The mechanics of finance and economy may well be entirely corrupt throughout the entire industry but that is not a defence in the eyes of the world. His position is like a murderer saying, "well people kill babies in abortions every day and kill cows for meat.. so i'm just doing the same with adults".. In some senses that is actually true, but it doesn't justify it and Shkreli seems to have been thinking that he could 'join the big boys' of large scale organised corporate misbehaviour without having first joined the relevant clubs and learned the relevant secret handshakes!