The Federal Trade Commission and seven state attorneys general say that Martin Shkreli hasn’t complied with his lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry.
In a 37-page court filing, the FTC and the attorneys general state that Shkreli has repeatedly violated the ban by trading pharma stocks and publicly broadcasting opinions about the industry in livestreams and social media posts on X and Reddit.
“Today’s action should serve as notice that the FTC will not hesitate to enforce violations of court orders,” Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s bureau of competition, said in a statement accompanying the filing.
Shkreli, known as “Pharma Bro,” was convicted of securities fraud in 2017 and served more than four years in prison. He was also ordered to pay a $64.6 million penalty and received a court-ordered lifetime ban from participating in the industry.
Since he was released from prison in 2022, the FTC and state attorneys general said that Shkreli has repeatedly violated the ban. They are now asking a federal judge to hold Shkreli in contempt, order him to pay a fine equivalent to any profits he made on pharma-related trades, and to impose ” clear and escalating consequences” on any future violations of the ban.
“After his release in May 2022, Shkreli wasted little time diving back into the pharmaceutical industry despite being permanently banned from doing so,” the FTC and state attorneys general wrote. “Shkreli’s YouTube livestreams show that Shkreli has been publicly trading in Pharmaceutical Company stocks since July 2022.”
One of the ways Shkreli violated the ban, the FTC and state attorneys general wrote, was by holding a trading challenge in July, which the filing says shows that the former pharma CEO was trading in an account with a starting balance of $10 million.
The filing says the account traded 11 pharma stocks, including some of the industry’s leaders, such as Pfizer and Moderna. The trades, the FTC and state attorneys general wrote, are “likely just the tip of the iceberg.”
“In addition to his public trading, Shkreli himself has indicated that he has more accounts and does most of his trading off social media: ‘I have some I'[d] show you, but, like, I know feds are watching, so f[*]ck that,'” the filing quotes Shkreli as saying during a livestream.
Business Insider was unable to reach Shkreli for comment.
