Ex-mentor testifies, airs Shkreli’s bad, gross, romantically confusing conduct

Enlarge / Martin Shkreli leaves a federal court in New York. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg)

In 2009, at an apartment cocktail party in New York's East Village, Steven Richardson met one Martin Shkreli; soon after, Richardson invested $400,000 in Shkreli's buzzing MSMB hedge funds. Though federal prosecutors allege that Shkreli went on to defraud investors of those funds, including Richardson, the two became close. Richardson, now 63 and a seasoned former American Express executive, described himself as Shkreli's "personal mentor."

In his testimony in a federal court in Brooklyn Wednesday, things certainly got personal-from troublesome Twitter use to sexually charged e-mails and Shkreli's oral hygiene.

Shkreli, now 34 and notorious for a drug price hike, stands on trial for eight counts of securities and wire fraud. Federal prosecutors allege that Shkreli hid millions in losses at MSMB from bum trades, which he covered up by plundering the pharmaceutical company he founded in 2011, Retrophin. Richardson would become chairman of the board of directors at the pharmaceutical company.

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