Martin Shkreli Loses CEO Job, $26 Million, Control Of Twitter Account, Blames Arrest On Drug Price

Martin Shkreli, the man dubbed the “most hated man” in America, has had a really bad week.

It’s been a tough few days for Martin Shkreli – not that the “most hated man” deserves sympathy. 

The former hedge fund manager who earned infamy for hiking the price of Daraprim, a crucial life-saving AIDS and cancer drug, from $13.50 a pill to $750 a pill, in a new Wall Street Journal interview today blames his arrest last week on his price gouging.

“His arrest Thursday dates back to his time as a small-time hedge-fund manager. But Mr. Shkreli believes it is related to the recent drug price increases,” the Journal reports.

“ ‘Trying to find anything we could to stop him,’ was the attitude of the government,” Mr. Shkreli said, flanked by his lawyers in a midtown Manhattan conference room Sunday afternoon. “Beating the person up and then trying to find the merits to make up for it—I would have hoped the government wouldn’t take that kind of approach.”

And, stunningly, he calls his behavior just an act.

“What do you do when you have the attention of millions of people? It seemed to me like it would be fun to experiment with,” Mr. Shkreli said in the interview. He said he was arrested “because of a social experiment and teasing people over the Internet,” adding, “that seems like a real injustice.”

“Quite frankly, it was not something I expected, and definitely not something I deserve given the facts,” he said.

Shkreli has said he does not believe the federal charges against him, which include seven counts related to charges of securities fraud. Those charges come after the FBI had been investigating Shkreli since 2012.

LOOK: Bigger Than Trump: 9 Things About Martin Shkreli That Happened Today After He Was Arrested

Shkreli bought his way into another company recently, in an attempt to repeat his previous drug price gouging act.

That company, KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, fired him last week, December 17, the day he was arrested. That same day, KaloBios’ stock price dropped dramatically, costing Shkreli about $26 million.

Shkreli, on Friday, “resigned” as CEO from his other pharmaceuticals company, Turning, where he had jacked up the price of Daraprim.

And then, over the weekend, Shkreli lost control of his Twitter account, after it was hacked.

Here are a few of the tweets posted after he was hacked:

 

And Shkreli’s tweet stating he was back in control:

 

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Image via Martin Shkreli/Twitter