Crime & Justice

‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli Out of Jail—and Back on Facebook

OF COURSE

The infamous hedge funder promptly enjoyed a meal at Cracker Barrel on the way to his assigned halfway house.

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Carlo Allegri/File Photo via Reuters

“Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli is out of prison—and already back on Facebook.

One of the first things the smirking fraudster did when he was released early from federal lockup in Pennsylvania for transfer to a halfway house was make a joke about it.

“Getting out of real prison is easier than getting out of Twitter prison,” the 39-year-old captioned a selfie—referring to his pre-prison ban from the platform for harassing journalist Lauren Duca.

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Of course, he’s also had problems on Facebook. After Shkreli offered his followers there money for a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair, an exasperated judge revoked his bail and tossed him in jail while he was awaiting sentencing.

Shkreli—who became infamous for jacking up the price of a lifesaving drug—was convicted in 2017 of defrauding investors at two hedge funds and sentenced to seven years in prison.

He earned an early release through good behavior and completing certain programs while serving time at the Allenwood low-security correctional institution in Pennsylvania.

He was picked up by a friend who later tweeted a picture of the two at a Cracker Barrel restaurant. He’ll now reside at an undisclosed halfway house in New York until his sentence formally ends on Sept. 14.

Shkreli had to forfeit more than $7 million—including the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album he bought for $2 million—as part of his sentencing.

But a journalist who says she had a romance with Shkreli while he was in prison told Elle magazine he’s already thinking about how to make a living as a free man and is “very interested in crypto.”

Read it at CNBC

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