Episode 900: Martin Shkreli On Being Labeled “A Monopolist” Like John D. Rockefeller By The Government

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
How much of your money did you have to give the government after this whole debacle?

**Martin Shkreli** (0:03)
It's really interesting, so-

**SPEAKER_1** (0:05)
Was it a huge portion or not really that big of a dent?

**Martin Shkreli** (0:08)
It's both.
So it's a really funny scenario. So I paid eight million in cash just automatic, so that I had to pay in full. So I did that, and that was not a huge debt. Then, so that was the criminal case. Then I got, it's a really funny story, actually. I got sued. It's not that funny.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:32)
It's funny when you look back at it 20 years from now, you'll be like, hopefully.

**Martin Shkreli** (0:36)
So I got sued by the government. I'm actually the first person in the history of America, it's really surprising to be sued as a monopolist. And that sounds surprising because there's Bill Gates, Rockefeller.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:48)
Rockefeller was like, wasn't he? Yeah, he was like 1% of the entire GDP.

**Martin Shkreli** (0:54)
Yeah. So they made the Sherman Act, which you learn about in high school, to stop basically just to stop Rockefeller.
And people like in Vanderbilt, Carnegie, et cetera, the old robber barons of the old days. But it applies to Microsoft and all the other monopolists, AT&T, IBM, but especially recently Zuckerberg, who owns WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, right? And like you buy Snapchat if you could.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:18)
And the Oculus, right?

**SPEAKER_1** (1:19)
They've had like antitrust issues, but they never got sued.

**Martin Shkreli** (1:22)
Well, no, they got sued. So the FTC sued them.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:26)
But you're the first one.

**Martin Shkreli** (1:28)
So when the FTC sues you for monopoly, for monopolism, is that the word? For engaging in monopoly.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:35)
Monopolistic practices.

**Martin Shkreli** (1:37)
Exactly.
They sued the company. Because a person isn't a monopolist. The company is a monopolist.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:45)
You were the first person, I got you.

**Martin Shkreli** (1:47)
I'm the first human being to ever be sued as a monopolist. And it doesn't make a lot of sense because like-

**SPEAKER_1** (1:51)
But you were monopolizing internet attention?

**Martin Shkreli** (1:54)
Yeah, exactly.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:54)
Yeah.

**Martin Shkreli** (1:55)
I'm monopolizing something.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:57)
News stories.

**Martin Shkreli** (1:58)
Yeah.
But it's just so funny because that is like blatantly against what the law says.
Because a person, to be a monopolist, you have to be in the business of trade. Like when you buy windows, you don't buy it from Bill Gates.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:15)
So what was their argument of how you were a single person monopolist?

**Martin Shkreli** (2:21)
It was the FTC's crazy opinion, and I would normally disparage the...

**SPEAKER_1** (2:31)
You're not going to get in the business of talking shit about the FTC and your currency. No, no.

**Martin Shkreli** (2:34)
The FTC can suck my dick. It's the esteemed jurist, your honor, who I will not say anything bad about.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:43)
Okay. You don't want to have Hillary Clinton's hair scenario.

**Martin Shkreli** (2:48)
Yeah. But one of my friends who were my nameless said that he basically looked at her profile, looked at recent cases. He said, Martin, your judge is Judge Karen. You're going to lose.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:01)
You're done.

**Martin Shkreli** (3:02)
Yeah, you're done. She's like...

**SPEAKER_1** (3:05)
So this hasn't happened yet?

**Martin Shkreli** (3:06)
No, no. I lost the case.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:08)
So that one, you lost a good amount of money.

**Martin Shkreli** (3:11)
Oh, basically, in essence, it's virtually everything. So the funny thing, though, is it's such a wild case. It's almost certain to be appealed and reversed, according to my attorneys.
If you read the case, I won't get into it, but I can't be a monopolist. I don't buy and sell you medicine. You're not going to see me at Dwayne Reid being like, hey, does anybody want to buy these pills? It doesn't work that way. And that's why I'm the first guy ever, because it's never been done before because it can't be done. They would have done it before on Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg, if they could. So sometimes these government entities take a chance. They try to throw out a case and see if it sticks.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:53)
And if it does, then we'll do 20 more.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:55)
Well, you'd be the precedent and then it would be a case, right?

**Martin Shkreli** (3:58)
So like they're begging and pleading that this case is going to stick. And they pick like the worst guy for it to kind of like expand the law for. And we're going to beat it. And it's going to be hopefully quite trivial. Even if I don't beat it, usually you don't have to pay anything as an individual executive regardless. But yeah, they tagged me for sixty five million bucks, which is quite a lot. And yes, that is quite a lot.