Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli broke lifetime ban on drug industry trades, feds say

“Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli is blatantly violating his court-ordered lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry by trading stocks and boasting about his market bets on social media, the feds and local prosecutors say.The Federal Trade Commission and six state attorneys general demanded Tuesday that a federal judge hold the ex-con Shkreli in contempt and force him to surrender his trading profits and any pharmaceutical stocks he still owns.Despite his 2022 lifetime ban stemming from his notorious fraud conviction — and a nearly $65 million judgment in that case — Shkreli, 43, has been calling himself “the GOAT of binary events,” bragging to his social media followers that “[t]he last time I shorted a stock, I made $20 million bucks,” according to court documents.The feds claim Shkreli, who named his newborn son Torque “EZMONEY$TAXX” Shkreli last year, began his “brazen violations” shortly after leaving prison in 2022 following his securities fraud conviction — livestreaming stock trades on his YouTube channel despite being barred from participating in the drug industry.Shkreli became notorious in 2015 when his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, remorselessly jacked up the price of the lifesaving antiparasitic drug Daraprim from $17.50 to $750 a pill.He was later ordered to return $64.6 million he made on the drug, a sum that remains unpaid, according to authorities.In 2017, Shkreli was convicted of fraud and conspiracy for looting Retrophin, a drug company he founded.

After serving most of a seven-year sentence, he was slapped with the lifetime industry ban in February 2022.Most recently, to bolster his bets against small biotech firms, Shkreli devoted hours to trashing their experimental treatments and urging viewers to “short this stock,” the feds said.In one instance, Shkreli allegedly targeted Cassava Sciences, a company developing an Alzheimer’s treatment, ahead of disappointing clinical trial results in November 2024.His broker...