'Pharma bro' Martin Shkreli offers prison survival tips to ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried
STANFORD, CALIFORNIA: Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, has received advice on how to survive prison from Martin Shkreli, also known as "Pharma Bro" and an ex-convict. Shkreli calls Bankman-Fried "effeminate" in an interview with cryptocurrency journalist Laura Shin for her podcast, Unchained, and expresses concern for the troubled investor.
The 'Pharma Bro', who received significant criticism for sharply raising the pricing of the pharmaceuticals sold by his company, was found guilty of securities fraud in 2017 and given a seven-year prison sentence. The 39-year-old claimed in a May release that although the advise "sounds funny," it might be the difference between life and death, Daily Mail reported.
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"Sam isn't exactly gonna be somebody that fit into prison you know my advice for him includes shaving his head, my advice for him includes deepening his voice,' Shkreli staed. He added, "Sam is going to have a lot of issues because he is a bit of an effeminate guy and his demeanour some people say autistic sort of sense or sensibility is not something that goes over well in prison."
The 30-year-old former wealthy founder of the defunct cryptocurrency company FTX, Bankman-Fried, was detained in The Bahamas earlier this month and deported to the US. A cryptocurrency company named Alameda Research, which is also established by Bankman-Fried, is said to have received billions of dollars in lost customer funds from FTX and is now in bankruptcy proceedings. Bankman-Fried is accused of eight offenses, including money laundering, securities fraud, wire fraud, and wire fraud conspiracy.
"He also doesn't know anything about the streets and sort of criminal culture, which my advice to him, is to pick those things up as quickly as he can," Shkreli continued. "He should be listening to as much rap music as possible he should be trying to learn everything there is to know about gangs about the tough neighborhoods in every single city. This sounds funny, but this could save your life," he added. In the complete episode, Shkreli also suggested that Bankman-Fried try to "reinvent" or "rebrand" himself.
"He probably should no longer say that he's from Stamford or something he can say that he's from Oakland I think that people would rather hear him lie than hear the truth," he stated. "Even if they know it's a bit of a lie, he should probably start to reinvent his background and history because the rich white kid from a good neighborhood that story doesn't sound great," Shkreli added. He further added, "You need people to be on your team it's hard to be authentic but also be in this space where you're making a lot of friends and friends can go a long way in prison."