Today, Martin Schkreli, The CEO of Turing was arrested for Securities Fraud. You may know Schkreli as the CEO who raised the price of a life-saving HIV pill from $13.50 to $750. You may also know him as the man who purchased the only copy of the most recent Wu-Tang Clan album for $2 million. Shkreli is without a doubt the most vile human being who has ever existed.
In the world that we live in today, where Donald Trump (Biff Tannen) is running for President of the United States, Robert Durst should’ve won an Emmy, and Vladimir Putin is beloved for riding a bear with his shirt off (I saw that on the internet, it’s true). We needed a new villain. Osama Bin Laden is dead, Sadam Hussein is dead, Whitey Bulger is in jail. The world needed someone to fill that spot. Martin Schkreli is that man.
First off, he just looks like a comic book villain. Squirrely face, evil, dead-looking eyes, greasy hair. I mean, you’d think this was Stan Lee’s greatest creation. From all accounts Schkreli is a money hungry douche bag that only cares about the bottom line. From his Reddit AMA, he freely admits that he handled the PR, “poorly”. As if raising the price of a life-saving drug to a ridiculous margin was some PR controversy that could’ve been dealt with better.
During this same AMA, he was accused of creating multiple accounts in order to change the conversation during the AMA. He created as many as 26 fake accounts, ranging in username from “cottonpicker2” to “shkrelidelic”. Also, another hot topic with so many people is animal testing in the biotech world. Something most people agree is inhumane. What are Shkreli’s thoughts? “Tremendously sad, but necessary.”
You should really go through the AMA because it is riddled with things that only someone who has accepted that he’s a villain would say. In fact, all of his Reddit usage is this way. When given stock advice he responded, “please don’t try and give me advice”, “ u guys r funny”, “you are dumb”, and “you are new to investing.”
Just making a quick look through his timeline again, here are some other out of context quotes, “yes dumbass”, “Don’t quite school.”, ”GTFO”, “I’m on vacation and I work more than any other pharma CEO. Ask around.”, “The hatred is strong in those who know nothing.”, “NO SHIT. IT IS ASSUMED THAT WHEN I SAY A MORE EFFICACIOUS PYRI I MEAN A BRAND NEW DRUG. SORRY FOR ASSUMING AN INTELLIGENT AUDIENCE.”, “I don’t have a hedge fund.”, “No driver’s license. Never owned a car.”, “Kiss my ass.”, “no one calls me, most just hang up. Too afraid.”, “You’re insulting my entire R&D department when you say that. Go fuck yourself.”, “I must admit that some of the hate does provoke laughter, especially if the hate is born of ignorance.”
I mean, reading all of those out of context quotes just reads like a cheap 90’s comic book villain. It’s unbelievable. I can’t wait to see what this guy does next. Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s the scum of the earth, and he’s no anti-hero. But there is a 1,000% chance that this guy is planning on blowing up the sun or something. There’s no way he’s going to do any jail time for this arrest, which is going to infuriate people even more.
Martin Shkreli is without a doubt the #1 villain in the world right now, and I can’t wait to find out what super hero it is that takes him down. I think Iron Man or Superman would be the best choice. Iron Man is a genius scientist, Superman stands up for the common man.
The only thing left is to find a real good villain name for this guy.
-Josh