On August 3, 2017, former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli and lead attorney Benjamin Brafman arrive at District Court for the fourth day of jury deliberations in their securities fraud trial in Brooklyn, New York.
Amr Alfiqi | Reuters
The Federal Trade Commission and seven states on Tuesday asked a federal judge to hold notorious “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli in contempt for “blatant and repeated violations” of a 2022 civil court order permanently banning him from the pharmaceutical industry.
The FTC and states say Shkreli has violated court orders since his release from prison in May 2022 by publicly trading at least 60 pharmaceutical industry stocks and “expressing opinions about the business and operations of numerous pharmaceutical industry companies,” according to a press release.
The contempt motion asks the judge to order Shkreli to “sell his current holdings in the drug company’s stock” and “pay a penalty equal to his profits (plus pre-judgment interest) from trading in the drug company’s stock without the ability to offset his losses.”
The complaint also asks the judge to make Shkreli “face clear and escalating consequences for any future violations, including monetary fines and possible imprisonment.”
“Permanent industry bans are effective only when violations are accompanied by consequences commensurate with the severity of the order,” FTC Commissioner Mark Meador said in a statement.
The court order stems from a finding that Mr. Shkreli orchestrated an anti-competitive scheme to perpetuate his company’s monopoly on the anti-parasitic drug Daraprim. Shkreli raised the price of Daraprim from $17.50 per pill to a whopping $750 per pill.
In addition to permanently banning Shkreli from the drug industry, the judge ordered him to forfeit more than $64 million in money.
CNBC has reached out to Shkreli’s attorney for comment.
The civil case that led to the order is unrelated to the criminal case that ended with Mr. Shkreli’s 2017 conviction on securities fraud charges related to a hedge fund he once ran and another pharmaceutical company he founded. Mr. Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in federal prison in 2018, and was released in 2022 after receiving credit for time spent in prison.
“After a full hearing, the court found that Martin Shkreli’s actions drove up prescription drug prices for American patients and blocked the entry of lower-cost generic drugs,” Daniel Guarnera, Director of the FTC’s Competition Bureau, said in a statement Tuesday.
“When a court issues a judgment, whether it’s a settlement or a post-trial order, the defendant must fulfill its obligations,” Guarnera said. “Today’s action should serve as notice that the FTC will not hesitate to crack down on violations of court orders.”
