Martin Shkreli is facing new legal battles as the Federal Trade Commission and seven states move to hold him in contempt of court. According to a recent filing in a Manhattan federal court, the man famously known as Pharma Bro has flagrantly ignored a 2022 lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry. Authorities allege that since his release from prison two years ago, Shkreli has been active in the sector by trading at least 60 different pharma stocks and using social media platforms like X, YouTube, and Reddit to broadcast his opinions on how various companies are managed.
The current legal clash stems from a previous ruling that found Shkreli orchestrated an anti-competitive plot to maintain a monopoly over the drug Daraprim, which saw its price skyrocket from seventeen dollars to seven hundred and fifty dollars per pill. While those actions previously cost him millions in fines and earned him a permanent exile from the industry, officials say he simply hasn’t stopped. FTC Commissioner Mark Meador emphasized that such bans are meaningless unless there are real consequences for those who choose to ignore them.
Government lawyers are now asking a judge to force Shkreli to sell off any remaining pharmaceutical holdings and pay back every cent of profit made from these trades, regardless of any losses he may have incurred along the way. More seriously, they are pushing for escalating penalties for future slip ups, suggesting that further defiance could result in additional financial hits or even return trips to jail.
The scope of the investigation has expanded beyond Shkreli himself, with the FTC requesting that his sister and significant other preserve all evidence related to these activities. Prosecutors suspect both women may have helped him bypass the injunction. This latest civil dispute remains separate from the securities fraud convictions that originally landed Shkreli in prison several years ago, but it underscores a continuing effort by regulators to keep him entirely out of the medical marketplace.