Topline
Martin Shkreli, the former hedge fund manager who became a symbol of Wall Street greed after raising the price of a live-saving drug by 5,000%, was released early from his seven-year prison sentence for securities fraud, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said Wednesday.
Defense attorney Benjamin Brafman walks with former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli after … [+]
Key Facts
Shkreli was released from a low-security federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, and transferred to community confinement overseen by the bureau, the BOP spokesperson said in a statement to Forbes.
Shkreli’s release date from the custody of the BOP is scheduled for September 14, 2022, according to the spokesperson.
Ben Brafman, Shkreli’s attorney, said in a statement to the Washington Post that he was released early after “completing all programs that allowed for his prison sentence to be shortened.
Brafman said Shkreli is being transferred to a BOP halfway house, and added he has encouraged Shkreli to make no further statements.
Shkreli posted a photo of himself on Facebook Wednesday morning with the caption, “Getting out of real prison is easier than getting out of Twitter prison.”
Key Background
Shkreli gained notoriety and the nickname “Pharma Bro” in 2015 when his pharmaceutical company Turing acquired Daraprim, an anti-parasitic drug sometimes prescribed for HIV patients, and raised the price from $13.50 per tablet to $750. Shkreli defended the price hike at the time, saying, “If there was a company that was selling an Aston Martin at the price of a bicycle, and we buy that company and we ask to charge Toyota prices, I don’t think that that should be a crime.” The FBI arrested Shkreli in 2017 on securities fraud charges unrelated to the Daraprim controversy. He was found guilty of defrauding investors and sentenced to seven years in prison.
Big Number
$64.6 million. That’s how much Shkreli was fined in a separate antitrust lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission and seven states. He was also hit with a lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry.
Further Reading
Martin Shkreli Admits He Messed Up: He Should’ve Raised Prices Even Higher (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/annakaplan/2022/05/18/pharma-bro-martin-shkreli-released-from-prison-early/