In the fall of 2012, I had a friend who owed me $21,900. Martin Shkreli owed him a similar amount, so he told Shkreli to just send me a check for $21,900. Shkreli then wrote out a check to me, photocopied it, and sent the picture to my friend as "proof" that he was paying me. My friend then forwarded me the email Shkreli had sent him.
Although I had never heard of Shkreli before this, I knew the minute I got that email that Shkreli would not send the check. If he had intended to pay, he would have simply sent the check. No one would go to the bother of photocopying it and sending the picture if he actually intended to pay.
I couldn't really say anything to my friend at that point because he was operating in good faith, and I didn't know anything about Shkreli, but I knew I wouldn't be getting it.
Three weeks later I told my friend that Shkreli hadn't sent the check, and my friend apologized and sent me a check himself.
I have no idea whether Shkreli ever paid my friend, as my friendship with him ended soon after.
But I haven't been all that surprised by what I've read about Shkreli since. Like all sociopaths, he thinks he's fooling people when he's not, and I have to admit I was gratified to hear that the Feds caught up with him yesterday.
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I've read about him in the past, suspecting him to be a sociopath. He belongs in the slammer. Not a nice guy or a good guy.
-birdie
Birdie --
Well, that's where he seems to be headed.
My impression of him was that he is an obnoxious, defiant person. I am impressed by how perceptive you are concerning other people - the guy making a photocopy of a check - it blew me away that you knew by his action that the guy was not going to send you a check.
-birdie
Birdie --
Thanks, but honestly, it wasn't all that perceptive. Why else would he bother to do that?
I've never had that happen, but I wouldn't have thought much about it, photocopying a check. I would have thought he's being a little odd.
-birdie
John, look at this:
http://order-order.com/2015/12/14/stop-the-wars-most-outrageous-claim-yet-britain-no-less-sociopathic-than-isis/
Anon --
Yes, ridiculous. First of all, it's absurd to characterize an entire government or political movement as sociopathic, all such entities have plenty of True Believers (many of whom are dumb rather than evil) and all such entities have people (often near or at the top) who are sociopaths. Any government or political entity can be characterized as destructive, or dishonest, but "sociopathic" implies a whole set of individual characteristics which can't be displayed by nonhuman entities.
And I'd certainly characterize ISIS as far more destructive than either Britain or the US, which I assume is your point. Just goes to show how unrealistic the Left is these days.
I certainly don't like Shkreli, but I can't help but find myself overly interested in this guy. When I first heard about him as the guy who raised the price of an AIDS drug to $750/pill, my immediate reaction was simply to shrug him off as a product of broken pharma regulations. However, after that, the guy kept coming back into my life.
I happen to frequent this forum called "wall street bets". I mostly trade futures, but occasionally I make small high risk bets on pharma stocks... These are often discussed on WSB, and Shkreli happens to also post pretty frequently. In fact, he is a moderator there, and there's a lot of members who actually follow his advice on pharma stocks.
Around a month ago, he made a post where he said something along the lines of "buy KBIO, trust me". I didn't see the post myself, and he ended up deleting it, but the forum went nuts. At the time, it was trading at about $2. I bought 20 shares, figuring, what the hell. The next day, Shkreli bought the company, and I ended up cashing out at about $40/share. Not a fortune, but obviously I was pretty happy.
After that, I had to know more about him. Why would "pharma bro" effectively raise the cost of acquiring KaliBios by sharing that info on WSB? Was he really the scum bag everyone said he was? What's this guys deal?
I haven't been able to get confirmation on this, but as far as I understand, the $750 price only applied to insurance companies. Supposedly, nobody pays out-of-pocket anywhere near that much. And Shkreli has defended himself on a number of occasions, mostly by saying that that money is what insures that there will be more drug research. At that point I thought that maybe he wasn't a total scumbag.
I should point out, that following his KBIO tip, Shkreli has been elevated to the status of GOD on this forum. You may not know this, but this guy live streams practically every minute of his life, and people actually watch it. And, they post about it constantly on this forum.
I learned that Shkreli paid $2 million for the only copy of an album by the rap group Wu Tang clan. They guy would apparently wave it around on his live stream and tease his viewers that the only way they would ever hear it was in exchange for sexual favors. Who behaves this way?!
Then, of course, he was arrested. A few hours before he was arrested for securities fraud, he actually hung up on the Feds. Don't believe me, see for yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-4D6yj-cR4&feature=youtu.be&t=4921
Even if the call was a prank, he knew he was being investigated. He might have actually hung up on the FBI!
Then he made bail. Did Shkreli stop live streaming? Nope. Right back to it. Got home and got right back on. Guy went right back to what he always does, playing chess, strumming his guitar, and talking about pharma.
Anyways, I'm not sure he is a sociopath. I think he might be autistic. Or a combination. I know these are subject which interest you. I suggest looking into him more, he's an anomaly.
-Taylor
Taylor --
I think he's unquestionably a sociopath. He's dishonest, shameless, thinks he can fool people when he can't, disloyal, supremely egotistical, and heartless. These are all the traits of a sociopath, and don't fit with autistics at all.
Nice trade on KBIO, by the way. $800 is nothing to sneeze at, good thing you trusted him, though I wouldn't trust him any more if I were you. My guess, by the way, is that he wanted to show off his "prescience" and gave that tip in an unguarded moment; if he had really wanted to make people rich at his own expense, he wouldn't have deleted it. I can understand why you're predisposed to feeling more positively about him, though, he did help make you money.
I vaguely remember reading the details of who had to pay the full $750 for that drug, I think the dividing line may have been hospitals vs. other, and I don't even remember which side had to pay more.
But that, as you know, had nothing to do with his arrest anyway. The arrest came because he was essentially a Ponzi schemer, using money from a pharma he'd bought to pay off his old hedge fund investors. The live streaming right after he was arrested also struck me as a very sociopathic move, rather than being mortified with shame and trembling with fear at the thought of going to jail, he just went right back to being his insanely egotistical, shameless and fearless self.
I don't feel positive about him, and I have no interest in defending him. I certainly won't be trusting him. Immediately after that acquisition I sold because the $40 valuation was outrageous; it was based entirely on the fact that he'd bought the company... what has this guy ever actually accomplished? Many of his trusting followers are currently stuck with worthless KBIO. I also have no idea whether he is guilty of securities fraud or not. If anything, I'm willing to bet that he is guilty, and I'm willing to bet that his tendency to make enemies has something to do with why he was investigated in the first place.
Out of curiosity, do you know why George was owed money from this guy? Part of what baffles me is that his success (the guy is worth $100m) seems to be built on an accumulation of failures. Have you read about the bet he made at the first hedge fund? He took $3 million from investors, shorted something like $80m worth of a pharma company that had already seen their share price tumble from $9 to $3, got stuck in a short squeeze and ended up losing every dime in one trade. That's when he began committing securities fraud. Shouldn't even the most cunning of sociopaths need *something* of an actual accomplishment to build on?
Anyways, with the autistic thing, I admittedly don't know what I'm talking about. If you watch even a few minutes of his youtube streams, you may see what I mean. He isn't merely a narcissist. He just comes across as extremely socially inept.
-Taylor
Taylor --
(I appreciate you proofing and revising your comments, by the way, but do me a favor and cut out the blank space you've been leaving at the bottoms of your comments too.)
You had a great sale there in KBIO, as you know, especially after Friday. I have no doubt he committed securities fraud; just my one little experience with him makes it obvious he's just dishonest by nature.
I have no idea why he owed George money.
I agree, he kept seeming to fail upward. Some people who are slick manipulators seem to be able to do that.
Well of course I am going proof my homework! I'll try to avoid leaving spaces from now on.
-Taylor
Taylor --
Good boy.
Shkreli: an absolute jerk, no doubt whatsoever. Glad he has being brought to justice, even if it doesn't undo all the damage.
Happy Holidays!
MarieC --
Yes, the NY Post described him as the most hated man in America, though that didn't seem to affect his self-image.
Happy Holidays to you.
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