Martin Shkreli, aka Pharma Bro, is an entrepreneur, stock market analyst, and pharmaceutical executive from the United States who is presently serving a prison sentence for securities fraud. He is the co-founder of MSMB Capital Management, Turin Pharmaceuticals, and Retrophin. But even after being labeled once as “the most hated man in America,” most of his wealth still remains today.
Martin Shkreli Net Worth
According to Martin’s own legal team, the majority of his money comes from his ownership of Turin Pharmaceuticals. His share in the corporation was worth $50 million at one point. It dropped to $8 million back in 2018. As of 2022, Shkreli’s net worth is estimated to be $70 million.
Background
Martin came from a humble family. He was born in Coney Island Hospital on March 17, 1983, to Albanian and Croatian immigrants who were both janitors in Brooklyn. He grew up in Sheepshead Bay with two sisters and a brother in a working-class neighborhood.
His interest in stocks started when he was playing chess with a neighbor as a child. And at the young age of 12, he bought his first stock shares in the tech company Compaq. At 15, he invested in Amazon.
Shkreli was a regular attendee of Sunday school. He attended ‘Hunter College High School’ until his junior year when he dropped out. Soon after this, he started working as a teen.
Early Career
After leaving high school, Martin began working as an intern at Wall Street hedge fund Cramer, Berkowitz, and Company when he was 16 years old. While working there, he predicted that Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ stock price would plummet.
His prognosis proved to be right, drawing the Securities and Exchange Commission’s attention. He continued his career as a financial analyst at Intrepid Capital Management and UBS Wealth Management after four years of being an associate.
Elea Capital Management, his first hedge fund, was launched in 2006. He founded MSMB Capital Management in 2009, where he proceeded to short biotech equities. After two years, in 2011, he created Retrophin, a company that develops medicines for rare conditions.
Conviction
Shkreli made a name for himself on Wall Street by shorting biotech stocks in his ten years there. He would often use Twitter to attack companies he didn’t like. He was banned from the platform in 2017 for harassing the journalist, Lauren Duca. However, this was not why he was arrested.
In February 2015, Shkreli cofounded Turing Pharmaceuticals. But less than a year after its inception, the firm was already facing allegations. Turing was questioned about their sudden overpricing of the AIDS drug, Daraprim. Martin stated that the corporation needed to profit from it.
He was arrested in December 2015. Christie Smythe, former Bloomberg News reporter and Shkreli’s alleged girlfriend, was the one who brought the news of his detention. On August 4, 2017, a trial jury convicted him guilty of one count of conspiracy and two charges of securities fraud. After years of imprisonment, Martin Shkreli is set to be freed on September 13, 2023.
