Martin Shkreli, nicknamed the Pharma Bro for his callous approach to price gouging life-saving drugs, violated the terms of his case by buying and selling pharmaceutical stocks, a coalition of federal and state authorities said Tuesday.
The Federal Trade Commission, joined by seven state attorneys general, asked a federal judge to hold Mr. Shkreli in civil contempt for his actions.
They said Shkreli has been brazen in flouting the court’s orders, which were part of a civil case against him, where he was found responsible for manipulating prescription drug prices. The judge forbade him from “directly or indirectly participating in any manner in the pharmaceutical industry.”
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But since then, Shkreli has not only been buying stocks but has been broadcasting his opinions about them on social media, the coalition said. He even streamed live while making some purchases, the coalition said.
“When judgment is entered by a court, whether it’s a settlement or an order following a trial, defendants must fulfill their obligations,” said Daniel Guarnera, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.
The federal judge in 2022 had found that Shkreli had violated antitrust laws with his role in an effort to artificially inflate the price of Daraprim by hindering the emergence of a generic competitor.
The judge issued the lifetime ban on involvement in the industry, and an appeals court upheld that ruling.
Part of the earlier case was a $65 million judgment against Shkreli.
The government had earlier charged that Shkreli was delinquent in paying.
Shkreli, on social media, called the Trump administration’s involvement against him “very surprising.”
“I could see totalitarian [New York Attorney General] Letitia James trying to limit a citizen’s free speech but not from Trump’s FTC,” he said.
In addition to Ms. James and New York, the other states involved were California, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The FTC and the states, in their brief, asked the judge to force Shkreli to divest of any pharmaceutical stocks, surrender any profits he made and face more fines and possible jail time “for any future violations.”
Shkreli was dubbed the Pharma Bro for his 4,000% price hike of Daraprim, and then flaunting his wealth with a vanity purchase of a one-of-a-kind album from the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan.
In addition to the civil order banning him from involvement in the pharmaceutical industry, he was convicted in 2017 of securities fraud for activities before his involvement with Daraprim.
He served five years in prison for that conviction.
The Wu-Tang album, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” was seized as part of the judgment against Shkreli.
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