Martin Shkreli, aka Pharma Bro, is an entrepreneur, stock market analyst, and pharmaceutical executive from the United States who served 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 intact 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 2023, 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. Shkreli 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 shares in the tech company Compaq. At 15, he invested in e-commerce giant Amazon.
Shkreli was a regular attendee of Sunday school. He went to Hunter College High School and dropped out in his junior year. Soon after this, he started working as a teenager.
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 call 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.
The young prodigy launched his first hedge fund in 2006 called Elea Capital Management. He founded MSMB Capital Management in 2009, where he proceeded to short biotech equities. After two years, he set up Retrophin, a company that develops medicines for rare conditions.
Conviction and Release
During his ten-year stint on Wall Street, Shkreli made a name for himself by shorting biotech stocks. He would often use Twitter to attack companies he was betting against. 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 co-founded 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 he raised the price to fund its research into toxoplasmosis.
He was arrested in December 2015. Christie Smythe, former Bloomberg News reporter and Shkreli’s alleged girlfriend, was the one who broke the news. On August 4, 2017, a trial jury convicted him guilty of one count of conspiracy and two charges of securities fraud. After four years in jail, Martin Shkreli got released early in May 2022.
What is he Doing Now?
Following his release, Shkreli has been working on Druglike, a software platform aiming to support new pharmaceutical drugs. Druglike’s DAO dropped 90% after an alleged hack in August 2022 but made a small recovery. This new venture will test the boundaries of his ban from the pharma industry.
