Martin Shkreli, also known as “Pharma Bro,” was released from a Pennsylvania prison and transferred to a halfway house located in New York State, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. The former pharmaceutical chief is scheduled to be released from his halfway house by September.
“I am pleased to report that 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,” Shkreli's attorney, Ben Brafman, reportedly stated in an email. “While in the halfway house I have encouraged Mr. Shkreli to make no further statement, nor will he or I have any additional comments at this time.”
After being released from jail, Pharma Bro went on Facebook and posted a message saying, “Getting out of real prison is easier than getting out of Twitter prison.” Shkreli was barred from Twitter in 2017 following an incident in which he sought out female writer Lauren Duca–who was one of his loudest critics–asking if she would be his partner at the 2017 inauguration of President Donald Trump. Shkreli was also convicted in September 2017 after he posted a satirical note on Facebook offering an amount of $5,000 to anybody who grabbed a strand of hair from Hillary Clinton.
The 39-year-old, once called “the most hated man in America,” became a household name after he increased the cost of the AIDS drug Daraprim by 5,000 percent. In 2016, Shkreli auctioned off a chance for anyone to hit or punch his face. Shkreli was initially sentenced on March 9, 2018, to seven years' imprisonment in a fraud case that was not related to the Daraprim issue.
