Martin Shkreli’s big mouth landed him in jail even before his fraud conviction did.
A U.S. judge revoked the former pharmaceutical executive’s bail Wednesday, ordering him jailed immediately, over a bounty Shkreli issued in a Facebook post for a strand of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s hair.
“The fact that he continues to remain unaware of the inappropriateness of his actions or words demonstrates that he may well be an ongoing danger or risk to the community," U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto said.
Shkreli, wearing a lavender button-down shirt and Dockers, was stone-faced as the judge handed down her decision. He was immediately taken into custody and led away from the courtroom by two deputy U.S. Marshals and into a prisoner holding cell adjacent to the sixth-floor courtroom.
He will be held at the Metropolitan Detention Center, according to his lawyer Benjamin Brafman. It’s a federal jail in the Sunset Park section of Brooklyn which has housed terrorists and mobsters.
"We are obviously disappointed,” Brafman said after the hearing. “We believe the court arrived at the wrong decision, but she’s the judge and right now we will have to live with this decision.”
Shkreli, 34, was convicted last month of three of eight charges, including two counts of securities fraud. He was acquitted of fraud charges related to the alleged looting of the drug company he founded, Retrophin Inc. He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison on each of the securities fraud charges, though he’s likely to get a lesser term. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 16.
The conviction and pending sentencing didn’t tame the brash executive known as Pharma Bro. In a now-deleted Facebook posting, in which he offered his followers $5,000 for a strand of Clinton’s hair during her book tour, he caught the attention of prosecutors. They asked Matsumoto to revoke Shkreli’s bail and throw him in jail because he’s not only a convicted felon but his threats pose a danger to the community.
"He’s reckless,” prosecutor Jacquelyn Kasulis told the judge. “He doesn’t get it. He doesn’t respect the rule of law."
Shkreli appears to have violated state and federal laws prohibiting threats against the immediate family members of former presidents, the prosecutors argued. The comments prompted the U.S. Secret Service to start an investigation and boost security for Clinton, they said.