Martin Shkreli jailed over online threat

The former pharmaceutical company chief executive Martin Shkreli has been sent to jail after a judge ruled that a Facebook post asking his supporters to bring him samples of Hillary Clinton’s hair was cause to revoke his bail.

Shkreli “is best known for hiking up the price of a life-saving drug and for trolling his critics on social media”, says ABC, and “was found guilty last month on charges, unrelated to the price-fixing scandal, that he cheated investors in two failed hedge funds he ran”.

He is due to be sentenced on 16 January, and is facing up to 20 years in prison.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

“The Clinton Foundation is willing to KILL to protect its secrets,” he said in his now-deleted Facebook post. “So on HRC’s book tour, try to a grab a hair from her. I must confirm the sequences I have. Will pay $5,000 per hair obtained from Hillary Clinton.”

Yesterday “Shkreli wrote to the court apologising for his behaviour, saying: ‘I am not a violent person’”, The Guardian reports.

His apology continued: “It never occurred to me that my awkward attempt at humour or satire would cause Mrs Clinton or the Secret Service any distress.”

However, US District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto said the post was “solicitation of an assault”, and warranted Shkreli’s jailing while he awaits his sentence.

Federal prosecutor Jacquelyn Kasulis argued that Shkreli’s “escalating pattern of violence against women is incredibly disturbing” and called him a “danger to the community”, CNBC reports.