
Martin Shkreli May Spend 20 Years in Prison - aaronbrethorst
http://fortune.com/2018/02/27/martin-shkreli-pharma-bro-prison-sentence/
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savanaly
Time to attempt to defend Shkreli again because while I find him to definitely
be of questionable moral character, I get even more sore at the unhinged
Shkreli-bashing by everyone I know which seems to be based almost entirely on
mood affiliation and tribalism.

The reasons for him being the "most hated man in America" mentioned at the end
of the article are:

>increasing the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000%, holding an anticipated
Wu-Tang album hostage, harassing women on Twitter, and for his smug court
appearances.

Does it seem odd that those are all lumped together in people's minds? Only
the first one should have any bearing on the question of whether he's actually
loathsome.

* Holding the Wu-Tang album hostage is a totally reasonable thing to do, he did pay an exorbitant price for the right of exclusivity after all. Most people in the hip hop community seem to hold the whole incident more against RZA than against Shkreli in any case.

* The claim of harassing women appears to be false, based on the evidence they linked to. I followed their link and it appears his harassment consists of inviting women to go to the presidential inauguration with him. When they turned him down (in the most insulting terms they could personally think of, apparently) he didn't say any more. So that's harassment now?

* >his smug court appearances. Not exactly a federal offense.

The serious allegation is about raising the price of a life-saving drug, and
on this point I totally understand hating him. I can't bring myself to hate
him based on that though.

Personally I don't see how it's much different to take a ridiculously
underpriced drug and raise the price to what the market will bear vs. being
CEO of a company and keeping your drugs' prices at its historically high
point. I know everyone hates CEO's of pharmaceutical companies anyways but my
point is how is he any worse than the lot of them? Purely because of emotion.

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aaronbrethorst
I don't think you have the full facts regarding how he behaved towards Lauren
Duca.

[https://www.refinery29.com/2017/08/166717/lauren-duca-
martin...](https://www.refinery29.com/2017/08/166717/lauren-duca-martin-
shkreli-sexual-harassement-twitter)

~~~
savanaly
These subsequent actions he took are harassment, I agree.

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grouseway
I love this guy because he gives us a genuine and unfinessed view of how
brazen pharma is. His outspokenness is unique but his business dealings are
not.

Some will says that this sends a strong message, but I think the only take
away people in similar situations will have is: keep your mouth shut if you're
exploiting the system.

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ithinkinstereo
Shkreli is being made an example of because he's an easy target, with
relatively shallow pockets.

Compare him to the Sackler family, the sociopaths behind Oxy, for example...

~~~
mark_edward
Get them a life sentence, sounds good to me

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jonathanstrange
20 years prison seem ridiculously high in the light of the fact that most of
the investors gained money instead of loosing money. He might have abused or
misused invested money but in the end they benefited from it, if I understood
the news stories correctly.

~~~
profunctor
I think it is important to show our financial laws have real teeth. A hard
sentence acts as a warning to others.

~~~
ASalazarMX
This punishment looks unusual, though. Shkreli called too much attention
towards these unethical business model, but there are more people doing it. If
he's the only one convicted that harshly, it just sends a signal that you can
do it, but with more discretion.

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Froyoh
I don't think he deserves it

~~~
tomnipotent
> ...held responsible for $10.4 million in losses

If you steal a car, you go to jail. This dude stole 400+ cars. Does 20 years
really seem out the question?

~~~
hermenaut
If you steal 400 Honda Civics and return 400 Teslas in their place (by
Lying/Deceiving Owners), should you go to jail? Not defending him in regards
to the law, but whether he "deserves" it or not seems to me a reasonable
question

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iaw
I wonder how his parents feel about him? Are they proud? Disappointed?
Indifferent?

~~~
Jgrubb
I remember reading that his parents were working class, he didn't grow up a
rich kid. It's hard to imagine how they could instill the work ethic in him
that they seem to have without also instilling a moral compass, but maybe he's
just chemically imbalanced.

This comment is far too much supposition for this board, apologies.

~~~
dragonwriter
> It's hard to imagine how they could instill the work ethic in him that they
> seem to have without also instilling a moral compass

It's not at all hard to believe that they could instill a value system
focussed on working toward material gain while not instilling a value system
focussed on values that compete with working toward material gain.

