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Comment by ptr_void | Hacker News Reader

I have been following a lot of his social media activities for a while, it's sad to see this happen. He is known for making jokes/tolling people. Also, part of his expertise is in pricing things and his net worth is supposedly in 100s of millions - if he was serious, the price would have reflected that. My guess is that everyone involved in the legal process knew very well that this was a joke - his bail is being revoked to teach him a lesson for insulting the legal process + infamy from his misunderstood price hike.

Washington post says: "He will be sent to a maximum-security prison until his sentencing hearing in January." That sounds a little too extreme for a joke while on bail for white collar crime. I don't understand, how, this otherwise very smart person couldn't be smart with the legal system - maybe it's the anxiety medication he takes or just miscalculations - who knows.

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> He is known for making jokes/tolling people.

I'd say he's known for being convicted of felony securities fraud by a jury of his peers.

> Also, part of his expertise is in pricing things and his net worth is supposedly in 100s of millions - if he was serious, the price would have reflected that.

His net worth is nowhere near that. He's auctioning off nearly everything he owns because he's broke. Part of the criminal charges were that he lied to his investors by not telling them that he owed Lehman Brothers $2.3M from a previous settlement. He also told them he had $35M in assets when the total was actually $0.

> My guess is that everyone involved in the legal process knew very well that this was a joke - his bail is being revoked to teach him a lesson for insulting the legal process + infamy from his misunderstood price hike.

In common law, the elements of a contract are an offer, acceptance, intent to create legal relations, and consideration --- If someone had pulled Hillary's hair and asked him for $5k, they very likely would have prevailed in court since Shkreli's post contained all the elements of a contract. No matter if he's "Joking".

> That sounds a little too extreme for a joke while on bail for white collar crime.

If you run through the Federal sentencing guidelines, it's very easy to come up with a sentence of 5+ years, why would the judge go easy on someone who's out on bail commissioning crimes against public figures when they're up against several years in prison?

There are some things you just don't joke about. You don't joke about bombs at the airport, you don't yell "fire" in a theater, and you don't joke about assaulting a high-profile politician. I don't care who you are are or what you're "known for", the Secret Service has to take each one of these seriously, and now they're spending my tax money to confirm that this dude is just doing it for the "lulz". That, and Clinton gets to walk around wondering which sycophant is going to take this request seriously. Teaching him a lesson? Damned straight, him and every other wannabe that thinks this is cute.

It doesn't help that the guy's no Schwartz or Snowden. He's not defending our rights, or revealing the erosion of our rights, nor saving puppies. He's known for being a jackass. And we all like a jackass until it hits the fan, and then we all collectively back away slowly.

So, should Kathy Griffin join him in jail then? I don't think she should.

Kathy Griffin isn't a convicted felon.

The arrogance of Shkreli is absolutely astounding considering he is still waiting to be sentenced.

Everyone (including himself) is assuming he'll get a relatively light sentence because that's what a regular person would be expected to get in his position. But a regular person convicted of a felony would have the common sense to show contrition and remorse even if they didn't mean it.

Shkreli can get up to 20 years based on what the judge feels appropriate. And this judge just showed she doesn't view Shkreli as a regular first time felon.

It was reported that he seemed uncharacteristicly quiet and serious when he was ordered to prison today. I wonder if he's starting to realize how badly he has screwed up. If not I'm sure he'll get the idea when he gets sentenced to spend years of his life in prison.

You make some excellent points, so much so that I changed my opinion after reading your comments. That happens very rarely.

You are correct - barring mental illness - everybody knows that there are some things that are foolish and / or irresponsible to joke about about and may not pass without a consequence.

Things will not pass without consequence even when you have mental illness. The sentence might be slightly different, forced therapy in a closed institution instead of regular prison, but that's about it. A crime's a crime.

You're somewhat missing the point. Yes, everyone knows it was a joke. It was a joke that could have gotten someone assaulted. People aren't just following the letter of the law, here. This is a thing that happens for good reason.

A normal person who pulled this sort of prank might not get noticed and have this happen to them, but they shouldn't be surprised- threats to public figures, especially women, especially politicians, are serious business. A normal person is likely to get away with that sort of crap because no one who cares would notice, so they get a bit of leeway that people with thousands of social media followers don't. Such is the way of things.

Someone of Shkreli's wealth would also, ordinarily, not go to jail for it, because the wealthy can hire powerful lawyers and generally work the system. It sounds entirely plausible, from the article, that personal dislike had a prominent role in the judge's decision. But then, I can't feel sad Shrekli's status as a nationally-reknowned sociopath balances out his wealth in this case. Such is also the way of things.

You are right(I would agree with mikestew's comment as well), I haven't thought about it in this terms before originally commenting about it here.

He created large companies from nothing, invented rare disease drug and is a pretty good occasional internet entertainer. It's still sad as general case that a person of his intelligence managed to make such big mistake and now have to stay in a maximum-security prison for it.

So if somebody worth 10x as much as shkreli offered 50k for a crime we should know its a joke? Also, what is funny about this? He is a chemist, so if anything saying that he needed it for his lab would make it note believable. The justice system in this country is very cold, and a lot of people get locked up.

It's nearly 2018, I think we're all pretty tired of the "just joking/trolling" line. "But he's not really racist" is even worse. Just stop.

I don't care how deep you are into which edgy internet community. Just fucking stop.

I think you are reading too much into my comment. Also not sure where the question of racism is coming from.

> I don't care how deep you are into which edgy internet community.

That would be youtube? (https://www.youtube.com/results?q=martin+shkreli&sp=CANQFA%2...), when he had twitter I followed him there.

He occasionally makes fun of/converse with uninformed people who try to yell at him for his infamy on his live-stream. I think they are harmless. He does other lite trolling for people less familiar with his infamy. Other times, just normal conversation in unconventional ways/tones, he seems to be a quick-thinker when talking. I generally find his doings on the internet entertaining.

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