‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli wrote a letter to a friend detailing his experience at a Brooklyn prison.
He’s reading, playing chess, shooting hoops and helping out other inmates with remedial education.
‘Things are not that awful here,’ Shkreli wrote in the letter to Lisa Whisnant that was shared with the New York Daily News. ‘There are some bright sides. I am teaching these prisoners some new things and hopefully some ways to change their lives.’
The securities fraud convict is in the Brooklyn prison awaiting his sentencing in January. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli wrote a letter to a friend detailing his experience at a Brooklyn prison as he awaits awaiting his sentencing in January for securities fraud
‘Things are not that awful here,’ Shkreli wrote in the letter to Lisa Whisnant, pictured above with him in 2015. He’s reading, playing chess, shooting hoops and helping out other inmates with remedial education
Whisnant first heard of Shkreli when he made headlines for increasing the price of the life-saving anti-infection drug Daraprim by 5,000% overnight in 2015.
‘I thought there must be more than this,’ she said to the Daily News. She wrote him a letter to get his side of the story.
To her surprise, he replied, saying that insurance companies would shoulder the extra cost and that he offered the drug cheap to Medicaid recipients.
The two have been in touch ever since.
Whisnant said she turned over the letter because she wanted the world to know Shkreli was OK.
‘I’ve heard a lot of sorrowful, plaintive stories here,’ he wrote in the letter. ‘One guy was just in my room, crying. Supposed mobster.’
The inmate writes that one of the downsides is the uncomfortable bed and snoring bunkmate.
He thanked her for sending books on his wish list: A smattering of literature, ancient Roman philosophy and tomes on coding. ‘They are useful for me but also my fellow inmates,’ wrote Shkreli.
He asked for extra copies of ’48 Laws of Power’ and ‘Who Moved My Cheese?’ Both self-help books are ‘big here,’ he wrote.
Whisnant first heard of Shkreli when he made headlines for increasing the price of the life-saving anti-infection drug Daraprim by 5,000% overnight in 2015
Shkreli is awaiting sentencing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, pictured
After he was convicted on two counts of securities fraud in August, Shkreli posted $5million bond pending sentencing.
A judge revoked his bond after a Facebook post offering $5,000 for a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair. The post reads: ‘The Clinton Foundation is willing to KILL to protect its secrets. So on HRC’s book tour, try to grab a hair from her… Will pay $5,000 per hair obtained.’
Prosecutors also cited several other Twitter and social media postings by Shkreli that they said were harassing to women.
Shkreli caught the Secret Service’s attention after he wrote a Facebook post that read: ‘The Clinton Foundation is willing to KILL to protect its secrets. So on HRC’s book tour, try to grab a hair from her… Will pay $5,000 per hair obtained’
Prosecutors also cited several other Twitter and social media postings by Shkreli that they said were harassing to women. On August 31 he posted a picture of him holding a computer chip with the caption that reads: ‘How about this chip? 10 million deleted HRC emails? Oh well’
On August 31 he posted a picture of him holding a computer chip with the caption that reads: ‘How about this chip? 10 million deleted HRC emails? Oh well.’
Shkreli apologized about his social media postings in a letter, saying that he ‘used poor judgment’ and ‘never intended to cause alarm or promote any act of violence.’
‘I wanted to personally apologize to this Court and my lawyers for the aggravation that my recent postings have caused,’ Shkreli wrote.
‘I understand now, that some may have read my comments about Mrs. Clinton as threatening, when that was never my intention when making those comments.’
Shkreli was convicted in August of defrauding investors of two hedge funds he ran, MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare.
He was acquitted of stealing from a drug company he later founded, Retrophin Inc, to pay them back.
Though he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years, Shkreli will likely serve much less, in part because none of his hedge fund investors lost money.
Shkreli’s lawyer, Ben Brafman, told the Daily News he was very proud of his client’s behavior behind bars.
‘He is doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances,’ Brafman said. ‘He is even helping other inmates, teaching math and other remedial subjects.’