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Martin Shkreli's Odd Live Stream With Teenager Raises Brows

Martin Shkreli's Odd Live Stream With Teenager Raises Brows

Martin Shkreli

The fraud suspect and teenagers talk rappers, renaming high school, and beating up kids. 

Infamous Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli was arrested this morning on fraud charges and the bizarre stories keep coming. 

Aside from claiming that he bought the one and only copy of Wu-Tang Clan's The Wu—Once Upon a Time in Shaolin at auction for $2 million, Shkreli's been busy livestreaming on YouTube. 

The CEO—who rose to notoriety in September when he raised the price of Daraprim, a drug that treats taxoplasmosis—by 5,000 percent, spent some time with teens from his former high school in the days leading up to his arrest. 

Shkreli has maintained a strong presence on the internet with a Twitter account known for its hostility towards any critics, including presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, and an active Reddit user profile, even doing an Ask Me Anything session on the forum.

The livestream, which is still available on Shkreli's YouTube account, is mostly uneventful fotage of Shkreli sitting in front of his computer, pulling his hair, playing Dota or strumming his guitar. However, on December 14, Shkreli got into an interesting conversation with a 17-year-old girl from his hometown who claimed she went to his alma mater, Hunter College High School. 

It's not clear what messages the girl wrote to the 32-year-old Shkreli that got the ball rolling but some of his responses seemed odd and inappropriate, with Gawker calling them "flirtatious." 

"Yeah, not allowed to call you cute," he said with a laugh. "[I'll] get in trouble. Sorry!"

(Sidenote: During the conversation Shkreli attempts to buy a product online but the transation was declined by his financial institution. A sign of things to come?)

The livestream rambled on for hours during which Shkreli belittled callers, threatened to beat up high schoolers and tried to deflect accusations that he was walking a fine line by chatting with an underage girl. 

Part of the conversation are below, as transcribed by The New York Times:

Student: “All my friends think you’re really cool and we want to be your best friends.”

Mr. Shkreli: “Great. I think the media would have problems with me being friends with a bunch of high school kids.”

Student: “That might be a little bit of an issue but, like, we can ignore that.”

Mr. Shkreli: “Yeah, whatever. I’m trying to dominate the rap industry.”

Student: “That’s cool. Um, how’s that going? I heard that you spent $2 million on a Wu-Tang Clan album.”

Mr. Shkreli: “It’s only the beginning.”

Soon after that, she asked him to attend a school dance with her.

Mr. Shkreli: “My Internet friends don’t think this is a good idea. I am blushing though.”

Later in the conversation, she asks more about his friends.

Mr. Shkreli: ”My friends? I don’t have any friends. Some of them, like, one of my good friends is in Rikers right now. He’s in for attempted murder and drug trafficking.”

Student: “Wow, that’s very exciting.”

Mr. Shkreli: “You might’ve heard of him. His name is Bobby Shmurda.”

Student: “I actually haven’t, but [trails off].”

The conversation took a quick detour to reflect on the racial makeup of Hunter College High School, but quickly swung back to Bobby Shmurda, the stage name of the rapper Ackquille Pollard.

Mr. Shkreli: “I’m trying to bust him out.”

Student: “Are you planning a heist?”

Mr. Shkreli: “No, I’m just going to bail him out. You’re the first person I’ve told this to.”

If you're curious and have a few hours to kill (and don't mind feeling like a sleezebag), head on over to his livestream here

30 Years of Out100Out / Advocate Magazine - Jonathan Groff and Wayne Brady

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Katie Peoples

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