Martin Shkreli, better known as “Pharma Bro,” won’t be let out of prison to help develop a treatment for the coronavirus.
U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto rejected the convicted pharmaceutical executive’s request to be released from prison on Saturday, noting that probation officials viewed it as the type of “delusional self-aggrandizing behavior” that led to his conviction. The judge said Shkreli failed to demonstrate extraordinary and compelling factors that would require a release under home confinement rules.
Shkreli is serving a seven-year prison sentence for lying to investors about the performance of two hedge funds he had run and withdrawing more money from those funds than he was entitled, as well as defrauding investors in drug company Retrophin by hiding ownership of some of his stock.
The 37-year-old is detained at a low-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. The prison has no reported cases of coronavirus among inmates or staff.
Shkreli’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman filed court papers in April asking federal authorities to release him for three months and let him live at his fiance’s New York City apartment to do lab work “under strict supervision.” In a scientific white paper released to Shkreli’s Prospero Pharmaceuticals website, the former Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO said he was asking for a “brief furlough” to “assist in research work on COVID-19.”
“Disappointed but not unexpected,” his lawyer said of the rejection.
Shkreli called the pharmaceutical industry’s response to the ongoing pandemic “inadequate” and said he could be helpful to efforts to combat the virus, crediting his background as a “successful two-time biopharma entrepreneur, having purchased multiple companies.”
