Pa. attorney general wants Martin Shkreli held in contempt for allegedly violating lifetime pharma ban
Shkreli has “flagrantly and repeatedly” violated the terms of the ban, the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office said.
Pennsylvania has joined six other states and the Federal Trade Commission in a newly filed petition that asks a federal judge to hold Martin Shkreli in contempt of court for allegedly violating a court order that barred him from the pharmaceutical industry.
Shkreli, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office said in a statement, has “flagrantly and repeatedly” violated the terms of the ban, which has been in effect since 2022. The filing alleges Shkreli has livestreamed himself trading at least 60 drug industry stocks and expressing opinions on social media websites about the business and management of companies in the space.
In one livestream, the attorney general’s office said, Shkreli can be heard telling viewers he was “showing you how to trade and invest in biotech.” He also allegedly used his livestreams to short a number of drug industry stocks “based on his prediction that their key clinical trials would fail,” the office added.
Those actions, FTC Commissioner Mark Meador said in a statement, “reflect a deliberate pattern of defiance” of the ban. The filing asks that Shkreli be fined in an amount equal to the profits he made from those stock trades and that he divest from any drug stocks he holds, as well as face possible jail time.
New York, California, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia also joined in asking Shkreli be held in contempt. Those states, plus Pennsylvania and the FTC, sued Shkreli in 2020 for orchestrating a scheme that allowed his company to drastically raise the price of Daraprim, an antiparasitic medication, from $17.50 per tablet to $750.
Shkreli lost that case, with a federal court finding his actions suppressed generic drug competition, allowing the drug’s prices to be inflated. In addition to being banned from the drug industry, Shkreli was ordered to pay back more than $64 million in profits.
Prior to that, in 2017, Shkreli, also known as the “Pharma Bro,” was found guilty of securities fraud and received a seven-year prison term. He was released in 2022.
“Martin Shkreli was held accountable for conduct that drove up the cost of a life-saving medication and blocked lower-cost alternatives for patients. A court-ordered industry ban is not a suggestion, it is a legal obligation,” Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a statement.
“We are asking the court to enforce that order and ensure Shkreli faces consequences if he has violated its terms.”
