Martin Shkreli, the pharmaceutical company CEO who became "the most hated man in America" after hiking the price of an essential HIV drug by 5400%, claimed he fractured his wrist after punching a wall in a Bernie Sanders-induced rage.
Shkreli, CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, attracted the ire of the internet after his company acquired the rights to drug Daraprim and dramatically hiked its price. He has since been dubbed "morally bankrupt sociopath", a "scumbag" a "garbage monster" and "everything that is wrong with capitalism."
On Monday (Sunday night U.S. time), Shkreli got mad at Bernie Sanders -- candidate for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. presidency -- and punched a wall, he claimed on Twitter.
A bit of background. In late September, Shkreli donated US$2700 to Sanders' presidential campaign. However, last Thursday Sanders publicly distanced himself from the pharma CEO and instead donated Shkreli's money to charity Whitman-Walker Health, a Washington D.C. clinic which treats HIV patients and the LGBT community.
“We are not keeping the money from this poster boy for drug company greed,” said Sanders' spokesman Michael Briggs.
At the time, Shkreli was not happy.
He has since posted numerous images mocking Sanders' policies and strategy.
It's not clear what particular event inspired Shkreli to punch a wall, or what Sanders actually did to make Shkreli "SO ANGRY" that he "COULD PUNCH A WALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" but he elaborated in a few replies to followers.
However, some followers instantly cast doubt on his story, citing the similarities between the x-ray image posted and this x-ray found on a medical website.
Left: the image Shkreli posted to Twitter. Right: an image taken from Medscape.com
Not long after, Shkreli posted another photo of himself playing guitar, with seemingly no injury to either of his wrists... which begs the question, did he really fracture his wrist? And if not, why make up such an elaborate story, including doctoring a seemingly borrowed x-ray image?