UPDATE: Shkreli has been released on $5 million bail, reports Reuters. In all likelihood, the current charges against him will prevent him from contributing to the bail package of Bobby Shmurda, which stands at $3 million less than the sum Shkreli just put forth for his own release. It seems that the FBI has been keeping track of Shkreli's hip-hop investments, too, as they have confirmed that, due to the nature of the arrest, they were unable to get their hands on the $2 million Wu-Tang album that currently remains in the possession of the pharmaceutical supervillain.
The last two months of 2015 have been an absolute roller coaster for pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli. In November, he was accused of price gouging when he raised the price of AIDS & cancer drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 per pill. Last week, the 32-year-old was revealed to be the winning bidder of the $2 million one-of-a-kind secret Wu-Tang Clan LP, and earlier this week he announced his intentions to bail Bobby Shmurda out of jail. According to a report by Bloomberg Business, federal agents arrested Shkreli at his Manhattan home on Thursday morning on charges of securities fraud.
Hubris is a bitch. For lack of being able to summarize the charges, here is Bloomberg's report:
"The federal case against him has nothing to do with pharmaceutical costs, however. Prosecutors charged him with illegally taking stock from Retrophin Inc., a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. He was later ousted from the company, where he’d been chief executive officer, and sued by its board."
"In the case that closely tracks that suit, federal prosecutors accused Shkreli of engaging in a complicated shell game after his defunct hedge fund, MSMB Capital Management, lost millions. He is alleged to have made secret payoffs and set up sham consulting arrangements."
So much for bailing out Shmurda.