,000% price increase then decrease for HIV medication
02-07-2016, 12:35 PM
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I have infinitely more sympathy with pharma bro Shkreli and his weird nervous smirks and snickers than with the obviously ruthless and preening pols trying to interrogate him.
Don't be fooled. I can see why guys on this forum would identify with his smug, confident, I-Don't-Give-a-Fuck attitude, but Martin Shkreli is a complete scumbag.
When news about this story first broke, I was intrigued at how young he is (32 is pretty young to be running a sizable hedge fund and to own pharmacy companies) and I was wondering how he got to where he is. All I had to do was look at his wikipedia to find out: when he was 17 he landed an internship at the Wall Street hedge fund Cramer, Berkowitz and Company. One of the owners/managers of this hedge fund is none other than Jim Cramer.
I would bet that pretty much everyone has at least heard of Cramer (he has a show
Mad Money on CNBC) and personally I think it's incredible that he's not in prison right now. A few years ago a video was leaked of Jim in the '90's admitting openly that he and his cohorts deliberately try to manipulate stock prices to profit their funds. Any deliberate manipulation of security prices is illegal according to the SEC, yet Jim Cramer has been doing that very thing since the '80's and gotten away with it.
Here's the video:
I first found out about Cramer's ethically dubious activity when a company I've been watching and investing in, Northwest Biotherapeutics (a small cap biotech) had been getting viciously slandered and attacked by short sellers over the last 2 years. All of the bloggers and journalists who have attacked NWBO have been directly or indirectly affiliated with TheStreet.com, a website owned and run by Jim Cramer. If you want to read more about what's been happening to NW, here is an excellent article by Larry Smith detailing the situation:
http://smithonstocks.com/northwest-analy...nwbo-4-69/
For an even more serious showcase of the damaging and unethical behavior of Cramer's network of journalists and fund managers, check out the story of Dendreon, another small cap biotech company that was destroyed by short seller attacks. It is a very interesting read, and involves famous business icons such as Carl Icahn, Bernie Madoff, and even has people getting whacked by the Russian mafia. I felt like I'd lost some of my innocence after reading it for the first time.
Read more here:
http://www.deepcapture.com/wp-content/up...ndreon.pdf
How does this all tie to Martin Shkreli? After getting hired by Cramer, Berkowitz and Company Skreli specialized in biotechs, where he overwhelmingly reccomended short positions.
Shkreli must have done a good job networking, because through his connections to Jim Cramer's network in Wall Street he was able to get enough backing to start his own fund, MSMB Capital Management, where he made his money by
shorting biotech stocks and attacking said stocks through social media.
Martin Shkreli learned well how to abuse the media and the internet to manipulate stock prices, which is extremely illegal, and he represents the very worst of what can happen on Wall Street. He deserves whatever the Feds end up doing to him and I feel no sympathy for him.
On the other hand, I was talking with my father and he suggested that Martin might cut a deal with the SEC to rat out all the corruption and bullshit that Jim Cramer and his friends are up to, which he has had a front row seat to his entire career. I won't be even a little bit surprised if Shkreli disappears or suddenly commits suicicde. It wouldn't be the first time the mafia has silenced people on Wall Street.