Martin Shkreli Biography

Martin Shkreli was born on March 17, 1983, in Brooklyn, U.S., to an Albanian–Croatian immigrant couple who worked as janitors. He was raised in a working-class community in Sheepshead Bay, with his two sisters and a brother.

Shkreli attended Sunday school. He studied at the 'Hunter College High School' but dropped out in his junior year. However, some sources suggest that he had graduated from 'Hunter' and joined a diploma course because he had the credits required for the course. Some reports contradict this and claim that he had graduated from the 'City-As-School High School.'

The diploma got him an internship at the ‘Wall Street’ hedge fund 'Cramer, Berkowitz, and Company.'

Growing up, Shkreli played chess with a man named Marty, who introduced him to biotech stocks. Soon, he developed an interest in the stock market. He was just 12 when he bought shares of 'Compaq.' At 15, he invested in shares of 'Amazon.'

Martin Shkreli played his first stock-market gamble when he was an intern at 'Cramer, Berkowitz, and Company.' His stock-market predictions profited the hedge fund.

In 2003, he predicted the fall of stock rates, while working with 'Regeneron Pharmaceuticals.' With this, Shkreli caught the attention of the 'Securities and Exchange Commission.' However, the commission found nothing objectionable against him.

The following year, he obtained a bachelor's degree in business administration from 'Baruch College.'

Shkreli worked as an associate at 'Cramer Berkowitz' for 4 years and then worked as an analyst at 'Intrepid Capital Management' and 'UBS Wealth Management.'

He started his first hedge fund, 'Elea Capital Management,' in 2006. The following year, the investment bank 'Lehman Brothers' filed a lawsuit against the fund company in New York state court. Shkreli was accused of making a wrong bet. Apparently, he could not pay back.

Even though 'Lehman' won the case in October 2007, the organization collapsed before receiving the dues.

In 2008, Martin Shkreli was named the chairman of the board of the 'National Albanian American Council.'

In September 2009, he launched 'MSMB Capital Management' along with portfolio manager and his childhood friend Marek Biestek.

In February 2011, Shkreli launched the pharmaceutical company named 'Retrophin,' which operated under ‘MSMB.’ The same month, he suffered a massive loss of around $7 million for his hedge fund. He had apparently made a bad bet for the biotech company called 'Orexigen Therapeutics.'

He also lost $1 million in other trading bets, which left him with assets worth around $60,000. Hence, ‘MSMB’ stopped trading.

Shkreli, however, kept his investors updated, but he projected ‘MSMB’ as a profit-making company. He was later indicted for misleading his investors.

In 2012, Shkreli was featured on the 'Forbes' finance list of “30 under 30."

In May 2014, Martin Shkreli expressed interest in purchasing the e-sports team 'Enemy eSports' and offered them $1.2 million. The team, however, declined the offer. Shkreli then launched his team, 'Odyssey eSports,' which, unfortunately, failed to qualify for the 2015 'North American League of Legends Challenger Series.'

In February 2015, Shkreli established 'Turing Pharmaceuticals,' which made the treatment of AIDS patients with ‘Daraprim’ legal in the market. In August, his e-sports team came to be known as the organization 'Team Imagine.' It named Shkreli as the chairman of the merged team.

In November 2015, one of Shkreli's investor groups bought 'KaloBios Pharmaceuticals' and named him the CEO of the company. Soon after, the shares of the company hiked by 400%, and the company acquired the rights to market ‘Benznidazole,’ a drug to treat Chagas disease. Shkreli hiked the price of the medicine after receiving the approval of the ‘FDA.’

Shkreli was a patron of 'Collect Records.'

The ‘FBI’ accused Martin Shkreli of diverting funds out of 'Retrophin' between February 2011 and September 2014 and using it to clear personal and ‘MSMB’ debts. Additionally, he was charged with making false transactions in December 2012 to cover the routed funds as an ‘MSMB’ investment in 'Retrophin.'

He was caught in 2013. Following this, 'Retrophin' investors demanded money from Shkreli. The ‘FBI’ accused him of forcing 'Retrophin' to make a settlement with its investors without the approval of its board of directors. He had disguised the arrangements from the company's auditor, masking them as sham "consulting" agreements.

In September 2014, the 'Retrophin' board dismissed Shkreli from the CEO’s post, and in response, he lashed out at the authorities through ''tweets.''

In August 2015, 'Retrophin' filed a lawsuit worth $65 million against Shkreli, accusing him of clearing his hedge-fund debts using the company's assets.

The following month, 'Turing' was amidst a controversy for selling a $13.50 ‘Daraprim’ pill for $750. Shkreli defended the price hike, saying that the price that consumers paid for the drug was a lot lower and that the stunt was necessary to make a profit.

In an attempt to improve his image and gain federal assistance, Shkreli offered a donation of $2,700 to Bernie Sanders's election campaign in October. Sanders did take the amount but donated it to an HIV clinic. This infuriated Shkreli, and he expressed his rage against Sanders through ''tweets.''

The controversy cost him his business association with the record label 'Collect Records.'

In November 2015, 'Turing' declined to reduce the price of ‘Daraprim’ but announced a plan that would sell the drug to hospitals at half its price.

The 'U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging' set up an investigation on 'Turing.' Meanwhile, Shkreli began 'YouTube' live-streams to defend the price hike. He continued to stream from his apartment after he was out on bail, following his December arrest.

In December 2015, Martin Shkreli was charged with securities fraud and running a Ponzi-like scheme during his tenure at ‘MSMB’ and 'Retrophin.' The federal authorities filed a lawsuit in the ‘U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.’ He was arrested, but his lawyer posted $5 million as bail.

His trial was to start in June 2017. He could have been subjected to 20 years of imprisonment if proven guilty.

Following the arrest, 'KaloBios' dismissed Shkreli and filed for “Chapter 11” bankruptcy. Soon after, ‘NASDAQ’ delisted the company.

An investigation later revealed that Shkreli had managed his bail through a $45 million ‘E*Trade’ account. He wished to replace his lawyers and requested for his trial to be postponed. However, he retained his criminal defense attorney, Benjamin Brafman.

In February 2016, he was presented before the 'House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform' regarding the drug-price hike. He exercised his ‘Fifth Amendment’ right and refused to answer any important questions regarding the issue. He lived a low-key life, but a few months later, probably out of frustration due to the lack of media attention, he ''tweeted'' that he would produce a ‘Wu-Tang Clan’ album but only if Trump won the presidential election.

He, however, did not keep his word. After Trump was elected, Shkreli released low-quality live-streams of a few tracks from the album.

Shkreli was found guilty of fraud and was sentenced to 7 years in prison, with a fine of $75,000, in March 2018. He broke down and apologized to his investors and U.S. district judge Kiyo Matsumoto.

In March 2015, the 'Hunter College High School' revealed that Martin Shkreli had donated $1,000,000 to the institute.

In 2017, during his trials, Shkreli's lawyers suggested that he had had a sexual relationship with Steve Richardson, former chairman of the 'Retrophin' board of directors.

In January 2017, Shkreli's 'Twitter' account was taken down because he had published a string of ''tweets'' with the false claim of having dated journalist Lauren Duca and promoted a deceptive trend in which adults (usually pedophiles) identify themselves as children.