‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli released from prison early

Martin Shkreli, the "Pharma Bro" entrepreneur who astronomically increased the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000%, and became a symbol of corporate Wall Street greed, has been released from prison.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said he had been released to a halfway house.

"We can confirm Martin Shkreli transferred on May 18, 2022, from the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Allenwood Low to community confinement overseen by the Bureau of Prisons' (BOP) New York Residential Reentry Management (RRM) Office," the statement said.

Shkreli's lawyer Benjamin Brafman confirmed his release, saying: "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 is expected to be released from community confinement on 14 September 2022. He was originally due to be released from prison in September 2023.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Shkreli posted a selfie of him in a car wearing a grey sweater and black glasses with the caption: "Getting out of real prison is easier than getting out of Twitter prison."

Earlier this year, the 39-year old was barred for life from the pharmaceutical industry and fined $64.6m by a US court after the Federal Trade Commission and seven states brought a case against him.

Shkreli had previously been the chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals, a company that hiked the price of Daraprim, a life-saving drug used to treat Aids, malaria and cancer by over 5,000% in 2015.

After his company acquired the Daraprim, it raised the price from $13.50 a tablet to $750 a tablet, prompting national outcry.

In 2018, Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison after being found guilty of two counts of securities fraud and one count of securities fraud conspiracy.

In addition to being banned for life from serving in any capacity in the pharmaceutical industry, Shkreli has also been permanently barred from running a public company.