Controversial businessman Martin Shkreli, the former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals who raised the price of an essential drug from $13.50 to $750 per pill overnight, appears to have gained a new enemy.

In a lengthy post on X, Shkreli shares that he "met this kid in prison" who "wanted to remake his life in crypto trading." In what Mr. Shkreli described as a "gesture of friendship", he gifted the friend 5 million tokens of a soon-to-be-released new project Martin Shkreli is working on.

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The recipient of the gift, who goes by @_d3f4ult on X, allegedly dumped his coins while promoting the unreleased token to his Discord group, telling them he was bullish and buying into Martin Shkreli's project.

Influential financial X account, Zerohedge, posted its take on the drama saying "Maybe don’t start crypto ventures with people you meet in prison?"

Whether legal action comes out of the alleged pump and dump is currently unknown, but it does add an example for cryptocurrency skeptics convinced the industry is full of fraud.

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It appears that Shkreli did learn at least one lesson. After formerly receiving a seven-year prison sentence for fraud, Shkreli concluded his post outing @_d3f4ult as a scammer by saying "It is wire fraud to deceive people by lying to them to gain funds. I learned this the hard way, and learned from it; it looks like he is learning it again."

When another user commented on Shkeli's post questioning why the action was a big deal given the coins were given as a gift, Mr. Shkeli focused on the issue of @_d3f4ult telling his paid Discord community the opposite of what he was actually doing, which Mr. Shkreli called criminal.

Investors who don't have the connections to receive lavish crypto gifts can opt to purchase Bitcoin or one of the multiple spot ETFs.

Blackrock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ:IBIT) is one option, having already accumulated over $17 billion in assets under management.

For investors looking to branch out further into the crypto space, Coinbase Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN), the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, supports more than 260 digital assets.

In an effort to protect its users from fraudulent projects, Coinbase states its goal "is to provide a neutral marketplace where customers can engage with every safe and compliant crypto asset."

As instances like this spring up, it's a worthy reminder for crypto traders to be careful of scams.

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This article Martin Shkreli Gets Scammed in Crypto Venture by Old Prison Friend, 'Don't Start Crypto Ventures With People You Meet in Prison originally appeared on Benzinga.com

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