As Martin Shkreli continues to fight his bizarre PR war on Twitter, more and more unflattering bits and pieces of his history and persona are coming to light.
Raw Story reports that Shkreli is currently being sued for $65 million in damages by a company called Retrophin, which he founded and was later fired from for “giving away shares to friends” and using company assets to “pay off personal debts and keep afloat his sinking investment firm, MSMB Capital Management.”
But the suit alleges a much darker side to Shkreli’s business tactics, pointing to an incident where he threatened the wife of a former employee.
“I hope to see you and your four children homeless and will do whatever I can to assure this,” former employee Timothy Pierotti claimed Shkreli wrote in a letter to his wife.
Pierotti also claimed that Shkreli contacted his children on Facebook and told them their father betrayed him and stole $3 million.
Shkreli kicked off an uproar after purchasing the rights to Daraprim, a 62-year-old drug used for treating life-threatening parasitic infections in children and AIDS patients, and raising the price overnight from $13.50 per tablet to $750.
He defended his decision to hike the price — by 5,500 percent — saying it was necessary to protect his investment and still keep the drug “underpriced” on the current market.
Speaking to CNBC this Monday, anchor Meg Tirrell asked Shkreli if the resulting uproar from his price hike changed his mind at all.
“In response to all of this attention and doctors and patient groups saying they can’t access this drug, are you gonna change the price?” Tirrell asked.
“No,” Shkreli replied.
Featured image via Twitter
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