The story of a young former hedge fund manager buying a lifesaving drug and then jacking up the price by more than 5,000% has ignited a firestorm.

But this is hardly the first controversy for the man at the center of the maelstrom, Martin Shkreli, the 32-year-old CEO of the startup Turing Pharmaceuticals.

Shkreli has been named in multiple lawsuits in which he was accused of carrying out "schemes" to take money from former employers; making "false and misleading statements"; deceiving "the investing public"; and using Facebook and other social-media channels to harass family members of a man with whom he had a business dispute. Along with these allegations about his professional conduct, Shkreli is also facing an accusation of "gross" behavior in his personal life.

A woman claiming to be Shkreli's ex-girlfriend said he sent her a series of Facebook messages years after their breakup in an attempt to solicit sex for money. The woman, who would give her name only as "Katie," contacted Business Insider about the exchange on Tuesday. The following morning she posted screenshots on a (NSFW) personal blog that she said showed Shkreli's unwanted online advances and her disgusted response.

In a conversation with Business Insider on Tuesday evening, Shkreli disputed all of the allegations that have been made against him. He also dismissed the controversy over the drug-price increase that put his name in the headlines.

"It's funny to me," Shkreli said. "I mean, I think if America wants to not do any fact-checking and understand the situation, just villainize capitalists, then that's fine by me. I don't take it personally. I understand that there's resistance to pharmaceutical companies, hedge fund managers, capitalists."

Shkreli entered the spotlight on Sunday when The New York Times reported that his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, increased the price of the drug Daraprim to $750 a pill — from $13.50. Turing recently acquired Daraprim, which is used to treat toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasmosis is a disease caused by a common parasite that can be deadly, especially for those who are immunosuppressed, such as AIDS patients and cancer patients.

After the news broke, Shkreli became a poster boy for drug-price gouging. Even Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton lambasted his actions on Twitter, calling the price increase "outrageous."

"Turing is not a profitable company, so I don't understand what people are making a fuss about," he told us.

Shkreli has also defended the Daraprim price increase in multiple other media appearances and on his personal Twitter account, which is now private. In one Tweet, he quoted lyrics from rapper Eminem: "And it seems like the media immediately / points a finger at me / So I point one back at em, but not the index or pinkie."

Daraprim, which has been around for 62 years, has had multiple owners. Shkreli told Bloomberg TV that the company needed to turn a profit on the drug and that other companies were "giving it away almost." He added that even at $750 a tablet it was "still underpriced relative to its peers." Daraprim costs little to make, but Shkreli said there were other factors such as distribution costs, manufacturing costs, and FDA costs that have increased over the years. Shkreli also said his company planned to use the money it made from Daraprim for alternative research to make "a better version" of the drug.

In the meantime, Shkreli said, if someone couldn't afford the drug, they would "give it away totally for free." On Tuesday evening, in an interview with "NBC Nightly News," Shkreli said his company planned to lower the price to break even or turn a modest profit in the coming weeks. He told Business Insider he had no regrets about his decision to raise the price.

"I'm enamored by it. I'm proud of it," Shkreli said. "You understand that this company can't make money at the price it was at."

Before Turing, he served as CEO of the publicly traded biotech company Retrophin, where he faced multiple lawsuits.

From September 2014 to December 2014, Shkreli was named in four lawsuits filed by Retrophin investors in New York's Southern District. These suits accused him of having profited through insider trading and making "materially false and misleading statements" that "artificially inflated" the company's stock price. One suit was dismissed. In another, attorneys for both sides indicated they would seek resolution in "private mediation" that was scheduled to begin on Monday. Two of the lawsuits are ongoing.

In his conversation with Business Insider, Shkreli dismissed all of the suits from Retrophin investors as "copy and paste stock went down lawsuit[s]" filed by opportunistic lawyers.

"Those attorneys, people know their gig," he said.

Twitter.com/MarinShkreli Shkreli is also being sued by Retrophin. According to that suit, which was filed in August, the company's board ousted him as CEO last September. Retrophin, which is seeking $65 million in damages, alleges Shkreli engaged in multiple "self-dealing schemes" while he was at the company. Many of these alleged schemes would have benefited MSMB Capital Management, a defunct healthcare-focused hedge fund he helped found.

The "schemes" detailed in the suit included having Retrophin "enter into sham consulting agreements" through which the company paid investors who were "defrauded" by Shkreli's hedge fund. Shkreli was also accused in the suit of using funds "misappropriated" from Retrophin to pay for a settlement that stemmed from a trade made by his hedge fund, among other things.

Shkreli told Business Insider that Retrophin's suit was "blackmail" and a "defensive move" by the company.

"I threatened to sue Retrophin first ... Retrophin refused to pay me a severance despite promising to pay me a severance," he said, adding: "They asked me to resign. I was not required to resign. I agreed to resign in exchange for a very large severance, $20-$50 million depending on how you calculate it ... When I resigned, they didn't pay me. It was a bait and switch, so I sued the company."

Shkreli said he was pursuing his claims against Retrophin through JAMS arbitration, so the case is not public.

In March 2013, Shkreli had Retrophin file a lawsuit against Timothy Pierotti, who worked with Shkreli at MSMB Capital. The suit accused Pierotti of "absconding" with Retrophin shares after falling through on a promise to work with the company. The suit was dismissed in April 2014 after an agreement by both parties.

In his affidavit responding to Shkreli's complaint, Pierotti included images of messages he said his wife and child received from Shkreli. Pierotti claimed his family was subjected to "repeated harassment" by Shkreli via Facebook, text message, and LinkedIn. Pierotti did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Shkreli told Business Insider he could not respond to Pierotti's allegations.

"I'd love to give you a long, lengthy comment, but, as you know, Tim and I signed a settlement agreement where neither of us are legally allowed to talk about it," Shkreli said.

According to his LinkedIn profile, prior to Retrophin, Shkreli did stints at Intrepid Capital and CNBC "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer's former firm Cramer, Berkowitz & Co. In 2012, when he was 29, Shkreli made Forbes' "30 Under 30 in Finance" for founding MSMB Capital Management.

Katie, the woman who posted screenshots of her alleged interactions with Shkreli on her blog, wrote that the two began dating when he was a 19-year-old junior analyst at Cramer Berkowitz. She said he began sending her "unwanted" Facebook messages starting in late 2004.

"In April 2008, a full 5-years after we had broken up, he sent me a Facebook message alleging, '95% of the time i get off i'm thinking about you,'" Katie wrote, adding, "It didn't end there."

She posted a screenshot of an exchange dated February 2009 that appears to show Shkreli telling her he would "pay 10k" if she agreed to participate in a sex act with him.

As with the other accusations against him, Shkreli dismissed Katie's claims about his behavior. He told Business Insider "we don't know the context" of their conversation. Shkreli also suggested the screenshots posted by Katie could have been "fabricated."

"You can see it, but perhaps there's some, you know, back and forth that you don't have on an email address or something," Shkreli said of the screenshots posted by Katie. "Maybe I'm referring to something else. You know, it's possible that it's not what you think. It's also possible it's fabricated. I don't know. I don't have them. It's from 2009. It's a jilted lover or vice versa. It just doesn't seem that meaningful."