Convicted “Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli was released from federal prison and into a halfway house Wednesday, less than five years into a seven-year sentence, his attorney said.
“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,” his attorney, Ben Brafman, said in a statement.
A spokesperson at FCI Allenwood — the minimum-security federal prison in Pennsylvania where Shkreli was being held — confirmed the release, and told The Post that Shkreli was projected to be released from a New York State halfway house in September.
Shkreli’s attorney said that he had advised his client to make no further statements while in the halfway house.
But Shkreli, who is banned from Twitter, didn’t wait long to get back to posting online. On Facebook, he shared a selfie with the caption, “Getting out of real prison is easier than getting out of Twitter prison.”
Shkreli was convicted in 2017 of defrauding investors in a series of his hedge funds.
By then, he was already a renowned and reviled figure for jacking up the price of anti-parasitic drug Daraprim as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals in 2015.
The drug, which is used to treat infections that occur in patients suffering from cancer and AIDS, skyrocketed in price overnight.
A single pill went from $13.50 to $750 — a staggering increase of 5,500 percent.
At the time, Shkreli defended the price hike as capitalism at work.
Shkreli has since been barred from ever working in the pharmaceutical industry again. He has also been ordered to return the $64 million in profits the price gouging made his firm.
Despite his notoriety, Shkreli’s release was met with praise from some corners of the internet.
Edmund Sullivan — CFO of a firm called The Project M Group — announced Skhreli’s freedom with a photo on Twitter of the ex-con in the back seat of a car.
“Picked up this guy hitchhiking. Says he’s famous,” he quipped.
Picked up this guy hitchhiking. Says he’s famous. pic.twitter.com/7XrQaII7lq
— Edmund Sullivan (@edmundsullivan) May 18, 2022
Multiple Twitter users replied to Sullivan’s post with “LET’S GOOO” or otherwise welcomed Shkreli back from prison. Several expressed hope that Shkreli would soon be back on the social media platform after he was booted in 2017 for harassing Teen Vogue editor Lauren Duca.
It’s unclear how the “Pharma Bro” is linked to Sullivan, who also posted a photo of himself in a “Free Shkreli” shirt with Shkreli in what appeared to be a Cracker Barrel Wednesday.
A Project M Group slide deck, reviewed by The Post, describes Sullivan as a private investor with “15+ years experience in media and healthcare investing,” and claims he’d raised some $100 million in investments for the company. The Project M Group owns music and tattoo media brands Revolver, The Hard Times, and Inked.
Christie Smythe, the former Bloomberg reporter who fell in love with Shkreli after covering him, declined to comment to The Post on Wednesday.
On Twitter, she addressed the apparent adoration of his fans.
“HOW MANY JOURNALISTS have claimed ‘everyone’ hates Martin Shkreli and he has no ‘fans?’ But we all know that’s not true. You can see that today,” she wrote.
