The trial of “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli gets weirder and weirder.
Tim Pierotti, who once ran a consumer hedge fund for Shkreli, testified Tuesday that the man who gained notoriety by raising the price of a life-saving drug more than 5,000% sent a threatening letter to his home, addressed to his wife, reading, “I hope to see you and your four children homeless. I will do whatever I can to assure this.”
The letter was entered into evidence at Shkreli’s trial in Federal District Court in Brooklyn.
In the letter, Shkreli accused Pierotti of stealing $1.6 million from him and added, “making an enemy out of me is a mistake.” The theft accusation allegedly revolved around the sale of shares of Retrophin, a biopharmaceutical company Shkreli ran.
The two men met in 2011, when Pierotti joined MSMB, Shkreli’s hedge fund. Pierotti testified that he put all of the money from that fund into one stock—Rick’s Cabaret, a chain of strip clubs, with Shkreli’s approval.
It’s the latest in a long series of odd moves for Shkreli, who also paid $2 million for the sole copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album (something he might have to forfeit should the trial not go his way).
If nothing else, it sounds like the Off-Broadway musical based on his life might have to be expanded.