Martin Shkreli shot to notoriety last year when his company acquired the rights to an AIDS drug and raised the price by more than 5,000%.
He’s since been arrested on fraud charges and stood down from his company, but that hasn’t stopped some pretty desperate relevance-seeking-behaviour on Twitter.
His latest tactic has been to bolster the long running fringe internet theory that Hillary Clinton has brain damage and/or a degenerative illness.
The theory has been around for a while, and was bolstered after the then-Secretary of State missed a scheduled committee hearing after fainting and sustaining a concussion in 2012.
In a video, Mr Shkreli says she has ‘classic symptoms’ of Parkinson’s disease.
“I’m not a neurologist, I’m not a physician - but I am an expert in healthcare,” the former pharmaceutical executive says.
“I don’t really care who wins the election, but I have a 15 year background in drug discovery and pharmaceuticals,” he says.
He cites one video where he claims the presidential candidate lost control of her body. “She made this sort of involuntary movement for about 10 seconds,” he claimed, retweeting the video.
Another version shows Clinton was responding to a reporter’s question about Elizabeth Warren potentially being her running mate with mock surprise, as was reported at the time.
But while many on the internet appear serious about the conspiracy theory, it’s very possible Mr Shkerli is trolling.
Describing his online persona as somewhat sarcastic, the indicted former executive once told Vanity Fair “It’s fun to see people get so animated.”
Mr Shkreli has previously claimed he’s going to clone Harambe, the gorilla shot by zoo staff in Cincinnati, and said he’s going to release a rap album.
Both Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have been the subject of numerous online conspiracy theories, including the claim that the two have left a trail of more than 100 deaths in their quest for presidential power.
Other conspiracy theories are more mainstream, such as apparent cover-ups relating to the deaths of an Ambassador and a staffer in an attack on the US embassy in Benghazi, Libya in 2012. Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State at the time and has received intense criticism from Republicans over the incident who claim she still has 'questions to answer.'
Perhaps the best thing to come out of all these conspiracy theories, however, was comedian Bill Maher’s recent take-down of them.
“Since half the country will believe an evil cartoon version of Hillary Clinton no matter what she says or does, she has to embrace it,” Maher said. “Hillary has to own all the nasty things the haters say and run as the Notorious H.R.C.”
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