The “Pharma bro” didn’t pass go or collect $200; he went straight to jail.
Six days after federal prosecutors asked a judge to revoke Shkreli’s bail for saying he’d pay his 95,000 Facebook followers $5,000 a pop for pulling out Hillary Clinton’s hair on her book tour—and then promptly getting investigated by the Secret Service, who protect the former first lady and secretary of state—Shkreli’s been sent to jail, per The New York Times.
Shkreli had been out on $5 million bail, up until he wrote the now-deleted post on Facebook, which read: “On [Clinton’s] book tour, try to grab a hair from her….Will pay $5,000 per hair obtained from Hillary Clinton.” He walked the post back later, saying it was “satire”—but subsequently, thumbing his nose at the Secret Service investigation and baiting the government to “Come at me with you [sic] hardest because I haven’t seen anything impressive yet.”
In sending Shkreli to prison, Brooklyn judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto said that the post had been “… a solicitation to assault in exchange for money that [was] not protected by the First Amendment.”
As Bloomberg legal journalist Christie Smythe notes, Shkreli has already been given an inmate number, and followers—or detractors—can send mail directly to him in prison.
Martin #Shkreli has an inmate number. Here is how you can send him mail (or hate mail). https://t.co/9OJm8BxWkg https://t.co/OssguIzJRC pic.twitter.com/uQntloNtFk
— Christie Smythe (@ChristieSmythe) September 14, 2017
The pharmaceutical executive gained infamy—and the catchy moniker—back in 2015, when it was reported that the 34-year-old raised the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 percent.
He was convicted in August of securities fraud, and is still awaiting sentencing.
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