Judge to accused: Stop talking to media
NEW YORK — A U.S. district judge on Wednesday chastised Martin Shkreli, the boisterous former hedge-fund manager and pharmaceutical-industry executive, for speaking to the media during the early days of his trial for securities fraud.
“All your client has to do is stop talking in the courthouse and around the perimeter of the courthouse,” a visibly frustrated U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto said.
Shkreli has struggled to abide by his defence attorneys’ advice to keep quiet since being charged in late 2015 with misleading investors in two of his hedge funds and the biopharmaceutical company Retrophin, all of which he founded. He has taken to YouTube to live-stream his thoughts and was kicked off Twitter earlier this year for harassing a journalist.
But for prosecutors and Matsumoto, the breaking point appears to have been a surprise visit Shkreli, 34, made last week to an overflow room in the courthouse filled with reporters.
During the visit, Shkreli criticized the prosecution team from the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, mocking them as the “junior varsity” to the federal prosecutors in Manhattan. “I think the world blames me for almost everything,” he said before being called out of the room by his attorney.
Shkreli’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, said he was alerted by a U.S. Marshall that Shkreli was in the room and “ran” across the courthouse to pull him out.
“I was shocked by these comments and statements . ... Any juror could have heard them,” said Matsumoto.
Matsumoto ordered Shkreli to no longer speak to reporters about the case either in the courtroom or on the street outside. “This isn’t going to help Mr. Shkreli in the end. He is risking exposure in the media” that could harm him, Matsumoto said.