City profiles

Peter Thiel

The billionaire tech investor behind Paypal and Facebook likes to take the road less travelled, says The New York Times. But he is under attack for “his most contrarian move yet”: supporting Donald Trump. Two weeks ago, Thiel revealed that he has donated $1.25m to Trump’s coffers. “As these things go, it was a small gift”: Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz has given some $20m to the Clinton campaign. “But the news has made Thiel a pariah in much of the tech community”, and there have been calls for his resignation from Facebook’s board. Thiel has struck back, railing against the Washington and Silicon Valley “elites” whom he claims ignore the economic difficulties afflicting many Americans. “What Donald Trump represents isn’t crazy,” he says, “and it’s not going away.”

Martin Shkreli

The enfant terrible of the US pharma industry is viewed by many as “the embodiment of corporate greed”, says the FT – thanks to his decision to inflate the price of the Aids and cancer medicine Daraprim by some 5,000% last year. Shkreli, 33, says he has “no regrets”. Indeed, he seems “to revel” in his notoriety. “To me,” he says, “the drug was woefully underpriced.” Once seen as one of the industry’s most promising entrepreneurs – he claims to have been worth $200m – Shkreli is due to stand trial in June on charges of defrauding investors to the tune of $11m. But he is confident that he will prevail. “I have this fringe theory that the more polarising and popular a case is, the more likely an acquittal,” he says. Time will tell.