Martin Shkreli Testifies Before Congress: Full Testimony | CNBC — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00we've been waiting for scy to make a
2. 0:02statement if he does here he is let's
3. 0:04take a
4. 0:05listen on the advice of council I will
5. 0:07not be giving an opening statement do um
6. 0:11I want to ask you a few questions what
7. 0:13what do you what do you say to that
8. 0:16signal pregnant woman who might have
9. 0:19AIDS no
10. 0:22income and she needs derim in order to
11. 0:25survive what what do you say to her when
12. 0:28she has to make that choice what do you
13. 0:30say to her on the advice of council I
14. 0:32invoke my fifth amendment privilege
15. 0:34against self-incrimination and
16. 0:35respectfully decline to answer your
17. 0:38question you were quoted as saying on
18. 0:41Fox 5 in New York you were quoted as
19. 0:43saying if you raise prices and you don't
20. 0:46take that cash and put it back into
21. 0:48research I think it's despicable I think
22. 0:50you should not be in the drug business
23. 0:52we take all of our cash all of our extra
24. 0:56profit and spend it on research for
25. 0:58these patients for other patients who
26. 0:59have of terrible
27. 1:01life-threatening life-ending
28. 1:03diseases did you say
29. 1:06that on the advice of council I invoke
30. 1:09my fifth amendment privilege against
31. 1:10self-incrimination and respectfully
32. 1:12declin to answer your
33. 1:13question do you think you've done
34. 1:15anything wrong on the advice of
35. 1:19councel I invoke my fifth amendment
36. 1:22privilege against self-incrimination and
37. 1:25respectfully decline to answer your
38. 1:27question i' like to yield to time to
39. 1:30Congressman gouty of South Carolina uh
40. 1:32thank you Mr chairman is it pronounced
41. 1:34scy yes sir see there you can answer
42. 1:38some questions that one didn't
43. 1:40incriminate
44. 1:41you I I just want to make sure you
45. 1:43understand you are welcome to answer
46. 1:46questions and not all of your answers
47. 1:48are going to subject you to
48. 1:49incrimination you understand that don't
49. 1:53you I intend to follow the advice of my
50. 1:56counsel not yours I I just want to make
51. 1:58sure you're getting the right advice you
52. 2:01you you you do know that not every
53. 2:03disclosure can be subject to the Fifth
54. 2:05Amendment assertion only those that are
55. 2:08reason that that that you reasonably
56. 2:10believe could be used in a criminal
57. 2:12prosecution or could lead to other
58. 2:13evidence I intend to ad uh I intend to
59. 2:17uh use the advice of my Council not
60. 2:20yours do you also understand that you
61. 2:23can wave your Fifth Amendment right um
62. 2:25you gave an interview to a television
63. 2:28station in New York where
64. 2:30um if I understood you correctly you
65. 2:32couldn't wait to come educate the
66. 2:34members of Congress on drug pricing and
67. 2:37this would be a great opportunity to do
68. 2:40it so do do you understand you can wave
69. 2:42your Fifth Amendment
70. 2:44right on the advice of council I invoke
71. 2:47my fifth amendment privilege against
72. 2:48self-incrimination and respectfully
73. 2:50decline to answer your
74. 2:52question well Mr chairman I'm vexed um
75. 2:56he's been willing to answer at least one
76. 2:58question this morning that would didn't
77. 3:00subject him to incrimination um I I
78. 3:02don't think he's under indictment for
79. 3:04the subject matter of this hearing um so
80. 3:08the Fifth Amendment actually doesn't
81. 3:09apply to answers that are not reasonably
82. 3:12calculated to expose you to
83. 3:13incrimination um and even if it did
84. 3:15apply he's welcome to wave it and I
85. 3:18listened to his interview um and and he
86. 3:21didn't have to be prodded to talk during
87. 3:23that interview doesn't have to be
88. 3:24prodded to tweet a whole lot or to show
89. 3:27us his life on on that little webcam
90. 3:31he's got so this is a great opportunity
91. 3:34if you want to educate the members of
92. 3:35Congress about drug pricing or what you
93. 3:37called the fictitious case against you
94. 3:40or we can even talk about the the
95. 3:43purchase of a is it wuang clan is that
96. 3:46the name of the album name of the
97. 3:54group on the advice of council I invoke
98. 3:56my fifth amendment privilege against
99. 3:57self-incrimination respectfully declined
100. 3:59your question uh Mr chairman I am I am
101. 4:02stunned that a conversation about an
102. 4:05album he purchased could possibly
103. 4:08subject him to incrimination but if well
104. 4:12the the gentleman the gentleman is
105. 4:13correct we I I understand that Mr
106. 4:16scarelli is under indictment but it is
107. 4:18not the intention to ask him questions
108. 4:20about that topic so if I understand it
109. 4:23correctly he we're not going to ask him
110. 4:25questions that are going to uh be in the
111. 4:28subject matter of his his current
112. 4:30pending criminal charges um and if we
113. 4:33were to get close to one in the gray
114. 4:35area he's welcome to assert as Fifth
115. 4:38Amendment privileged there and if we
116. 4:40stay away from the subject matter of his
117. 4:43indictment he is uh some could argue has
118. 4:46a legal obligation to answer um under uh
119. 4:49cgar versus United States but certainly
120. 4:52has the right to do so as he did in the
121. 4:54in the television interview and as he
122. 4:56does quite frequently on social media
123. 4:58correct trying to Mr chairman may I be
124. 5:01recognized for a moment no no you you
125. 5:04will not that no you're not allowed to
126. 5:05under under the house rules you have not
127. 5:07been sworn in I understand but he's
128. 5:09making AR you are not recognized you are
129. 5:12not recognized and you will be
130. 5:14seated um the gentan for South Carolina
131. 5:18is correct that we were trying to
132. 5:19provide an opportunity to have a candid
133. 5:21discussion about issues related to drug
134. 5:23pricing um we now recognize uh Mr
135. 5:26Cummings for any questions he might have
136. 5:28thank you very much um
137. 5:31Mr chairman uh let me say for the record
138. 5:33that I completely support uh your
139. 5:36decision to to bring Mr Ry to make sure
140. 5:39that he is that he asserted his uh Fifth
141. 5:42Amendment right before this
142. 5:44committee uh normally Democrats on our
143. 5:47committee have accepted the assertions
144. 5:50of a witness's attorney that his or her
145. 5:53client is going to take the fifth but in
146. 5:57this case Mr Elli made a number of
147. 6:00public comments
148. 6:02himself raising legitimate questions
149. 6:05about his
150. 6:08intentions honestly I did not know
151. 6:10whether he was even going to show up
152. 6:12today so it's nice to see
153. 6:16you but now that he has invoked his
154. 6:19constitutional rights of course I will
155. 6:22respect his
156. 6:24decision to Mr Shelli since I have you
157. 6:27in front of
158. 6:28me after after trying to get you in
159. 6:31front of this committee for so long let
160. 6:34me say
161. 6:35this I want to ask you to no I want to
162. 6:39plead with
163. 6:40you to use any remaining influence you
164. 6:43have over your former company to press
165. 6:47them to lower the price of these
166. 6:51drugs you can look away if you like but
167. 6:55I wish you could see the faces of people
168. 6:57no matter what Miss rett's
169. 7:00says who cannot get the drugs that they
170. 7:03need and by the way it's a taxpayers
171. 7:06somebody's paying for these
172. 7:08drugs somebody's paying it's the
173. 7:10taxpayers that end up paying for some of
174. 7:12them and so and those are our
175. 7:16constituents people's lives are at stake
176. 7:19because of the price increases you
177. 7:21impose and the
178. 7:22access the access problems that have
179. 7:26been
180. 7:27created you are in a unique unique
181. 7:29position you really are
182. 7:32sir rightly or wrongly you've been
183. 7:35viewed as a so-called bad boy a farmer
184. 7:40you have a
185. 7:41spotlight and you have a
186. 7:43platform you could use that attention to
187. 7:46come clean to write your
188. 7:49wrongs and to become one of the most
189. 7:53effective Patient Advocates in the
190. 7:55country and one that can make a big
191. 7:58difference in so many people's
192. 8:00lives I know you're smiling but I'm very
193. 8:03serious
194. 8:04sir the way I see it you can go down in
195. 8:08history as the poster boy for greedy
196. 8:11Drug Company
197. 8:13Executives or you can change the
198. 8:16system yeah you you detailed the
199. 8:20knowledge about drug companies and the
200. 8:22system we have
201. 8:24today and I truly
202. 8:27believe I truly believe
203. 8:31are you
204. 8:33listening yes thank you I truly believe
205. 8:37you could become a force of tremendous
206. 8:41good of course you can ignore this if
207. 8:43you like but all I ask is that you
208. 8:46reflect on it no I don't ask Mrs Ry I
209. 8:50beg that you reflect on it there's so
210. 8:55many people that could use your help may
211. 8:59God bless you thank you I go back Neil's
212. 9:03back Mr
213. 9:04scr it is uh it's your intention to
214. 9:07decline all answers to the questions and
215. 9:09invoke your Fifth Amendment right yes
216. 9:13given that the witness is indicated that
217. 9:14he does not intend to answer any
218. 9:16questions and out of respect for his
219. 9:17constitutional rights I ask now that the
220. 9:20committee excuse the witness from the
221. 9:21table without without objection so
222. 9:26ordered we'll pause for a moment as Mr
223. 9:28scr's escort it
224. 9:33out and that will do it for Martin scy
225. 9:36and his appearance at the house
226. 9:38oversight Committee hearing on drug
227. 9:40pricing hey YouTube fans I'm Landon dowy
228. 9:43from CNBC thanks so much for checking
229. 9:45out our channel here you'll find videos
230. 9:47packed with all the info that you need
231. 9:49to be smarter about your finances be
232. 9:51sure and subscribe by clicking right
233. 9:52here and click on all the videos around
234. 9:54me to see cnbc's original series Young
235. 9:56Money techb Kramer's mad money and all
236. 9:59the latest from CNBC