US Supreme Court Won’t Hear “Pharma Bro’s” Case

Martin Shkreli, former CEO of the Retrophin hedge fund and Turing Pharmaceuticals, who was convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy in 2017, appears to have run out of options to get out of jail early.

Shkreli first gained notoriety in 2015 for jacking up the price of toxoplasmosis drug Daraprim by 5,000% overnight and later was accused by Retrophin investors of inflating the fund’s stock price and enriching himself on the proceeds.

Currently serving a seven-year prison sentence, Shkreli this week lost his ambitious challenge to have his case heard by the US Supreme Court. Following multiple appeals, the nation’s highest court refused to review his conviction, and he will also be unable to recover the $7.36 million he was obliged to forfeit.

This means that the “pharma bro” as he called himself, is likely to remain incarcerated for the next five years. He could be there longer, however. While the sentence on the original charges, is set to end in September 2023, US press reports say it could be extended, as Shkreli has been accused of running his business from behind bars.

The latest charge came after the US Bureau of Prisons began investigating a report by financial newspaper Wall Street Journal that the high-profile inmate was running his biotech, Phoenixus, from his cell, using a contraband mobile phone.