Martin Shkreli, the 32-year-old former pharmaceuticals CEO currently facing federal securities fraud charges, had his personal Twitter account hacked over the weekend, a spokesman said.
Mr. Shkreli lost control of his verified Twitter account Sunday, hours after he returned to the social network to tell his nearly 40,000 followers that he planned to beat the seven-count indictment filed against him days earlier, Shkreli spokesman Craig Stevens told Reuters.
Mr. Shkreli resigned Friday from Turing Pharmaceuticals, one day after he was arrested on the fraud charges. He is currently free on $5 million bond.
He told The Wall Street Journal on Sunday he was unfairly targeted by federal prosecutors because of his hiking up the price of the AIDS drug Daraprim from $13.50 per tablet to $750 earlier this year and the subsequent public outrage.
Mr. Shkreli tweeted Saturday afternoon, “I am confident I will prevail. The allegations against me are baseless and without merit.” But 24 hours later, the account posted another tweet, declaring “[expletive] da fbi u know they can’t touch a god like meh.”
Pranksters appear to have posted a half-dozen tweets from the compromised account within a five-minute span, using the opportunity to claim Mr. Shkreli has AIDS and would be donating to charity.
“Anyone want free money? Willing to donate hundreds of thousands to charities before I go to prison,” one post claimed. “I am now a god,” read another tweet.
Mr. Stevens told Reuters the account had been hacked and that Mr. Shkreli is working with Twitter to rectify the situation.
Late Monday morning, the account published a new message, attributed to Mr. Shkreli, claiming he had regained access to his Twitter profile.
Twitter told reporters Monday that the company does not comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons.
The Reddit and YouTube accounts of the former pharmaceutical executive were also apparently compromised over the weekend, with vulgar and disparaging comments added to both account profiles.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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