‘Pharma Bro’ moves to New Jersey - for federal prison stay
FORT DIX » The pharmaceutical-industry entrepreneur vilified for jacking up the price of a life-saving drug was moved Tuesday to a low-security federal prison in New Jersey.
Martin Shkreli was sent from the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center in New York to the Federal Correctional Institution at Fort Dix.
Shkreli, who was dubbed “Pharma Bro” for his loutish behavior, was sentenced last month to seven years in prison for securities fraud and fined $75,000.
According to the prison’s handbook , there are no bars, towers or locks on rooms. Inmates must demonstrate a high degree of responsibility, and “the expectations are that each inmate will comply.”
Amenities at the prison complex about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Philadelphia include racquetball courts, pool tables and a music room.
The 35-year-old Shkreli was found guilty in August of lying to investors in two failed hedge funds and cheating them out of millions.
He had been charged with eight separate counts of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and wire fraud, for his role managing MSMB Capital Management and MSMB Healthcare between 2009 and 2014.
The case was unrelated to the 2015 furor Shkreli caused when he raised the price of a drug used to treat AIDS, malaria and cancer patients by more than 5,000 percent.
Shkreli’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, had argued that Shkreli deserved 18 months in prison or less.
Judge Kiyo Matsumoto ruled earlier that Shkreli would have to forfeit more than $7.3 million in a brokerage account and personal assets that included a one-of-akind Wu-Tang Clan album that he boasted of buying for $2 million.
Shkreli was initially free on bail but was jailed in September after he offered $5,000 for a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair.