Martin Shkreli, aka Pharma Bro, is an entrepreneur, stock market analyst, and pharmaceutical executive who served a prison sentence for securities fraud. He is the co-founder of MSMB Capital Management, Turing Pharmaceuticals, and Retrophin. Despite once being labeled as “the most hated man in America,” most of his wealth remains intact today.
Martin Shkreli Net Worth
According to Martin’s legal team, the majority of his money comes from his ownership of Turin Pharmaceuticals. His share in the company was worth $50 million at one point but 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 both worked as 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. At 12 years old, he bought his first shares in the tech company Compaq and by 15, he invested in Amazon.
Shkreli regularly attended Sunday school and went to Hunter College High School but dropped out in his junior year. Soon after this, he began looking for internships.
Early Career
Martin began working as an intern at Wall Street hedge fund Cramer, Berkowitz, & Co. when he was 16 years old. Here he developed an interest in biotech stocks and correctly 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. With just four years experience as an associate, the young prodigy launched a hedge fund in 2006 called Elea Capital Management.
In 2019, Shkreli founded MSMB Capital Management, where he mainly focused on short selling 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 shorting biotech stocks. He would often use Twitter to attack companies he was betting against. Martin was banned from the platform in 2017 for harassing the journalist, Lauren Duca.
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 and 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. Martin Shkreli served four years in jail and was 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. Martin has also been doing the rounds on the podcast circuit and continues uploading videos to his YouTube channel.
