Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals and one-time owner of Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin LP, is banned form ever working in the pharmaceutical industry again.
Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018 after being found guilty of fraud. During his time at Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company raised the price of Daraprim – the commercial name for the drug pyrimethamine – from US$13.50 to US$750 a tablet.
However, it was securities fraud committed during his time at MSMB Capital Management and the biotech company, Retrophin, that landed Shkreli in prison, which is where he remains. Turing later changed its name to Vyera Pharmaceuticals and Shkreli kept working for the company, illegally, while in prison.
The Associated Press reports that, during a seven-day bench trial conducted in December 2021, Shkreli was found guilty of price-gouging and monopolising the market for a lifesaving drug. In addition to the life ban, Shkreli must return the $64.6 million in profits that he and the company accrued from the Daraprim price-jacking.
Shkreli is also no longer the owner of Wu-Tang’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, of which there is only one copy available. The album was one of many assets seized by a federal court in 2018. Midway through 2021, the US Government sold Shkreli’s copy to an undisclosed buyer.
