Martin Shkreli is going on trial to face charges that he bilked investors.
But it’s taking a while to find a jury.
Shkreli, the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, made headlines when he unapologetically hiked the price of a life-saving drug in 2015. His decision to increase the cost of Daraprim, which is used by AIDS patients, from $13.50 to $750 per pill was met with widespread outrage.
The criminal case against him in Brooklyn federal court is unrelated to that controversy.
Shkreli, 34, faces charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and conspiracy for allegedly cheating investors out of more than $11 million between 2009 and 2014 in what federal prosecutors called a Ponzi scheme.
But Shkreli’s broader antics appear to have complicated jury selection. After two days, the pool of prospective jurors was down to 47, from about 240 when jury selection began on Monday.
Some prospective jurors were dismissed because of “strong views on Martin Shkreli,” Judge Kiyo Matsumoto said. Shkreli’s lawyer Ben Brafman said many more were excused because they had conflicting plans, health problems or family issues.
In court, Brafman railed against coverage from the New York Post in particular, which he said had portrayed his client as a “reviled price gouger.” The Post put a picture of Shkreli on the cover Tuesday and said of the jurors who were excused: “They all hate him.”
Shkreli, of course, has done plenty to raise his own profile.
He’s repeatedly boasted about his wealth on live streams from his Manhattan apartment, and received significant attention when he reportedly bought an unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album for $2 million before his arrest.
Shkreli faces up to 20 years in prison if he’s convicted in the fraud case.
He’s accused of mismanaging money at his investment funds Elea Capital, MSMB Capital, MSMB Healthcare, as well as while he was CEO of Retrophin, a pharmaceutical company he founded in 2011.
Prosecutors say Shkreli lied to investors at MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare about the performance and assets of the investment funds, and that he used money from Retrophin to pay off MSMB investors, as well as his personal loans and other debts.
–CNNMoney’s Julia Horowitz contributed to this report.
