FTC moves to hold Shkreli in contempt over pharma ban — SkimNews
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- The FTC and seven states asked a federal court to hold Martin Shkreli in contempt for "flagrantly and repeatedly" violating a court order that banned him from the pharmaceutical industry.
- Per the article's headline, the FTC is also demanding Shkreli divest his pharma stocks.
- Shkreli became nationally known as "pharma bro" in the 2010s for "imperiously" defending a 5,000% price hike on the anti-parasitic drug daraprim.
- He was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in 2018 for defrauding investors, and was released from prison in 2022.
- Before his release, a court permanently banned him from working in the drug industry, ruling he had illegally tried to block generic competition to daraprim.
Why it matters: The contempt motion signals that federal and state regulators won't treat a completed prison sentence as the end of Shkreli's accountability — a judge finding him in contempt could trigger additional penalties on top of the lifetime industry ban he already faces.
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