Investor: Shkreli reported too-good-to-be-true returns

NEW YORK – An investor in “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli’s hedge fund says he wowed her by reporting eye-popping returns that prosecutors say were a lie.

Sarah Hassan (HAS’-uhn) testified Thursday as the first witness at Shkreli’s security fraud trial.

She told jurors she invested $300,000 with Shkreli in 2011 after being told he was “a rising star in the hedge fund world” who managed $40 million. She said she was thrilled when he reported she made nearly $60,000 that year alone.

But prosecutors say Shkreli was concealing the fact that his fund was tanking because of bad stock bets.

The 34-year-old Shkreli is notorious for raising the price of a life-saving drug 5,000 per cent and for his nonstop social media posturing.

His lawyers say he’s a nerdy eccentric who’s innocent.