MARTIN Shkreli is known for hiking up the price of a life-saving Aids drug from $13.50 to $750 back in 2015.
In 2018, Shkreli – otherwise known as Pharma Bro – was sentenced to 7 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to commit fraud.
Shkreli, 38, is still serving out the remainder of his 7-year prison sentence at a low-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania.
On January 14, 2022, it was revealed that a judge had ordered him to return $64.6million in profits he and his former company made when increasing the price of Daraprim, according to the Associated Press.
U.S. District Judge Denise Cote also barred Shkreli from participating in the pharmaceutical industry for the rest of his life.
This is not the first time Shkreli has had a bad day in court, in January 2021, a judge also denied Shkreli’s second request to be let out of prison early.
He had previously claimed that mental health issues had weakened his immune system and that made him more susceptible to getting the Coronavirus.
U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto said in her ruling that Shkreli had failed to prove extraordinary and compelling factors that would call for an early release and since he is a “relatively young and healthy man,” he is not at high risk for serious injuries if he were to contract the virus.
Shkreli is scheduled to be released on September 13, 2023.
Shkreli has an estimated net worth of $70million, however, after his conviction, his net worth reportedly dropped to $8million according to Celebrity Net Worth.
It remains unclear what it will be following the recent decision in his case.
The majority of his net worth came from his stake in his company Turin Pharmaceuticals.
Following his conviction, Shkreli was ordered to forfeit $5 million from his ETrade account as well as $2.36 million in other assets, including a Pablo Picasso painting and the only copy of the Wu-Tang Clan album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.
On July 27, 2021, it was announced that the US government had sold the album to an anonymous buyer for an unreleased price.
“Shkreli has been held accountable and paid the price for lying and stealing from investors to enrich himself,” Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, Jacquelyn M. Kasulis said.
“With today’s sale of this one-of-a-kind album, his payment of the forfeiture is now complete.”
Shkreli had previously purchased the album at a 2015 auction for $2 million.
Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip-hop group.
In March 2021, it was also announced that Martin Shkreli was being sued by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota for $100million for allegedly “scheming to monopolize the market” on Daraprim.
Shkreli is a former hedge fund manager for Elea Capital, MSMB Capital Management, and MSMB Healthcare.
He is also the co-founder and former chief executive officer of the biotechnology firm Retrophin and founder and former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals.
Infamously labeled as “Pharma Bro” by the media, Shkreli was criticized when Turing obtained the manufacturing license for the drug Daraprim, an Aids drug.
He then hiked the prices by nearly 5,000 percent overnight in August 2015.
At the time, Shkreli was dubbed “the most hated man in the world” after increasing the price and while price gouging is not uncommon in the US Pharmaceutical Industry, he became the poster boy for corporate excess.
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