'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli Is Going To Prison For Seven Years

'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli Is Going To Prison For Seven Years

Remember Martin Shkreli? He was pretty much the internet's most hated person back in 2015. 

Formerly a whiz kid investor, he made some high-profile moves that put him in the public spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

Now, Martin Shkreli can add "convicted felon" to his list of accomplishments.

Shkreli first made headlines in 2015.

The company he founded, Turing Pharmaceuticals, picked up a license that enabled them to manufacture Daraprim, a potentially lifesaving drug. With the power to make Daraprim affordable or unobtainable, Shkreli opted for the evil route.

He hiked the price of the drug in a big way.

It wasn't a simple inflation-driven price hike. Out of the blue, Shkreli bumped the price from about $13.50 per pill to an absolutely insane $750 per pill. For those keeping scores, that's an increase of more than 5,000% percent.

Immediately, Shkreli was in the international spotlight.

Nicknamed "Pharma Bro", he didn't give a second thought to the price increase when he was questioned on it. The price increase also shone a light on an early price hike that he engineered.

This hike didn't attract as much notice.

But in 2014, Shkreli hiked the price of Retrophin from $1.50 per pill to $30 a pill. That's pretty significant considering the fact that patients need to take 10 to 15 pills a day.

Shkreli was just getting started, though.

Shkreli's next collaboration was with the Wu-Tang Clan (kinda).

The Long Island rap collective didn't want much to do with the Pharma Bro, but money talks — and Martin Shkreli had plenty of money.

Shkreli bought a Wu-Tang album.

But not just any album. Once Upon a Time in Shaolin only had one single copy made, and Shkreli scooped it up for a cool $2 million in 2015.

Shkreli taunted fans with his big purchase on YouTube.

He had the single most expensive album ever sold, but rather than sharing it with the world, he teased his followers during a series of YouTube live streams.

For what it's worth, Wu-Tang wasn't down with Shkreli.

Group member RZA said that they agreed to sell the album to Shkreli before the Daraprim price hike, and also that they donated much of the proceeds to charity.

Things all came crashing down for the Pharma Bro, however.

In a fantastic example of hubris, Shkreli was tried and convicted in 2017 of faking account statements and covering up big losses from two of his hedge funds.

Securities fraud is a big deal.

Without these protections in place, hedge fund managers like Shkreli would be free to line their own pockets while lying to the shareholders they're supposed to be beholden to.

In September of 2017, the judge revoked his bail.

This was prompted by a weird incident where he tried to procure a single hair from Hillary Clinton for cloning purposes (?!?).

Finally, his sentence has come down.

Shkreli was forced to give up over $7 million in assets, including the Wu-Tang album. He's been sentenced to seven years in a federal prison.