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'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli: Con man or mad genius? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Martin Screlly was named the most needed man in America
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  Speaker 1: after jacking up prices on life saving drugs to make
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  Speaker 1: a problem. That's price gouging, pure and simple. It looks
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  Speaker 1: like a spoiled bread to me. The defense came after
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  Speaker 1: him for security scroll. Screlly was arrested in and charged
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  Speaker 1: by the SEC with committing a series of financial frauds
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  Speaker 1: over a five year period. This is crime Stories with
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. These charges are unrelated to what earned him
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  Speaker 1: national scorn and the nickname farmer bro. Martin Screlly has
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  Speaker 1: never shied away from the spotlight, and he certainly isn't
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  Speaker 1: doing that now. During his trial, prosecutors ridiculed by Martin
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  Speaker 1: Screlly want him to be quiet, accusing him of making
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  Speaker 1: a spectacle of himself and the trial just days after
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  Speaker 1: he blasted them as junior varsity. Message was that they're
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  Speaker 1: not covering his trial fairly. Screlly's attorney blames the media
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  Speaker 1: and what he calls his client's frail emotional state. Imagine
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: that you are someone you love deeply, a family member,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: a child, a mother, father, brother, is stricken with cancer
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  Speaker 1: or HIV, and there is a pill that can help
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  Speaker 1: them live. And that pill cost seventeen cents to make.
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  Speaker 1: It sells for thirteen fifty thirteen dollars a pill per pill,
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  Speaker 1: and then suddenly that pill is jacked up to seven
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  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty dollars a pill, seven hundred and fifty dollars,
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  Speaker 1: not per prescription, but per pill. You know what I'm
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  Speaker 1: talking about. I'm talking about the life saving pill dery
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  Speaker 1: prim that is used to fight HIV cancer. It's actually
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  Speaker 1: an anti parasitic drug for people whose immune systems are
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  Speaker 1: completely depleted. It's a life or death medication. I Nancy Grace,
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  Speaker 1: this is crime stories. And right now the man who
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  Speaker 1: jacked up the price from a seventeen cents cost to
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  Speaker 1: make the pill to seven and fifty dollars a pill
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  Speaker 1: is on trial. Now here's the kicker. He's not on
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  Speaker 1: trial for checking up the price. That has nothing to
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  Speaker 1: do with this trial. He's on trial for wire and
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  Speaker 1: securities fraud. And that sounds so esoteric, so Ivory Tower, like,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: what is that? I'll tell you what it is. In
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  Speaker 1: a nutshell crash, stock market crash, people were their whole lives.
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  Speaker 1: They lose everything, nothing left, They jump out of windows,
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  Speaker 1: they kill themselves else. Over the crash N four Blue
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  Speaker 1: Sky laws enacted securities protections, which means you have to
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  Speaker 1: be honest with investors. You have to tell them what
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  Speaker 1: they're investing in. Like I work like a dog. I
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  Speaker 1: got my little four oh one K. I tried to
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  Speaker 1: read all that, all the stuff, and it's invested in
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  Speaker 1: what are considered secure stocks, you know, like, um, what
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  Speaker 1: do you say, a vanguard or a blue chip fund
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  Speaker 1: or funds. It's invested in a lot of different things.
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  Speaker 1: And I trust the bank. Am I wrong? Are they
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  Speaker 1: lying to me? That's what securities laws do. They make
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  Speaker 1: investors tell you the truth about what's happening with your money.
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  Speaker 1: And this guy Martin, and it's crazy last name Martin Screlly,
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  Speaker 1: s h K R E l I Screlly. It's Albanian.
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  Speaker 1: A genius. There's no doubt about the fact that Martin
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  Speaker 1: Screlly is a genius. I have no doubt about that.
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  Speaker 1: But by his own admissions it seems to be or
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: let me just say this, not by his own his
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  Speaker 1: missions that the federal prosecutors claim that he took people's
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  Speaker 1: money and millions of dollars of money and then he
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  Speaker 1: used their money to pay off other investors because of
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  Speaker 1: some of his bad decision making, bad business decisions, you know,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Alan Duke joining me. Alan, you know both of our
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: fathers weren't like dogs on the railroad, same company for
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the same amount of years. Yes, my mom, I can't
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  Speaker 1: remember her bringing home a stack of work. She goal
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: six seven o'clock, she have a huge stack of papers
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  Speaker 1: and on top of me one of those calculators with
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  Speaker 1: the cord dangling down. I'd run out to meet her
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  Speaker 1: to try to help or bring it all in. And
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: while we would have would eat dinner, and then we
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: would sit, you know, maybe look at her homework, maybe
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  Speaker 1: watch TV. And she'd be in sitting in a chair
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  Speaker 1: behind us, just working on that calculator until ten ten
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  Speaker 1: o'clock at night. And the morning when I'd wake up,
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  Speaker 1: she had breakfast light out and she'd be gone to work, work, work, work,
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  Speaker 1: Alan to think that they would put their life savings
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  Speaker 1: somewhere and some a whole would invested in something they
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  Speaker 1: didn't know about. Uh, Like I'm on invest my four
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  Speaker 1: oh one K where the guy that goes, oh yeah,
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna use all your money, your life savings. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: we you've been working three jobs at a time for
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  Speaker 1: years on it. I'm just going to use that to
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  Speaker 1: pay off my other investors in another company. Okay, you know, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: this is like the Bernie made Off Ponzi scheme, except um,
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  Speaker 1: Bernie made Off probably wasn't as villainized as Martin Screlly.
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  Speaker 1: And yeah, well I mean he is. I mean he was.
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  Speaker 1: It's just that's a whole different level that he took
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  Speaker 1: it to. But the difference with Martin Screlly, it's not
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  Speaker 1: that he's doing, or allegedly did something that a lot
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  Speaker 1: of other people haven't done, whether they're caught or not.
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  Speaker 1: But he was just more audacious about it. And his
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  Speaker 1: audaciousness came to light when he raised the place of
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  Speaker 1: that anti parasitic drug that so many people depended on.
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  Speaker 1: But the h Yes, I think that there is actually
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  Speaker 1: a positive message in this whole thing, because first of all,
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  Speaker 1: they got you on trial, and second of all, the
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  Speaker 1: irony is that justice was done with the pill. He
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  Speaker 1: went up to seven fifty a pill. Now you know
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  Speaker 1: what you can buy that same drug for from another
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  Speaker 1: company one dollar appeal. Okay, listen to this. Two things
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to forget. Number one his his defense attorney.
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  Speaker 1: This is the headline his defense attorney, Broffman, Benjamin Brothman.
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  Speaker 1: I would go out on a lamb and say he
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  Speaker 1: is if not they one of the premier criminal defense
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  Speaker 1: attorneys in the United States. You don't see him chatting
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  Speaker 1: up on cable TV or you know, going out nightclubs
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  Speaker 1: and making a name for himself. Uh, this guy don't play, okay,
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  Speaker 1: So what can What gives it away from me is
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  Speaker 1: that Screlly, Mark Screwlly is not doing what Broughman's telling
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  Speaker 1: him to do, not at all. He goes shut up,
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  Speaker 1: and he goes and gives a press conference or pops
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  Speaker 1: into the overflow room of the of the media. And so,
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  Speaker 1: but what you said is right that he was brought
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  Speaker 1: to our attention when he jacked up hijacked the price
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  Speaker 1: of dry prim on HIV and cancer patients. That got
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  Speaker 1: his attention. He was arrested and brought to congressional hearings
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  Speaker 1: where they asked him about the hype price. He invoked
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  Speaker 1: his right to remain silent, and then took to Twitter
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  Speaker 1: and call them all imbeciles for asking. Now I'm not
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  Speaker 1: arguing that they're not some of them could be construed
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  Speaker 1: as an imbecile. Okay, not finding the fact. But it's
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  Speaker 1: like having your cake and eating it too. You can't
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  Speaker 1: wine I want my Fifth Amendment right to mein silent,
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  Speaker 1: then take to Twitter. So that's how he got our
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: attention as that rice hike. But then because of that,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: the Feds started looking at him, or maybe they were
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: looking at him secretly before then. I think that they were.
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  Speaker 1: But but this made it a high report. Keep in
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  Speaker 1: minding the presidential race. All of the big candidates slammed him,
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  Speaker 1: including Trump, Sanders, and Hillary Clinton all attack this guy.
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  Speaker 1: When you get that kind of attention, watch out. Now
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  Speaker 1: here's his defense. Yes, I'm telling you somebody's defense. He says,
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  Speaker 1: all of my investors were paid back, nobody got hurt.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, most of them made a profit. Yeah, that's
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  Speaker 1: what he's saying. That's his defense. And I think that's
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  Speaker 1: one of the reasons he keeps taking to Twitter and
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  Speaker 1: speaking out so the jury will somehow get the message,
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  Speaker 1: which says to me, he's not taking a stand. If
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  Speaker 1: he's speaking this way, trying to circumvent the trial procedure.
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  Speaker 1: He's trying to say, look, no no harm, no foul,
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  Speaker 1: all my investors got paid back. I'm being villainized, but
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  Speaker 1: it's that. Yes, maybe part of the point, but the
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  Speaker 1: fact is he took people's He took your money. Alan
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  Speaker 1: pretend he took your money and he used it to
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  Speaker 1: pay off the investors in one of his hedge fund disasters,
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  Speaker 1: and they all got paid off. Everybody got paid off,
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  Speaker 1: according to him. I don't know that, but that's what
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  Speaker 1: he's saying. His defense is, Okay, do you want do
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  Speaker 1: you does that have the way you understand it? Yes, yes,
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  Speaker 1: Ponzi scheme. This this guy. You gotta admire certain things
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  Speaker 1: about him and absolutely to test other things. He was
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  Speaker 1: seventeen years old when he got into this business as
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: an intern on Wall Street. Came from humble beginnings and
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  Speaker 1: it was just really smart. But the family came from
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  Speaker 1: I think a Brooklyn neighborhood is Albanian emigrants, Croatian I
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  Speaker 1: think Croatian immigrants. And he worked to work, to work.
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  Speaker 1: He taught himself chemistry, as I recall. Then he got
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  Speaker 1: into in turning with a firm that belonged to a
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  Speaker 1: CNBC star, and that's when he really really took off.
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  Speaker 1: After that, he started his own business and has flourished
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  Speaker 1: ever since. And I mean he may be a genius.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not arguing that, but I know this. I want
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  Speaker 1: to know where my hard earned money is invested because
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  Speaker 1: I don't buy anything for me nothing. I don't have
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  Speaker 1: my nails done, zip, I'm still wearing my dad's athletic socks. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: now the twins, I will break down and spend money,
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  Speaker 1: but I'm not saving all that for their future to
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  Speaker 1: invest with somebody that lies to me. Keep in mind,
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  Speaker 1: these these people are not are not like keep saying,
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  Speaker 1: keep in mind like fore people, Yes, because these are
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  Speaker 1: these these alleged victims are people who essentially were ambling
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  Speaker 1: on Wall Street. They knew the risk, and they invested
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  Speaker 1: in him. He was a known quantity. When you invest
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  Speaker 1: with someone like this, you're rolling the dice. You're reading
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  Speaker 1: all these chat rooms, and you're trying to get some
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  Speaker 1: inside information. These are not people who went in blindly,
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  Speaker 1: like my dad or your dad would have with their
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  Speaker 1: railroad salaries. These were people who were trying to make
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  Speaker 1: a quick buck. I want to talk about the jury
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  Speaker 1: selection really quickly. They they they can't get a jury.
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  Speaker 1: They've gone through a hundred people in one day. One
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  Speaker 1: woman says, I mean, it's funny to me. It's not
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  Speaker 1: funny to him, I'm sure. But luckily for him, she
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  Speaker 1: was thrown off the jury. She goes, when I look
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: at him, I just see his big snake sitting there,
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  Speaker 1: and I just can't get that image out of my head.
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  Speaker 1: I would not want to roll my jury. It's kind
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: of a small every time she looks like she sees
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  Speaker 1: a giant snake, and I can't help but think of
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: the giant snake. And here Ry Potter, what was that
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: thing's name? Nigimi? Yeah, I think of Nagimi. Oh. And
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: the woman was almost on the jury. Every time she
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  Speaker 1: likes this, she thinks of Nagimi. Yeah. Okay, lucky for
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  Speaker 1: him the jury void or process work, and she was
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: taking off the jury. But once you are said, wait,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: it's this guy that chack checking up the price on EpiPens.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, it's like, this is a hot mess trying
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: to strike this jury. It's a big mess. So but
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  Speaker 1: I can't tell you this. If anybody can pull this off,
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  Speaker 1: it's Broffman, you know. And I don't have a dog
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  Speaker 1: on the fight. I don't know Broffman, unless if you
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  Speaker 1: bit me on the neck. I wouldn't know it was
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  Speaker 1: him except from seeing him occasionally. But if anybody can
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  Speaker 1: pull this off, it's gonna be him. I'm telling you
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: that if they can just keeps whatever his name they're
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: calling him for armah Bro. I think they ought to
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: call him pharm a creep. Well I don't. Well, I
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: can't say that. I've never used a moniker, but uh,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: top mom, you've used monikers. See, okay, yeah, I know.
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  Speaker 1: Here's the thing I would have. I would have suggested
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  Speaker 1: at the get go that the defense file a motion
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: in lemony, which is a motion before the evidence even starts,
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  Speaker 1: disallowing any evidence of the whole derrip him incident, the
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: price gouging, because that is unrelated to this trial. But
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: instead they're asking about it in von Dyer. Do you
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: know about this? Are you going to hold that against it?
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: I mean, they've brought it out themselves. Well, the thing
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: is that he is tweeting, Oh, by the way, this
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: morning this is news to his Twitter account was suspended today.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: He's been suspended before, and he creates a new Twitter
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: account name under a different moniker, and he just had
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: his latest where he was criticizing government. The prosecution. It
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: was suspended as when he called him a university Yeah
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: and worse. But so but the jury maybe they look
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: at the Wall Street Journal or there are other papers,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: or they see it on Twitter. I doubt they'll see
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: it there. But he's making all these public pronouncements, and
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: so they're going to find out about him outside of
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: the courtroom if the court isn't very careful, and that's
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: what the court is trying to do, they're trying to
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  Speaker 1: gag him. Now, Okay, we'll see where it goes. All
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  Speaker 1: I know is he claims everybody was paid off. But
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  Speaker 1: the fact remains if he used investors money like my dad,
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  Speaker 1: my mom, your parents, if he used their money to
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: pay off another hedge fund losses, that is a violation
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: of securities laws. He's got eight charges, he's looking at
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: twenty years behind bars. We'll see where it goes. You
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: know what everybody goes, Oh, securities loss. That has nothing
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  Speaker 1: to do with me. Oh yes it does. If you
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: have anything in savings or any kind of investment like
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  Speaker 1: a four oh one k and ira, it does affect you.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: It does affect you. Okay. When I drive up at
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: the exit to the interstate and I'm digging through my
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: console to give to the homeless person standing there. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I don't want that to be you. Alan, Okay, all right, okay,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: maybe all right. Nancy Grace Crime Stories, signing off,