Everything You Need To Know About "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli

Humble Beginnings


Martin was born in 1983 Coney Islands to Kroatian an Albanian immigrants parents.

Both worked as janitors.

His Neighbor Taught Him


He learned about stocks as a child from his neighbor with whom he used to play chess.

Compaq


He bought his first stock shares at the computer company Compaq when he was only 12 years old.

Amazon

Amazon

He continued to buy stocks as a teen, and he was one of the first to buy shares from Amazon when it went public in 1997.

Hunter College


Even though he dropped out before he graduated, he credits Hunter College as the reason for his success.

In matter to thank them he donated $1 million to it in 2015, which was heavy criticized by many.

Wall Street


He started to work at Wall Street with 16 at Cramer, Berkowitz & Co.

Baruch College


In 2004he got a business degree from Baruch college, even though he says that high school actually taught him everything.

UBS


He worked for UBS and Intrepid Capital management before starting his own hedge funds.

Biotech Stocks


He became known for shorting Biotech Stock during his decade at Wall Street.

The Twitter Ban


He is banned from Twitter since February 2017 after continuously harassing journalist Lauren Duca.

MSMB Capital Management


He opened his first hedge fund company in 2009, called MSMB Capital Management.

Retrophin Pharmaceutics


In 2011 he founded Retrophin, a pharmaceutical company.

The End Of MSMB


In 2011 MSMB was forced to stop all trading after they've lost over $7 million.

The only thing left in assets were roughly $60'000.

The Debts


He then funneled in 2015 money from Retrophin to pay off MSMB's debts.

FBI's Accusations


The FBI accused him of making fake, backdated data transactions to create the appearance that his hedge fund, MSMB Capital had invested in the pharmaceutical company Retrophin.

Top 30 Under 30


He was listed by Forbes as one of the top 30 under 30 in finances.



Seven investors demanded Shkreli to return their money, after they've found out about his fake transactions. He then settled with them for $11 million, but he didn't ask Retrophin's board before doing so.

The Board

He covered it up as "consulting" agreements.

Darapim


Retrophin's board kicked him then out later in 2014.


In 2015 he funded Turing Pharmaceuticals and bought the rights to market Daraprim, a treatment used by AIDS patients, with no generic alternative.

Bernie Sanders

He then hiked the price of the drug from $13 to $750, causing widespread backlash and critics.

KaloBios Pharmaceuticas


In 2015 he tried to donate $2,700 to Bernie Sanders, who rejected the donation and gave it to a Aids clinic.


He bought KaloBios Pharmaceuticals in November 2015.

The Arrest

The same month the US Senate Special Committee on Aging began investigating Turing Pharmaceuticals.

Guilty


He was arrested on suspicion of securities fraud in December and then stepped down as CEO of Turing, the same month he was fired bi KaloBios.


On August 4, 2017, he was found guilty of three counts of securities fraud.

Optimistic

He will be facing up to 20 years in prison.

50-50 Chance


He actually remained optimistic because he was found not guilty on the key charge that he had looted Retrophin to make payments on behalf of his hedge fund.


After the conviction, he made a YouTube live-streaming marathon, insisting that there was actually a "50-50" chance he'll actually go to prison.

Being confident about escaping the prison charges.