'Pharma bro' Martin Shkreli excited for trial as jury selection begins

Several potential jurors told a New York judge they can't be fair toward a former pharmaceutical company CEO who became a pariahafter jacking up the cost of a life-saving medication.

One woman said Monday that she knew Martin Shkrelias "the most hated man in America" for his price gouging. The judge dismissed her andseveral others after theymade negative comments aboutShkreliasjury selection got underwayfor his securities fraud trial.

Shkreli the pharmaceutical entrepreneur called a"pharma bro" for raising the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 per cent is accused ofrunninga Ponzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund and a drug company he founded.

Prosecutors say he liedto investors in the hedge fund and siphoned millions of dollars in assets from biopharmaceuticalcompany Retrophin, Inc.to repay them. He has pleaded not guilty.

The trial, which will be heard by U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, is expected to last four to six weeks.

"I'm excited," Shkreli said of the trial in a brief phone calllast week to The Associated Press. "I can't wait."

Opening statements could occur as early as Tuesday.

Shkreli, a boyish-looking 34, outraged patients and U.S. lawmakers by raising the price ofanti-parisiticdrugDaraprimto $750 US a pill, from $13.50, in 2015, when he was chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals.

When members of the U.S. Congress demanded to know why, he went on Twitter and called them "imbeciles."

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The charges that led to his arrest in December 2015 are not related to Turing, but focus on Shkreli's management at Retrophin and the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management between 2009 and 2012.

Prosecutors said Shkreli lied about MSMB's finances to lure investors, andthat afterhelost millions of dollars through bad trades,he looted a second pharmaceutical company Retrophin, which he founded in 2011for$11 million to pay them back.

The defence has argued that he hadgood intentions.

"Everybody got paid back in this case," Shkreli's lawyer Benjamin Brafmansaid."Whatever else he did wrong, he ultimately made them whole."

High profile complicates defence

He has also continued to court the public eye, especially through social media, sometimes complicating his defence.

Since his arrest,Shkrelihas flaunted purchases including a Second World War-era Enigma code-breaking machine, a Picasso painting and unreleased albums byWu-TangClan and Lil Wayne.

In April, he offered $40,000 US to a Princeton University student who solved a mathematical proof. In May, he pledged onFacebookto pay $100,000 US for tips leading to the arrest of the person who killed former Democratic National Committee employee Seth Rich.

At a hearing last Monday, prosecutors cited public boasts about his wealth in refusing to reduceShkreli'sbail from $5 million to $2million US, as he had requested, citing the need to pay taxes and legal bills.

Shkreliwasbanned from Twitter in Januaryfor harassing a female journalist who wrote anop-edpiece for Teen Vogue criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump, whomShkrelihas supported.

• Martin Shkreli suspended from Twitter for harassing female journalist

Shkreli's attention-seeking has at times exasperated Brafman, who urged Matsumoto last week not to give much weight to his client's "preposterous statements."

'Hope to see you homeless'

The defence has floated the possibility thatShkreli will testify about how he grew up in aworking-class Albanian family in Brooklyn, taught himself chemistry,interned at a financial firm founded by CNBC's Jim Cramer and struckout on his own to become a rising star in biotechnology startups.

Hewanted to develop new life-saving drugs after seeing "severalclassmates and other children he knew struck down by debilitatingdisease," court papers say.

Prosecutors call it a ploy to portrayShkrelias "aHoratioAlger-likefigure who, through hard work andintelligence, is in a position to do great things if only the jurywould ignore the evidence and base its verdict on sympathy." The real Shkreli was a con man often undone by his own mouth, they say.

The government has cited claims by one ofShkreli'sformeremployees thatShkreliharassed his family in a dispute over sharesof stock.

"I hope to see you and your four children homeless and will dowhatever I can to assure this,"Shkreliwrote the employee'swife,according to court filings.