Although he’s barely into a seven-year prison sentence, the smell of money is still too much for former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli to resist.
Citing interviews with multiple unnamed sources, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Shkreli uses a contraband mobile phone to control his latest project, Phoenixus, a Swiss drug company that operates out of Manhattan. Reportedly, employees have already been interviewed by the FBI.
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Shkreli was sentenced last year after being found guilty of securities and wire fraud related to the use of Retrophin, another drug company he founded, to pay investors he had defrauded through two hedge funds he also ran. The charges were unrelated to the incident for which Shkreli became infamous when, as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, he raised the price of the toxoplasmosis drug Daraprim from $13.50 per pill to $700.
It’s somewhat reminiscent of an early subplot in Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black,” where the main character attempts to operate her personal care products business out of prison with the help of her sister. It’s also illegal, with the inmate handbook at the federal prison in Ft. Dix, New Jersey, explicitly prohibiting inmates from running businesses, according to the Journal.
Other tidbits from the story providing a glimpse into Shkreli’s prison life include that he is guarded by two prison friends, nicknamed “Krispy” and “D-Block,” who affectionately gave him the nickname “A–hole” and persuaded him not to join a prison band as guitarist upon discovering his would-be bandmates were in for child molestation.
Still, Phoenixus’s business model apparently differs from Turing’s in that, rather than increasing the prices of off-patent drugs, it will buy rare drugs in development and invest in them.
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It’s hard to say what will end up happening to Shkreli as a result of the Journal’s story. Given the illegality, it’s hard to imagine his venture and use of a contraband cell phone falling under the definition of “good behavior.” Nevertheless, the outrage that he sparked with Daraprim – despite its relatively small impact – undoubtedly helped jump start a serious conversation about drug pricing in the US. Since then, the Trump administration has made lowering drug prices a top policy concern, while the Senate Finance Committee last week grilled top executives from seven of the world’s largest drugmakers on the topic.
Photo: Mark Wilson, Getty Images
