Having captured the internet’s affection with heartwarming stunts like imposing a massive price hike for drugs needed by AIDS patients and spending his hard-gouged money on the world’s most frivolous trip to the record store, Asshole Of The Year awardee Martin Shkreli has now earned the interested attention of the fine folks at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Shkreli was reportedly arrested earlier today by the FBI, who are accusing him of committing fraud during his tenure as a CEO of a hedge fund, his job prior to his current position as “weasel-faced supervillain.”
Well on his way to filling out his “Stuff everybody loves” bingo card by adding “dicking around with a financial system still reeling from the recent banking crisis” to his list of other adorable traits, Shkreli is being accused of misrepresenting his company’s operating capital in trades from 2009 to 2014. Also accused of taking funds from his various companies for personal expenses and other acts of fraud, the would-be music producer is already out on bail, although he’s currently confined to New York, and thus unable to spend his Christmas roaming the country, burning down orphanages. (A strong cautionary tale that suggests why most criminals don’t go around generating news stories about how much money they’ve suddenly got.)
As for the status of Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, the unique Wu-Tang Clan album that Shkreli reportedly spent $2 million on earlier this year, the FBI hasn’t said yet what they plan to do about it. Speaking to reporters asking about the high-profile purchase, United States Attorney Roy Capers simply said, “I wondered how long it was going to take to get to that. We’re not aware of where he got the funds that he raised to buy the Wu-Tang Clan album.” (Still, fingers crossed for a big listening party some time next year at the FBI’s house.)