On Tuesday, October 13, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission and seven US states asked a federal judge in New York City to hold Martin Shkreli in contempt. They say the man once dubbed the “Pharma Bro” has broken a lifetime ban on taking part in the pharmaceutical industry, and has done it in public, on camera. For anyone who follows drug pricing, including in India where generics and access are live political questions, the case is a sequel to one of the most notorious price hikes of the decade.
From Brooklyn to Wall Street
Shkreli was born on March 17, 1983, at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn. His parents were Albanian immigrants who worked as janitors. He went to Hunter College High School, though accounts differ on whether he graduated or was expelled before senior year and finished through City-As-School High School. At 17 he landed an internship at the hedge fund Cramer, Berkowitz and Company. A bachelor’s degree in business administration from Baruch College followed in 2004. He has told Vanity Fair his interest in chemistry began when a family member suffered from treatment-resistant depression.
At Cramer he recommended shorting Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, then testing a weight-loss drug. The stock fell as he predicted and the fund profited. The Securities and Exchange Commission looked into what he knew but could not prove wrongdoing. He later co-founded the hedge funds Elea Capital, MSMB Capital Management and MSMB Healthcare. Not all of it worked. In 2011 MSMB Capital took a naked short position in Orexigen Therapeutics, could not cover it, and was virtually wiped out, leaving Merrill Lynch with a $7 million loss.
Retrophin, Turing and Daraprim
Shkreli founded Retrophin in 2011 to develop treatments for rare diseases. The board replaced him in September 2014. Retrophin later sued him for $65 million, alleging he misused company funds. In February 2015 he started Turing Pharmaceuticals, which bought the antiparasitic Daraprim from Impax Laboratories for $55 million that August. Turing’s idea was to license old medicines with no generic rival and reprice them.
In September 2015 the price of a Daraprim pill jumped from $13.50 to $750, overnight and by a factor of 56. Medical societies and the industry group PhRMA objected, and so did presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Shkreli defended himself on Bloomberg Markets, saying co-pays would be lower and many patients would get the drug free. He briefly promised a cut, but the price held. The press had by then settled on its label for him: “the most hated man in America.”
Prison and a ban
In 2017 a federal jury convicted him on two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy. Sentenced to seven years, he served time at the low-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, and was released early in May 2022. A civil antitrust case over Daraprim ended with a $64.6 million penalty, to be repaid to victims, and a permanent bar from serving as an officer of any public company. A 2022 ruling also found he had run an anticompetitive scheme and barred him from the pharmaceutical industry for life. Authorities seized assets including a one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album.
The comeback
By mid-2026 Shkreli was streaming on YouTube almost daily, sometimes for as long as nine hours, picking apart stocks and promoting his financial software venture Godel. Bloomberg reported that his short calls had moved some shares by 40 percent or more in a day. His record was mixed. Of 12 bearish write-ups, eight fell on the day he published, by 9 to 45 percent, yet the group averaged a gain over the following year. His call on Capricor Therapeutics went badly. The stock more than quadrupled after a positive trial readout, and he apologized to followers on X, while still insisting the company was lying about its data.
The FTC says that is exactly the problem. It alleges he has traded stocks in at least 60 pharmaceutical companies since his release and commented publicly on their businesses, and that he used live streams to organize campaigns to short stocks on the expectation that trials would fail. In one stream, according to the FTC, he said: “I’m showing you how to trade and invest in biotech.” The agency wants a full accounting of his trades, divestment of any pharmaceutical holdings, a fine equal to his profits, and escalating penalties, up to jail, for repeat violations. New York Attorney General Letitia James said of the ban: “A court-ordered lifetime ban isn’t a suggestion.” The Guardian said it had approached Shkreli for comment.
Sources
- Martin Shkreli – Wikipedia
- ‘The most hated man in America’ is back and ready to fight everyone
- FTC and seven states seek contempt ruling against Shkreli over pharma ban
