Martin Shkreli, who became infamous for raising the price of a lifesaving drug in 2015, was released from federal prison Wednesday, according to ABC News.
Shkreli was serving a seven-year sentence following a 2017 securities fraud conviction. He served around five years of his sentence, ABC News reported. The convictions stemmed from his work with the MSMB Capital Management and MSMB Healthcare Management hedge funds.
In a statement to ABC News, Shkreli’s defense attorney Benjamin Brafman said, “Martin Shkreli has been released from Allenwood prison and transferred to a BOP halfway house after completing all programs that allowed for his prison sentence to be shortened.”
The 39 year-old Brooklyn native was convicted in 2017, after a federal court found him guilty of lying to investors when they lost money and using funds from other investors’ accounts to pay them. https://t.co/hCQIU35Vc5
— FOX 5 San Diego (@fox5sandiego) May 18, 2022
As the head of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Shkreli raised the price of the drug Daraprim in 2015, frequently prescribed to HIV patients, by 4000%, according to the outlet.
Shkreli gained additional notoriety when he bought the sole Wu-Tang Clan album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” for $2.2 million, an album forfeited following his 2018 arrest and sold by the Justice Department for an undisclosed amount in 2021.
His lawyers unsuccessfully requested an early release from prison so Shkreli could help find a cure for the coronavirus in 2020. (RELATED: Martin Shkreli Prepares For Trial By Live-Streaming Himself Playing Video Games)
Shrekli was also fined $75,000 and ordered to forfeit $7.3 million following his 2017 conviction, according to ABC News.