,
but if I did something bad,
they wouldn't be proud of me.
And, you know,
if I did something
that they felt was morally
wrong, I'd be shunned.
We like our villains to come from
one of the two main backgrounds,
poverty or privilege.
We get the one who wants to
rise up and overcome whatever
was holding them back earlier
in life.
We can admire that,
we may not admire
what they do with that,
but we can really get that.
I was born in
Coney Island hospital.
I had to fight my way out of
Coney Island hospital, I was born.
You know, he likes publicity.
He likes to show the world
that Martin Shkreli has made it,
that this poor boy from Brooklyn
whose parents were janitors
from Eastern Europe,
has made it in the world.
We moved to Brooklyn,
the most affordable place
we could find,
the first rent controlled place
we could find,
shared a room with my brother.
I'm talking about two bedrooms,
you know, four kids.
I'm from the block
where people get robbed
and shot all the time.
I didn't have a silver spoon.
Made it on my bootstraps,
very proud of that.
Came from nothing,
You know, literally came...
His parents were still janitors.
I believe they're still janitors
to this day.
My mom still works.
She won't let me support her.
I keep begging her to let me
buy her a house or whatever.
And they're just like, "No."
He had a great deal
of early life success,
left high school
for graduating,
got some internship on Wall
Street, and he was kind of considered
this boy wonder, if you will.
He started off
in the hood, in nowhere,
made his way up through
the ranks to millions.
And that's not...
Not only is that not easy,
that's not really probable.
That's not possible.
That's very rare.
I struggled a lot.
I went to City College,
I earned my way to the top.
I think I should earn
a little bit of respect.
There's just this, like, childlike
quality where anything is possible,
you can make anything happen,
no one can tell him "No."
And if he thinks he can start
a drug company, he will.
That sounds nuts.
That sounds naive and insane,
but he did it.
Orphan drugs
are for a disease
where there are fewer
than 200,000 people.
Years ago, decades ago, drug
companies ignored these diseases.
It was thought that you couldn't
make money on those diseases,
because there's just not
enough patients.
So why spend
the money to develop?
So, in 1983, Congress
passed The Orphan Drug Act,
which gave tax incentives
to help develop
rare disease drugs.
If you can charge a huge price,
then even a few thousand
patients is a big business.
So that's what made
orphan drugs popular.
A drug that's off patent
is only inexpensive
if there is sufficient
competition.
If there isn't, older drugs can have
higher prices just like new drugs.
At the time, it wasn't that
unusual for somebody
to take a big
price increase like this.
Other companies did this.
This was a business model that had
been employed over and over again.
This was a playbook
that was becoming fairly common
in the pharmaceutical industry.
And particularly
for an orphan drug
where there's few patients,
the insurers won't really care.
And so these companies
started searching
for these obscure,
neglected drugs,
buying them and turning them into
very high priced drugs, one of the earliest
around 2006, 2007,
there were congressional
hearings on that.
People were outraged.
So, Martin comes along
and starts Retrophin
which did that,
with two or three drugs.
Their strategy was the same.
We'll take care of the patients
who can't pay,
we'll give it away free,
we'll pay the co-pays,
we'll bend over backwards.
But for most patients, the insurance
will pay, and we'll make a lot of money,
and we'll put that money to use
developing new drugs.
Then he gets
kicked out of Retrophin,
and then he did it with Turing.
They bought
this drug, Daraprim.
Daraprim is the brand name of a
drug that's called pyrimethamine.
Pyrimethamine is an antibiotic
that treats a particular
infection called toxoplasmosis,
originally approved by the FDA
about 50 years ago.
It's been selling for
a dollar a pill for years
and after Turing acquired
the distribution rights,
then they jacked the price up from
what was like $13.50 to $750 a tablet.
So why can't anything be
done to stop a guy like this?
Because we don't have any laws
in our country to stop it.
Unfortunately, you know,
the United States
doesn't have set pricing
or any way to really negotiate
that there's got to be a fixed price.
It's got to change.
We can't afford
our current healthcare system.
I think what we often overlook
is that markets
are actually human
accomplishments.
We made the market for drugs
that makes it rational
to raise the price of a drug
5,000% in a very short period of time.
We made that market.
So healthcare is different,
first and foremost,
I think from all perspectives,
because essentially, we
need it, we need it desperately.
It's not optional.
Without healthcare,
we are either going to die,
or we're gonna live lives that
are full of pain or lack function.
And sort of
an interesting question
is if he had been a different
kind of personality type,
would this story have
played out very differently?
You know, I don't think his heart
is necessarily in the wrong place.
I think he just thought, you
know, the rules didn't apply to him.
He had found a nexus between the
hedge fund world and the pharma world.
You just see a human being
that's capable of a whole lot.
He was in charge
of his own companies
from an early age,
so there was no one to say,
"Martin, this is wrong."
The whole story was not helped
by Martin being a jerk,
but then something
really bad happened.
Hello.
You sound like a weird guy.
Yes.
You sound like...
You kinda sound like
a pedophilic macho man.
Nah.
Oh, yeah!
So, what led
to this phone call?
I was covering
the courthouse in Brooklyn.
I had a story about him
being under investigation.
No flex zone.
Hello?
Hello?
All right, guys.
We peaked at 300, 400 viewers.
I think it's time to go to sleep.
I love all of you.
I also hate all of you.
The drug company CEO
who raised the price
of a lifesaving pill by more
than 5,000% has been arrested.
Martin Shkreli, characterized by
some as public enemy number one
for the alleged drug price
gouging he's been accused of
is arrested Thursday morning
for something else.
Federal officials confirmed
to CBS News
that Martin Shkreli faces
charges of securities fraud.
We expect to learn more about the case
at a news conference in about two hours.
That guy was banging on my door,
"Federal Agents. Federal Agents."
"Arrest warrant. Arrest
warrant. Open the door!"
My attorneys said that the
prosecutors would alert me pre-arrest,
give us one last chance
to show our innocence.
Fucking morning of the arrest,
I was like,
"Hey, what happened
to that one last chance?"
Hello.
After he got arrested, it
was just like a terrible day,
outside in front of the
courthouse all day.
We're all waiting in just
drenching rain for him to come out.
And he finally
came out looking
pretty unfazed
by the whole thing.
Hey, man. Don't punch
my fucking camera.
That's what
people wanted.
It's the tragedy
completing itself.
You know, like he did something,
It pissed everybody off.
Now he should be punished.
I assumed it was for something
related to pharmaceuticals.
And then I learned that it wasn't
that, it was this hedge fund scheme,
from years earlier,
and I hadn't even known
that he had been
a hedge fund executive, really.
Shkreli essentially
ran his companies
like a Ponzi scheme, where he
used each subsequent company
to pay off defrauded investors
from the prior company.
What he was accused off
was funneling money
through these sort of
sham consulting agreements.
If you rob a bank and then you rob
another bank and you repay the first bank,
you've still robbed
that first bank.
Even if you gave the money back,
you still committed a crime.
He wasn't on trial for anything
that America accused him of, right?
Like nobody cared
about the fraud shit. Nobody.
They just know "Bad guy.
I want to point him out.
"I want somebody to hate.
"And I don't want to be wrong
for hating somebody."
It's not hard to imagine that
once Martin became infamous,
they stepped up
their investigation.
This was a feather in their
cap, for arresting this person
that people didn't like.
It was him versus the government,
and the government barely loses.
America loves shit bags. They
just like it on their condition.
They like to be stroked
before they're fucked.
Martin, just went in bare balls.
That was the problem.
Hmm. Another caller.
Hello, caller.
- Hello?
- Yes.
Martin?
- Caller!
- Oh, my God I actually reached you.
Oh, my God.
You finally called.
Okay, I'm very confused.
Why are you going to jail,
or being investigated?
Yeah. He is being investigated.
- No, I was arrested.
- Yeah.
I was arrested.
You, sometimes, in the United States
of America, get a chance to post bail.
Especially if it's
a non-violent crime.
I have that opportunity.
I posted bail
of $5 million, cash.
There's $5 million
sitting in an account right now.
While that money is there, I'm
allowed to go do what I please.
And, uh, let's see...
The trial.
There's a jury trial.
Sorry, there's a lot of background
noise. Do I have your full attention?
- Five million.
- Do I have your full attention?
There's a lot of noise in the background.
Are you at a party or something?
How dare you disrespect me like this?
There's 1,000 people listening to me.
And you call me and you don't
have the deference to at least
pay attention to the conversation.
What is wrong with you?
When I call someone, I give them
my full, undivided attention.
Fucking prick.
If we get arrested
you're paying for our bill?
I know. We won't get arrested.
I've, well...
I've e-mailed these guys
probably five times now,
and no one's gotten back to me.
And so, we'll see if we can
get into this building.
This whole area
is for pharmaceuticals.
And the head office of one of
Martin Shkreli's old companies,
is amongst them.
Retrophin's right there.
We're gonna walk in. We're gonna
see if somebody can finally talk to us.
We'll see how it goes.
Wish us luck.
Here we go.
You did a foot shot.
That's cool.
Should I tuck in my shirt
or leave it untucked?
It won't matter.
Okay, second floor, Retrophin.
Let's do it.
Okay.
That is not working.
We're gonna try again or maybe just wait
by the elevators till somebody goes up.
That's what you have
to do to get the story.
Oh, thank you.
Did that guy go away?
Okay, so we successfully made
it, at least to the second floor.
I'm just going to wait
for a receptionist,
and hopefully
there's a way I can at least
talk to somebody in communications
or PR. And get a couple answers here.
So let's wait around.
I'm not in a hurry.
I'm in San Diego.
I'm not in a hurry.
Here's a Retrophin
corporate fact sheet.
I don't see
Martin's face on there.
This company looks
kind of interesting.
- Hi there.
- Hi, have you been helped?
No, not yet.
Actually, I was gonna ask you.
So we're just looking to see if
there's a director of communication
for Retrophin.
We wanted to chat to him.
There's an exec of the company,
Martin Shkreli.
We're looking to see
if anyone can talk about
our film and talk
about him at all.
- I sincerely doubt it.
- Really?
I sincerely doubt it.
Probably your best bet is going
to be to call in the morning.
- Okay.
- And have them put you through
to the director
of communication.
- Okay. Sounds good.
- All right.
Thank you so much.
But...
No, I'm saying tomorrow.
No chances for
Martin Shkreli interview?
He's not welcome
in the building.
- We all spit on him.
- Really?
Okay, well,
I love the artwork here.
It looks great.
- Thank you.
- Yeah. Thank you.
I'll call them for the morning.
Thanks so much.
I didn't get spit on
in the building.
That's a positive.
I think there are several aspects
of this story that made it light on fire
the way it did. One was the people
who were affected by this price increase.
Patients with HIV, pregnant
women, people with cancer.
I mean, these are obviously vulnerable
populations already, and to take a drug
and to make it inaccessible to them
just seems like the height of all evil.
It got the attention of the HIV
Medicine Association,
the Infectious Diseases
Society of America.
And then Andy Pollack in The New
York Times wrote a big story about it.
One minute after I sent the email,
he was on the phone calling me up.
He was happy to talk about it.
Toward the end of our conversation
that time, he began to realize
this isn't going
to look good in the paper.
There's something human about
putting an actual person into that story.
We're used to nameless, faceless
corporations out there just doing evil.
- Just a combination of things.
- Hillary's tweet,
Martin's personality, financial
hedge fund profiteering.
The whole situation went viral.
This was something that
everyone could attack.
There are things that are done
in this industry in terms of pricing
that people try not
to talk about.
And he talked about them all.
It's hard to believe that somebody
could be so driven by greed.
People from
the pharmaceutical industry
that were distancing
themselves from him
as if he was the bad apple,
politicians coming after him.
The whole time he was
responding, he needed a PR person,
and somebody needed
to give him some duct tape.
He brought
the attention to himself.
And he also can get under
people's skin very effectively.
Unapologetically
price gouging.
The social media
horror story on steroids.
His willingness to be in the
limelight even if it's in a bad way.
Martin just says
what comes to mind.
Like he was
saying some dumb shit.
You're a bro and you embody the
problems of the pharmaceutical industry.
The poster child for bad
activity in the pharma world.
This is a person who is
a living embodiment of it.
It's 100% about profit.
It was just so clear, like, the
bullshit was just on display.
Is Martin Shkreli
the most hated man in America?
There would be no negative story about
Martin Shkreli that would not get written.
You know, most news reporters
are not supposed to use adjectives.
But you could just load
adjectives and stories about him,
and it would be fine. Someone called
him a human mysterious mattress stain.
If I take that money and I'm using
it to do research for dying kids,
I think I'm a hero,
let alone evil.
He knew what he
was doing was not illegal.
One of the loopholes, and he
knew it was a way to make money.
Generally, you rely on morality
of entrepreneurs to just not do that.
But there are always exceptions,
the increasing costs seem
completely gratuitous.
No country can set at our price.
Drug companies set drug prices.
And that's the rule of law today.
If you don't like that, you know,
I don't know what to tell you.
That's the way the world works.
"For those that point a
finger at me I point one back."
"It's not my index, and it's not my
pinkie." It's like, "Really?" Grow up.
I mean, that's when
I was like, "Oh, no.
"We're dealing with somebody
that's very immature."
He was able to bring people's
emotions into this story
in a way that is needed
for people to care about it.
He was a different kind of hateable
than your faceless corporate CEO.
And I don't know anyone
that gave him a chance.
For just a bill I could
cop a little, roll it up.
They say Seattle gotta chill
I think we're cold as fuck.
You want some warmth
buy a coffee, hold the cup.
Billy the Fridge is a 500-pound
rapper and sex symbol.
Yeah, a little bit.
But beyond that,
I'm a cute boy.
I can't help it.
I'm like the Marilyn Monroe
of fat dudes.
Do you think
Martin Shkreli's a bad guy?
No, not at all.
I know he considers me a
friend, and I consider him a friend.
He's a very regular person
when you get past the fact
that he, you know,
is a very controversial person.
You could put all the clips
together where he's being a mean
son of a bitch to people.
But you probably could have
even longer where he's sitting down
and just being
a good human, too.
But it's not as fun
as the fuckin' shit talk.
Three hundred dollars. Buy one
yourself, you poor piece of shit.
Go to another country,
you want free healthcare, go.
Go to, Canada, go.
I didn't spell
anything wrong, bitch.
Maybe he was trolling to get away
from the fact that his world was crumbling.
Fuck you too.
The best thing about trolling is
you get to create a world, right?
You're gonna create a moment
that is larger than life.
It's unbelievable,
but people believe it.
That's all. It's like magic.
Ta-da.
They're like, "Well, fuck you.
This isn't real."
Yeah, but it's part of the show.
You got what you paid for.
You paid attention.
I look at him and I see him, as, you
know, a person whose great power,
maybe was used irresponsibly.
And he still has a great power.
The journalists and publications
decided to make this guy the villain,
and it was fun.
And he loved it.
Martin loves
being that villain.
Even his own real name, Martin
Shkreli sounds like something
Stan Lee would have made up.
He looks for the positive
in even horrible situations.
One horrible situation
being everybody hating you.
I guess he just said, "All right,
if I'm gonna be a supervillain,
"I'm going to be
a supervillain."
It almost became a thing where I
wanted to participate in it and say,
"Yeah, I am evil."
I'll be the Bond villain.
Willingly and knowingly
painted his narrative
as terribly as possible.
A lot of times people want an enemy.
And if I'm that enemy for you, good.
I'm happy, man. I'm fulfilling
some need in your life.
There's this tendency
for us to want to dichotomize
the villains and the heroes.
To see the villains as all bad.
There's something very human
in that aspect.
In the comic books there
have been a couple of times
when Dr. Doom
took over the world.
Each time Doom got bored
with it and created opportunities
for others to challenge him,
to attack him.
It's supposed to be
an incentive system.
I don't know
what it's supposed to be.
It's a business. We're supposed to
make as much money as possible.
The Joker understands a lot
of the worst qualities of people.
This frustration with the rest
of the world at not getting
the joke as he sees it.
I didn't say I was joking. You
saw the video. Get outta here, man.
Now you're disrespecting me.
They'll perceive anything
from other people as a threat.
I feel like you think of
yourself a sort of Lex Luthor.
Lex Luthor
is also a philanthropist,
The Riddler, he's not secure
in his ego, even as large as it is.
The Penguin was this
odd looking little kid,
and now he wants to show the
world "I'm bigger than you ever knew
"I was going to be."
And Shkreli seems to be very
driven by that need to achieve.
We need to know that we've had
an effect, that we've mattered.
Because eventually,
we're not going to be here.
Hello?
Hey, Martin,
question for you.
Do you always think you're
gonna be the super villain?
The only question is,
what are you gonna do about it?
Trying to understand the kind
of mind that has the value system
to get enjoyment from that,
it's so delicious and fascinating.
- Most people aren't bad.
- They just have different ideas
about how the world
should look.
This super villain thing
is sort of like part joke.
Well, like all great brands,
it contains a kernel of truth,
and the rest is marketing.
There's a line in a Batman comic
when the Penguin said, "What's the point
"in committing the perfect crime, if
no one knows it was you who did it?"
My name is Cilvaringz. I'm a
producing artist with Wu-Tang Clan.
I came up with the concept for the
Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album,
the one copy album, and I
produced the entire record as well,
right here in Marrakesh.
In a few minutes, we'll be playing
you Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.
It will be the first and last time any
music from this work will be heard
by anyone else.
In doing this announcement
we reclaimed the idea that
recorded music should be
regarded as a work of art.
You had some offers on
this, but why Martin Shkreli?
He was the only one
that really respected it
for the concept behind it.
Music wasn't seen
as art anymore.
The way we released this album
is the way originally music was sold.
Why not release a work of music
as a work of art, as one single piece?
Martin Shkreli looked like a dude
that was, you know, into hip-hop.
He was really loving the concept
and wanted to be part of the concept.
And we said "That fits."
The point is, I wanted
to show respect for art.
That's something that people
are not doing these days.
Release the fucking
Wu-Tang album.
Are you a big fan?
What was the last
Wu-Tang album called?
Uh... Bye.
You wanna hear Wu-Tang?
Wu-Tang Clan?
Let's get back to these
closures, okay?
Trashy was sitting on my Wu-Tang
album. Tried to reach out and pet her,
it scared her.
And she bounced.
I think it's broken now.
You think he was disrespecting
the Wu-Tang album?
I don't see
the problem with that.
You know, it's his.
He can do whatever he wants.
This is my coaster,
as you guys can see here.
But he was using
the album as a coaster.
Yeah, he was being an
asshole with it sometimes.
Like, he was saying
some dumb shit.
See, Martin just says
what comes to mind.
Tell you a funny thing. You
know who has been most on point?
I think even with Martin's
story, has been TMZ.
Ghostface Killah, I got to ask you
guys, man, you guys know that guy
bought your guys' CD
for $2 million at the auction.
Yeah, that head.
Yeah, head bought it.
You know, most people
don't ever try to be...
You know what?
What do you guys think?
Nobody's that dumb.
Just because he was in the Wu-Tang
Clan 20 years ago, doesn't make him
- a tough guy.
- Now you're talking.
The feud continues to escalate between
former Turing Pharmaceutical CEO
and Ghostface Killah.
If he were here right now,
I'd smack him right in the face.
- No, you wouldn't.
- Absolutely.
These guys got serious goons.
They will come and F you up,
like, this is serious. Don't challenge.
Nobody's ever
challenged the clan.
I think there's a saying
you're all familiar with.
It's called "I wish you would."
There could be real consequences,
in that it might be a criminal threat.
You think it's a criminal
threat? What, are you a lawyer?
- I am.
- Yeah, actually he is.
What do you know?
You must be on Ritalin or something,
man. I mean, take the stop, man.
It's like you a fake ass
supervillain, man.
I swear on anything,
youse is a fake supervillain.
If we are preaching this dystopian future
for music. I mean, what better symbol
for a dystopian music future
than Martin Shkreli.
That it ends up in the hands of
this most evil man in America.
Nah, I'm cool.
Yeah, so I'm just
doing an interview.
Real quick.
I'll talk to you in a minute.
All right.
Let me tell you something
about Martin Shkreli.
He wouldn't bust a grape
in a fruit fight.
He wouldn't do
none of that shit.
He ain't no gangster.
I ain't no gangster.
You know what I mean?
I'll just put that work in.
Where it needs to be put in.
You see what I am saying?
You wanna jump from $13
to $750 for one fucking pill.
Like, yo,
that shit better make you live
for a million years.
That move he did was
a fake ass gangster move.
You know what I mean?
Doing that shit like that.
But then you're going to start
all this commotion and beefing
and doing all this dumb shit, like,
"Fuck that guy's face, I'll smack..."
It's like, nigga, you see me
right now, you wouldn't do shit.
It's not even in your heart,
you know what I mean?
I read you.
I'm talking about, I'll look you
dead in your fucking eyes, B.
And from head to toe and just
see what type of nigga you is.
You see what I'm saying?
He's not that dude.
And I'm not the one
to promote violence.
But for him, well,
I don't give a fuck.
So, this kid buys this
album, named Martin Shkreli.
I don't want to talk about
Shkreli no more. Fuck Shkreli.
I don't want to talk about this
fucking motherfucker no more.
The best example
of him using money
for nihilistic political ends
is the album.
If you're gonna buy the Wu-Tang
album, which is gonna really annoy
millions of Americans, go the
whole way and fucking burn the thing.
Melt it on a livestream. And
that's what I would have done.
If I'd had the money available,
I would have melted it.
I would have liked
to have taken it.
Here we have Milo. Take one.
There'll only be one take.
We'll only need one take.
One will be fine. We're in the hands
of very experienced professionals.
Extra security on hand
ahead of an appearance
by ultra conservative columnist
Milo Yiannopoulos.
Speech shutdown tonight after
protesters converge on campus
where a pair of controversial political
speakers were scheduled to talk.
When former pharmaceutical
CEO Martin Shkreli
emerged from the building,
demonstrators forced him back
into the police line.
You're about being a fucking
cocksucker who raised the drug prices
for cancer patients,
you fucking piece of shit!
Daddy Will Save Us.
Just kind of like
a conceptual art show.
Anti-political correctness.
You know, burn the house down
kind of feeling
of surrounding Trump.
People don't feel able to make
the joke they wanna make.
Use the language they want
to use, express the opinion
that they previously thought
that they wanted to.
This is devastating.
Devastating for culture, it's
the worst imaginable thing to do
at precisely the time when we
should be celebrating all that is great.
We're producing culture
that is utterly moribund
and completely uninteresting.
And expecting that
it will by itself save us.
And it won't. But Daddy might save
us, and that was the point of the art show.
Let's talk about this art
show, 'cause I was there.
You were? You liked it?
No, it was actually
kind of scary.
It was kind of a little bit weird,
a little bit creepy that there was
an opportunity for disruptive
art created by conservatives
to make a mark on culture.
Hi, I'm Martin Shkreli and I'm one of
the contributing artists here tonight.
He had a pill, a Daraprim pill,
just on display
with the price tag.
This pill represents to me,
the purity
and the pricelessness of life.
At the end of the day,
we all want to be healthy.
We all want to be successful
and happy.
I'm happy to be here and
supporting the conservative movement
here in New York City,
which is overwhelmingly liberal.
I think conservatives
need to stick together.
And thank you, everyone,
for having me.
That's him.
- Howdy.
- Nice to meet you.
Not bad.
So there's one part of the
story that nobody knows.
I like being the first person
to know things.
I decided to move
into Martin's apartment building
and get closer to him,
and find out who he really is.
Okay.
You just decided to live
in his apartment building,
that's where you want to go.
You want to go there, you
know what I mean? You paid for it.
Yeah, so...
It is what it is.
What you find out?
Okay. So, yeah.
So, you know. That's it.
- Yes, you're Brent. Okay.
- Okay.
- Good to meet you.
- Meet my friend, James.
- James. Yeah.
- Big night.
- See you man.
- Good luck.
- I'll see you in the building, man.
- I'll see you, there. Bye.
All right, so...
Do you think
that's a way
to maybe get this film done,
so that you could speak to him?
Do you think that's going
to out-troll the troll?
No, I think he'd
find that hilariously,
hilariously pathetic.
Okay, well,
out-trolling a troll...
When you're trolling, you have to
find the weak points to attack, right?
So I've trolled Martin
a couple of times
just messing with him.
You kind of have to
go for the fact
that he cared about me in a way,
you know, I was his buddy.
So there's definitely ways
to troll the troll.
You find what they
care about, exploit it.
If you had a cool, calm,
collective attack on Martin,
play it through, then he's
usually pretty chill about it.
He'd be like,
"Okay, you got me."
But if you open that can of worms,
you better be ready to eat those worms.
- Hello.
- Hey, is this Martin?
Who the fuck is this?
Okay, Martin is online.
Here we go.
Calling into the livestream.
Wish us luck.
Hello.
Hello. What are you saying?
Dude. Do you mind
if I hang up on you?
I wouldn't say it's the
easiest way to make a film,
but there is definitely access.
He's available.
I don't give a fuck
if you judge me.
Real recognizes real.
He's basically answering
all the questions I've ever had
right here on his livestream.
I know every kind
of martial art there is.
I do think this back and forth is about
as close as you can get to Martin Shkreli.
If you really want to talk
some shit, give me a call. Hello?
I see him around.
I've been running
into him on the streets.
I go to his meet-ups.
Let's not forget,
we share the same view.
A naked shower guy,
every night.
Yeah, I still don't really know
who the real Martin Shkreli is.
You're lying because
you're a chicken,
over-privileged piece of shit,
scared shitless, kid.
And I will nunchuck you into
another fucking multi-verse
if you ever privilege
out me again.
Okay.
I'm just so fucking exhausted
from watching this guy.
It's funny. Even though
you watch him online like this.
So you're a fat broke loser, who
uses Mom's cell phone to call me
and tell me that
his name is Jerkin-my-dad-off.
He talks shit to people.
He's just kind of
a piece of shit.
And yet,
I cannot help but feel
sorry for him, sometimes.
Don't look at me.
Don't fucking look at me.
Get the camera out of my face.
Bullshit.
Gonna be alone forever.
He...
won't amount to anything.
He's not important
in the grand scheme of things.
Maybe he is.
I guess the trial
will determine that.
And I'm sure the media
will cover it.
The Securities fraud trial
of Martin Shkreli.
A trial date, has been
set for Martin Shkreli.
The trial's
gonna start in June.
That's going to be quite a
circus. An exciting circus.
We're going to win
by a landslide.
The evidence is clear
that I did nothing wrong.
A billion dollars
goes missing, that's fraud.
My investors sent me
Christmas cards.
Charged with Securities fraud.
Federal prosecutors say Shkreli
cheated investors out of more than
$11 million in a Ponzi scheme.
If convicted, the 34-year-old
could spend up to 20 years in prison.
Shkreli's
lawyer Ben Brafman,
arguing that the trial
is very complex.
You have
a new legal team in place.
This is a lawyer
who is very well known.
I have hired Ben Brafman to
represent me going forward.
His track record is impeccable.
I'm a person who people come
to when they are in serious trouble.
Martin was in serious trouble.
Every once in a while I come
across a Martin Shkreli
who's unique in so many ways
that the challenge is just,
you know,
too interesting to avoid.
It's my job to make the system
work fairly and honestly.
You put someone in handcuffs
and take them away,
you've changed
their life forever.
The presumption
of innocence be damned.
If we don't require
the application of the rules,
then I think as a society
we're really not a democracy.
Sometimes, I'm the only person
who is standing next to you.
When you are a high profile
person who is being vilified,
I'm like a life boat.
If everything works perfectly,
we're gonna be able to save you.
It's got to work perfectly,
and you've got to be fortunate.
You've got to be quiet
for the next two years.
Typically, when you have a defendant who's
on trial, they're on their best behavior.
The prosecution
should be embarrassed.
They barely did their homework.
Why do they keep
coming after you?
You know,
I just can't fathom,
I guess it might have something
to do with me being very handsome,
very wealthy, and very funny.
Your attorney can't be
glad that you're out here.
I'm very different
from a lot of his other clients.
There were times
when I wanted to, you know,
wrap my arms around Martin
and hug him.
There were times when I wanted
to punch him in the face.
You don't really cage
Martin Shkreli.
You just can't.
You can't tell someone who thrives
in conflict to not create more conflict.
You can't tell someone,
who, you know...
thrives online
to not be online.
Martin Shkreli and women.
How would you define
the girls in his life?
It's really hard to define.
I mean, there's a lot of, especially
lately, a lot of young ones.
The ones I've spoken to
all seem like, you know,
people you'd want to sit down,
and have a conversation with.
How did you first
come across, Martin?
So, I was going through
my Tinder.
I saw that I had a super like.
I saw that it looked like
Martin Shkreli.
I swiped right thinking that
someone had done a catfish profile.
But it wasn't a catfish.
It was really Martin.
So, tell me,
what was this date like?
Better than a lot of
dates, because he...
He picked the place.
He checked if they had a vegetarian
option and he was relatively on time.
So we ordered food.
And then we had seen on the menu
that they had this really expensive tea
that was $120.
This gold medal, Sencha.
Who would order a $120 tea?
And he orders it.
And I said, "Did you like it?"
And he said, "Oh, well, you know, I'm not
much of a tea drinker, but it was good."
Why did you order the tea?
Okay, so just got here
to California.
This is where Martin Shkreli's
ex-girlfriend lives.
As I enter the house,
I can see that she's gotten in
a little bit of a fight
with her neighbors.
Every time she passes by
their new fence that they put up,
she decides to
give them the finger.
And so now they've posted photos
of her doing this.
So I think it's a fair conclusion to
say that Martin Shkreli's girlfriends
maybe have some trolling
qualities similar to him.
What do you see
in Martin Shkreli?
Very intelligent, the most
intelligent person I've ever met.
I find intelligence
to be incredibly attractive
and incredibly important,
and it's hard to find.
How long
did you guys date for?
For about a year.
But on and off, mostly off.
But, yeah, about a year.
There were times
where I just felt like
there's no other person
that I connect with better,
because I studied math
and I was really concerned
that I wouldn't find somebody who
shared a lot of the same interests as me.
We got into a cab one time,
I look over at him
and I was like,
"I wonder what the probability of
stepping in the same cab twice is?"
And he goes, "That's a great
question. Let's sit and figure it out."
And he looks up
at the top of the cab.
Based off those numbers and those
letters, we could assume that they repeat
and therefore, there's this
many taxis out in New York,
assuming 60% of them are in
commission and currently running
and they run
this many hours of a day.
And we sat there
and did the math together
and that was the most fun
that I've had in a while.
And when we got home,
we Google searched
the numbers that we approximated
and we were pretty spot on.
That was like
the nerdiest romance ever.
But, yeah, I thought
it was romantic.
Lesson number one.
I'm not a fucking nice person.
Okay.
I'm not.
How could he?
How could you?
Let's see how far
we can take this.
Let's see how evil I could be
in front of you.
People are the butt of the joke,
and that's okay,
as long as, you know,
you're not trying to
tear somebody's life apart.
You can poke,
just don't push, I guess.
We're so used to polishing our
image for everyone all the time.
And here's this person who's kind
of famous because he doesn't care.
Martin, you are now
the slightly famous
webcam personality
you grew up connecting with
because like me, you have trouble
maintaining real relationships.
It's a little twisted, it's strange,
sometimes a little uncomfortable.
I mean, he's good at getting
under people's skin,
and I think he thinks it's fun.
How about that, fuck boy?
Nah, man.
Okay. So next time I fuck your mom,
I'm just gonna let her know, okay?
You claim to love
black culture so much
by trying to get in
with all the rappers.
- My culture, I bought it.
- That's, not like a...
- I bought the culture, it's mine!
- How do you...
But let me tell you something.
With enough money, I'll be black.
He just has this unfathomable
well of potential for mischief or harm,
I guess. I don't personally
think that he's dangerous,
but I guess, I mean...
Universally loathed
Martin Shkreli has decided to buy
domain names of specific reporters
who have posted critical articles
on him and use those to harass them.
I basically wrote something
along the lines
of "Martin Shkreli has finally found
a woman who's willing to date him."
Very shortly afterwards,
like ten days later,
he bought my domain name.
It was obvious from my first
conversation with him,
he made things personal.
He wanted to talk
to me after that,
he actually called me to try
to "bury the hatchet."
And I told him,
"There's no hatchet to bury."
I'm a reporter.
There's no personal
anything here.
He obviously didn't like that.
And like that week
he bought the URL of my name.
Do you feel badly about
what's happening?
No. In fact, we're
increasing access to patients.
So I'm not sure
what you're talking about.
Nobody I've ever reported on
has ever acted like this.
Why does he
go after women like that?
Yeah.
There was a situation involving
a writer we were discussing,
he didn't like
what this writer said.
I suggested one approach
he could take,
and then Martin goes, "No,
when they go low, I go lower."
I'm like, "No, not a good way
to go about things."
He really is, I think
part of a tribe of people.
You know, he's aligned himself
with Milo Yiannopoulos.
This is a new part
of our culture.
Martin, I think, has always
suffered from having
a more nihilistic bend
than I do, perhaps.
I think that it hasn't always
been clear
what exactly he is
advocating for,
although it's clear
what he doesn't like.
And that's a problem.
It was difficult, and I tried
my best to sort of tune it out.
But I also have to, you know,
deal with the concern
that our jurors
are listening to this.
You need to be more disciplined than
Martin Shkreli to resist that temptation.
I don't need more problems
than the case brings to it.
I don't know if he knows
the damage that he does
with some of his actions
and words, though.
How much damage does he do?
- Well...
- He's contributing to a discussion, right?
And at the end of the day,
he's the bad guy.
You don't only get
Martin Shkreli, you get,
you know... You get the
people that love Martin Shkreli.
You have no idea who his followers
are or what they're capable of.
The livestream was a place that
we went to hang out as, like, buddies.
Martin attracted everybody.
And that means the place
to be for shit bags.
Criminal motherfuckers.
We'll hunt down the clown
together, I promise.
And the people
that had the guns,
probably were the last ones
that would ever use them.
And they're all scumbags, right?
'Cause scumbags are persistent.
There was... Was it Duca?
Was it Lauren Duca or whatever?
This is my last will
and testament.
Lauren, I know you love me.
I know that we
belong together. Okay?
The Lauren Duca thing.
He just thought it would be fun to
make up this whole stupid romance thing.
He had a plus one
for "the inaug"
and wondered if she wanted
to go, and she very publicly said
that she would rather
eat her own organs.
He responded by turning his
Twitter into, essentially a shrine.
Part of being popular is having fans
who Photoshop and make collages.
I saw some photographs
of your husband.
He, is not pure
or desirable in any way.
He pulled a photo of her
and her husband
and Photoshopped his face,
over her husband's face.
It was just littered with
photos of her.
It just got really nasty.
And his followers,
I think, took it
to the next level.
I don't think there is any
imaginable situation
where I would even want
to sit down with him.
It doesn't matter,
because he's doing
massive harm to society.
In 2016, as a strong,
independent woman.
That's what I want.
That's what I'm looking for. That's
what I've been looking for my whole life.
I'm gonna get a poster
of Lauren Duca.
I'm gonna cut myself.
'Cause the pain is so sweet.
Feud isn't the right word
because it doesn't begin
to describe he way
his harassment of her has,
you know, affected her life.
It's not a fucking meme,
it's a real fucking life.
And Twitter...
Twitter can't keep us apart.
Nothing can keep us apart.
Account suspended.
I think it was threatening
Lauren Duca
with rape, I believe.
And that essentially led
him to get kicked off Twitter.
That was exactly what got him
kicked off Twitter, yes.
Which he suffers for.
He misses Twitter, terribly.
As an entertainer, somebody
who loves the attention,
being muted...
is death.
Martin Shkreli, tell us
what's your plan.
Yes, Martin Shkreli
tell us what's your plan.
I'm not playing
Martin Shkreli.
That's the point. Like, I am playing
a collection of his outward persona.
We're creating a character
based on the Martin Shkreli
he put out into the media,
which was his own choice.
Yeah, he has,
like a little bit of a...
The receding hairline
was important and the smirk is,
I mean, that's the signature.
Like, that you've got to do.
Martin Shkreli.
The funny thing
about all of this
is that the best thing
you could do to make him happy,
is what we're doing right now
is sitting here like,
"Do you think he's..."
You know? And he's just
laughing the whole time
that we're doing this,
that I'm playing him,
and you're asking me about what I think
about playing him. Like, this is insane.
This is insane. This is the weirdest thing
in the world and he's gotta love that.
It's just this bizarre character
study that you interact with.
And you never know what exactly
you're going to get,
but you also don't know
how legitimate
what you're getting is.
There's no mirror
that he can hold up
to what he's saying that, you know,
allows him to see how it's perceived.
The message is going out, and
he's not receiving an equal message
from how people take him.
This is one where people
start to say "Is he a sociopath?"
Do I consider myself
a sociopath?
Wow!
What a question.
I can't say
I get that one often.
Some people think
that he's autistic.
And this is
an eccentric person.
We had Martin, you know, evaluated
by one of the leading experts in the field
and they concluded
that if he had been properly diagnosed
as a child, would have been classified
as perhaps autistic.
I think a social awkwardness
was certainly obvious.
Sounds like Pharma Bro
needs some meds.
Yeah, I think
that's pretty reasonable.
I think he's going to be Martin
Shkreli for the rest of his life,
and you take the good
and the bad with that.
Some individuals don't understand
the better side of human nature,
causing these people to go
without their medication.
People are ready
to see a villain,
and to assume that you're
gonna fit all these qualities.
I don't think it's
that he has no empathy,
or he doesn't think that it
matters if people get hurt.
It's the fact that he thinks
people coming at him,
telling him that people are getting
hurt are not telling him the truth.
Don't you think we would
have heard stories by now
of somebody that was
on their death bed,
had all the spots
on their faces,
and were at the end of
the rope and all they needed
was that one bottle from Martin,
and he wouldn't give it to them.
Why are none of your patients coming out
publicly and talking to Martin about it?
I don't think patients, for the
most part, want to come forward,
because then they're
disclosing their HIV status.
But the reality is, there still
remains a stigma with HIV.
Patients that have active
toxoplasmosis are usually pretty ill.
They're in a life threatening
situation that needs to be treated.
News headlines constantly
say that Martin is an AIDS killer.
I feel like a lot of these articles
aren't actually getting to the truth.
I think the HIV/AIDS
came into the equation
because that's who we associate
the most as needing the drug.
Toxoplasmosis is
a deadly infectious disease.
If you have
an intact immune system,
it's a relatively
easy infection to fight off.
But if you don't, it's
something that can take hold
and so Pyrimethamine
doesn't treat HIV,
it treats
this opportunistic infection.
This isn't some drug that,
you know, you can live without.
If you have this infection,
it needs to be treated.
Looking at this amount of pills, it
cost less than the table it's sitting on.
By the time the price hike
went into effect,
I realized my house
costs less than this.
This is a pain schedule,
more or less,
- the last six years of having this disease.
- Mmm-hmm.
Yeah, just one after another,
after another.
These are all appointments.
Each of these is
an appointment, I was so sick.
It's given me mouth sores,
stomach pain, lots of bleeding.
I had a long time
where I didn't know I was sick
and I was getting sicker and
sicker and you just kind of have faith
that your doctors are wise, and
the system isn't working against you.
10/25 Pyrimethamine, this is
the prescription for Daraprim.
Twenty-five milligrams, two
daily at this point, $30 a bottle.
For me, 48 tabs lasted
nearly six weeks.
At this appointment, they found
out I couldn't get access to it.
I think that was when
the price hike happened.
I get home and go to fill
this prescription,
and they're like, "No,
that's not going to happen."
I said
"What do you mean?"
They said,
"That's really expensive."
I said, "How much is it?"
They said, "$30,000."
I said, "$30,000 a year
for one med?"
And they said, "No, no, no,
$30,000 a month."
We got online, started thinking
there's gotta be something.
I assumed it was
going to be a little blip.
We give it a week or two
and we'll have it sorted.
The longer it went,
the more surreal it was.
My doctors were stumped.
It was pretty crushing.
It's weird when you've realized
that the sensational headline
is hitting the mark.
Price gouging pharmaceuticals,
you know, denying patients.
I saw the hate,
acknowledged it.
I understood it.
The narrative became the hate
instead of the patient.
I just I didn't have time
for that. I was too sick.
I wish that he had had
less time for malice too,
when he was
putting together his ideas.
Put yourselves in the shoes
of someone who has this illness.
This drug is 70 years old. You
wouldn't want a 70-year-old drug.
At the end of the day, there have
been much larger drug price increases
by much bigger drug companies.
We're dramatically increasing
the access to Daraprim.
Having insurance doesn't
mean you have access to care.
There's so many levels to actually
having access to healthcare in America.
I had the gold plan.
It didn't matter.
They just denied it. They said "It's
way too expensive for us to get involved."
- The insurance company said that?
- Yeah.
Because they don't want to spend
30 grand a month on me.
I don't think it was
a quirk of the system
that I was able to fall through
the cracks that way.
I think it's built-in.
During that time, I saw Martin
Shkreli got on Reddit and did an AMA,
which is an "Ask me anything,"
and people just post their questions.
I never really heard of a
pharmaceutical CEO doing AMA.
It's pretty rare.
Somebody asked him, "What
about patients that can't afford it?"
He's like "Oh, no, no, no. If
they need it, they'll get it for life."
That was when
I jumped in the conversation
because all of us are weak
and strong, right?
And if we only show our
strength, then we're just showing
just a half version
of ourselves.
You know, I just wanted to say,
"Are you being dishonest?
What's going on here?"
And he actually replied to my
comment, "Why don't you reach out to me?
"We'll get it sorted out."
I emailed him, and sure enough he
connects me with an account specialist.
They said they were gonna get me
squared away, 10-day supplies.
They didn't bill me.
I didn't feel like the system
was working 'cause I got my med.
I feel like I got really,
really lucky.
And it took literally talking to the
guy that's on all the news channels.
This was a receipt I got
that shows I got 20 pills,
which was a 10-day supply.
So right now, I guess you
would say I'm in remission.
I don't take
any of this stuff now.
The conclusion of my
story is fine, 'cause I'm here.
For me, the sad story is that I
don't think we learned from this yet.
I don't think
we've fixed it yet.
I think we have
a lot of work to do still.
So, is this where Martin Shkreli's
entire court appearance is happening?
Yes. Yeah, the entire trial
is on the sixth floor.
Yeah.
It sucks that I can't bring a
camera into the courthouse.
Yeah, it would be very difficult with
Brafman's theatrics and Martin's winking.
It's hard to make that up,
to make that loss up.
But that's why sketch artists
still have jobs.
Shkreli was charged with
eight counts of securities fraud,
conspiracy to commit securities fraud,
and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
So, this is at the Federal
District Court in Brooklyn.
It covers Brooklyn, Queens,
Staten Island, and Long Island.
Each district has their own
federal prosecutors.
Jacquelyn Kasulis, Alix Smith,
and Karthik Srinivasan.
They tend to be graduates
of good law schools
who are pretty aggressive.
And then the FBI
helped investigate.
They're sitting at the table
with the prosecutors.
He said, Eastern District
prosecutors were junior varsity.
He didn't think much of them.
It's possible that he thought
he could outwit them.
Prosecutor style, especially from
that office, is very straightforward.
And Brafman is, like,
pretty dramatic.
Brafman is fun to watch
in the courtroom.
It's a good contrast.
It's just good courtroom...
Courtroom theatrics.
Judge is Kiyo Matsumoto.
She had been a federal prosecutor,
longtime federal judge in that courthouse.
Shkreli's harassment,
do you think this being
a woman judge might hurt him?
No, I have never
seen the judge...
She seemed very fair.
And then, of course, jury
selection, was just so much fun.
Like, an unexpected
amount of fun.
Jury selection
begins in New York.
That notoriety from the infamous
price hike has left a stain
that's now following him
even into trial.
Jury selection took a lot longer
than we expected.
Entering its third day today
without seating a single juror...
I covered Bill Cosby's jury selection
and it didn't take anywhere near as long.
They called in
a couple hundred jurors.
They went through
this giant panel of people.
Just weeded out everyone
that they thought could
poison the pool.
Nearly 200 potential jurors
have already been dismissed.
Obviously, there's
a bias out there.
They're going to find a jury.
It just may take a while.
So Judge Matsumoto
is trying to determine
whether jurors are biased
or whether they can't serve.
They had to be able to be impartial
even if they had heard of him.
But there's a big problem.
Martin Shkreli can't find jurors
who don't already hate him.
She just starts
going through one by one.
"Does anybody have opinions about
the defendant that I should know about?"
And were there any
opinions about Martin Shkreli?
There were.
And now,
some of the actual responses
from potential jurors excused
from the Martin Shkreli Trial.
So, people did know him, clearly,
and had really strong opinions on him.
Where are you going to find a
jury who doesn't think he's guilty?
I can't even find most family
members who don't find him guilty.
I think everyone, regardless of
who they are, deserves a fair trial.
And so I do hope that they
find jurors who are not biased,
you know,
immediately biased against him.
And I hope justice is served.
You know, his lawyer has
already called for mistrials.
The judge said, "No, no."
A lot of people just associated
him with high-priced drugs.
A couple people mistakenly thought
he raised the price of the EpiPen,
which is a totally
different company.
He really was just, you know,
the face of unaffordable drugs.
And they were so angry about
that, even though they were told
by the judge repeatedly
that this has nothing to do
with drug pricing,
they just couldn't.
Or they also just wanted to get
out of jury duty, maybe, you know.
Trial is over tomorrow.
Which is...
Anything that we do
goes down in history
'cause it's being recorded.
Even this interview
is going down in history.
As soon as I win,
I'm gonna sue everybody.
Don't worry about that.
Don't worry about that.
Shit comes to you and then it
passes by. Shit comes everyday.
This time I'm gonna sue
every fucking person.
You really can't not check what's
in the hearts of others around you.
Where the energy at?
Bring that
villain shit out now.
Super villain.
You have to be careful
in this world right now,
growing up in this era
like this.
You got cameras on you,
but now the social media,
a lot of internet gangsters.
These internet guys
can't hang with me. Crazy.
What are you doing, bruv?
That's not you.
That's not you.
It's not you.
You're talking too much.
The most suckerest motherfucker
could say what he want to say
and get heard
and get a million views.
So it's a whole new
other world, man.
And if I'm acquitted,
I get to fuck Lauren Duca.
Nobody loses
when Martin loses.
And there was really nobody connected
to Martin to take the loss but Martin.
I don't think
he ever really thought of
the "damage" he did,
and maybe the damage he did was
making a mockery of the justice system.
It's the story of...
everything, basically.
He was the asshole.
So even if you do
kind of feel for him,
even with the fraud,
whatever, the fraud,
if you don't have a fraud by the
time you're 35, you're not trying.
Real trials are more interesting
than anything you could script.
It unfolds before you
without any direction,
without any lighting or makeup,
and things aren't different
because we use tricks or magic.
I think if the rules are
followed, rules are applied fairly,
then I'm okay,
regardless of the verdict.
They dislike Martin, obviously,
and Martin, unfortunately gave
them more reason to dislike him.
He personalized the animus,
and it was not necessary.
It seems everybody
is satisfied now
because they saw the rise
and fall of the bad man.
He's just a fucking bullshit
boogie man.
He's not the real problem.
He's the one that
the kids were scared of.
Now that he's gone,
they feel safe again.
They're not.
We have not taken
enough steps yet
to prevent future Martin Shkrelis
from using similar tactics in other drugs.
If the law allows
someone to do this legally,
Martin Shkrelis
will show up and do it,
and ask ourselves whether
law change is necessary or not.
It's again this question of, "Is
health a privilege or a right?"
By blaming just an individual
like Martin Shkreli,
we miss the bigger picture.
As much as we all
love to hate him,
others are doing it.
So, he's not alone.
The bottom line is, we have to assure
that everybody has access to care.
I'm on three.
- See you around.
- See you around. Yeah.
Good luck to you.
See you in the building, man.
There are a lot of super villains who
could have used a friend along the way.
As traditionally written,
they don't tend to be
that motivated
by seeking friendship.
In real life, though, people are
more complicated than that.
What?
Who could that be?
Real nice.
Can I touch the birdie?
I gotta touch the birdie guy.
That's really
nice of you.
Let me get your number so I
can share photos or something.
See you around.
Thanks for everything.
And an awful lot of individuals
would be much better off
and go a completely
different direction
if they've gotten friendship
at particular times.
My neighbor in the building
came by with a six pack.
Very nice of him.
Yeah. It's nice to have friends
in your building, you know?
Ultimately is he going to
reach a point where he decides.
"My life needs to be
better than this."
"I want more out of relationships
than what's going on."
Well...
After more than a month
at the Brooklyn courthouse,
and five days of jury deliberations,
the Shkreli trial has come to an end.
We now have some breaking
news on Martin Shkreli...
It's been a quiet day up
until right now
when the jury they brought
a note to the judge
saying they have
reached a verdict.
Next, the verdict is in for former
drug company CEO Martin Shkreli.
Well, it's moving day.
I knew I needed to move
out of this place, eventually.
Wasn't gonna stay here forever.
Yeah, it's been
an interesting year.
You could say that.
I wanted to get as close
as I could to Martin Shkreli.
Tell the real story
at least a whole rounded story.
Say it was experience in
humanity, or maybe lack of humanity.
It seems pretty creepy,
actually, when you're packing up.
Martin let me
into his apartment,
and I forgot to ask him, if I
can hear the Wu-Tang album.
Is the album even good?
It doesn't matter if it's a great
album, the album might not even exist.
Like, imagine
that album didn't exist.
Imagine there's
no music on there.
Imagine, it's just
a story to see
what people would do if music
was taken away from them.
I've polished the Wu-Tang album.
I'm gonna sell it.
Putting it on eBay right now.
Fuck Wu-Tang.
People are gonna want to know
what happens to that Wu-Tang album.
That's a real question now.
See, the whole thing
about that album is the mystery.
The mystique.
The minute everybody hears it,
the story is dead.
I don't think I'm going to
prison. I actually wouldn't mind.
It seems fun. But I
don't think I'm going.
We'll see, I guess.
Lowkey.
There's only
200 people here watching.
When the jury comes back
with a not guilty verdict,
that's going to be my moment
to just start dancing.
This was a witch hunt
of epic proportions,
and maybe they found
one or two broomsticks.
But at the end of the day,
we've been acquitted
of the most important charges
in this case.
I'm delighted to report that.
Tonight, Shkreli and his legal
team are celebrating the verdict.
He is guilty on three counts.
You know, if the government,
that's all they could come up with
after stunning tens of millions of dollars
of dollars of taxpayer money to
get the big, bad Martin Shkreli,
then God bless them.
I don't think I'm going to jail.
Maybe a few weeks if that...
I'm sorry your prison gay rape
fantasies won't come true.
There's always time
for more crimes, I guess.
You never know.
Notorious Pharma Bro
is now in jail.
When Martin Shkreli arrived in
Brooklyn federal court yesterday,
it was expected that he was
going to be walking back out again.
But that is not what happened.
He was remanded into custody
and ordered immediately to prison
to await that sentencing.
He was hauled before the court
after offering $5,000
for a strand
of Hillary Clinton's hair.
The judge said that could be
interpreted as a physical threat.
His defense attorney arguing the
offer was meant as political satire.
This is not the normal narrative
of a white collar crime case.
He's in general population.
He's with murderers and
gang members, the whole thing.
Picture that for a second.
I'll bet you he's not in there
screaming anything
about Wu-Tang
in there like that.
Probably in there shivering
under his fucking covers,
not even coming out
of his fucking bunk.
He probably paying anybody in
there just to use a fucking phone.
I don't think we have the
technology to clone Hillary.
And if we did, I don't think
Martin would actually do it.
I guess the idea of cloning Hillary is
enough to get you locked up these days.
Who would say
something like that?
That really, to me,
is criminal.
That's not funny.
He's a danger
to society?
Are you kidding me?
I think I'm more of a danger
to society than he is.
You know?
I've had kind of
a unique relationship with him.
It hasn't been like he is with
the other journalists. He trusts me.
He takes what I say seriously.
He's open with me in a way
that he is not with most people.
Well respected journalists
covering the case
of Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli,
puts her life on the line for love.
I visited Martin in prison,
and I just simply told him
that I loved him.
And what was his reaction?
He said that he loved me, too.
Did he say the words to you,
"I want to have
children with you?"
Yes.
I would love Martin to get out.
I would love him to start working on
something productive that helps the world.
And I'd like to play some sort
of role in helping him get there.
That's my dream.
This is maybe probably
telling of his weirdness,
but I'm the only woman he's ever
introduced to his parents.
The world needs Pharma
Bros now more than ever.
Or at least that's his reasoning for
requesting a temporary three month
release from prison so that he
can develop a cure for Coronavirus.
It'd just be really funny
if the person
who ends up saving the world
from this current pandemic
is Martin fucking Shkreli.
The jury is going to decide on
what's going to happen to Martin.
I hope whatever happens to him,
he's at peace with that.
I'm disappointed.
This is a good judge.
She made her decision,
and we all have to live with it.