A former pharmaceutical executive who was convicted of securities fraud was released from his federal prison sentence early and will live in a halfway house.
Martin Shkreli, who became known as the “Pharma Bro,” gained international attention in 2015 after his company, Vyera, suddenly raised the price of Draprim by 4,000%. Daraprim is considered a life-saving medication that is used to treat toxoplasmosis caused by parasitic infection.
He was arrested the same year on charges of defrauding investors at two hedge funds so he could found Retrophin, his first pharmaceutical company. Shkreli then used Retrophin profits to pay back investors after covering up his losses.
He was convicted in a federal court in Brooklyn in 2017.
Ben Brafman announced Shkreli’s release on May 18 after serving five of his seven-year sentence.
“I am pleased to report that Martin Shkreli has been released from Allenwood prison and transferred to a BOP halfway house after completing all programs that allowed for his prison sentence to be shortened,” Brafman said, per The New York Post.
Shkreli was housed at the minimum-security prison FCI Allenwood in Pennsylvania and will now reside in a halfway house reportedly in New York state.
A Bureau of Prisons spokesman told CNBC that Shkreli was transferred to community confinement.
“Community confinement means the inmate is in either home confinement or a Residential Reentry Center (RRC, or halfway house),” the spokesman told the outlet. “Mr. Shkreli’s projected release date from the custody of the BOP is September 14, 2022. For safety and security reasons, we do not discuss any individual inmate’s conditions of confinement to include transfers or release plans.”
Brafman said he has advised his client not to make any statements while living in the facility.
In addition to his prison sentence, Shkreli was barred from working in the pharmaceutical industry and ordered to return the $64 million he made in profits from price manipulation. He was also ordered to pay $25 million in civil penalties for engaging in anticompetitive conduct.
The convicted executive sold a rare, one-of-a-kind album by the Wu-Tang Clan to pay for some of his court debts.
“Vyera and its parent company, Phoenixus AG, settled [in December 2012], agreeing to provide up to $40m in relief over 10 years to consumers and to make Daraprim available to any potential generic competitor at the cost of producing the drug,” per The National News.
Shkreli had been an avid Twitter user before being banned from the platform. Following his release, he posted a photo of himself on Facebook with the caption “Getting out of real prison is easier than getting out of Twitter prison.”
