“Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli isn’t letting his long stint in a New Jersey federal prison slow him down any — using a contraband cellphone to tweet, publish a self-congratulatory blog, and even run his notorious, price-gouging drug company, according to a new report.
Oh, and his pals call him “A–hole.”
Shkreli continues to run his pharmaceutical company, Phoenixus AG, from his 12-person prison cell in Fort Dix, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
He even used his contraband phone to dial up his hand-picked CEO recently, interrupting the exec’s safari vacation to fire him, someone familiar with the exchange told the paper.
Shkreli is using his cellphone — and prison computers — for pleasure as well as business, the paper said, the latter of which could land him in further hot water with the feds.
He flouted Twitter’s ban on his former account by creating a new one — @sriole — that doesn’t include his name, the paper said. The account has since been taken down.
He’s also keeping up a personal blog, the paper wrote, in which he compared himself to Elon Musk and quipped about the justice system.
“Memo to Roger Stone Jr.,” he posted on Jan. 25, the paper said. He then wrote, cryptically, that he hoped “a supra-judiciary entity will intervene in your case,” before adding a postscript.
“P.S. Never, ever, ever snitch.”
Shkreli is cutting his own hair with prison-issue safety scissors and has been able to maintain the same “uniform” he was seen in during numerous livestreams he had posted from his Manhattan apartment while still a free man: sweatpants and T-shirts, the paper noted.
His nickname among his new pals in lockup — who include “Krispy” and “D-Block” — is “A–hole,” one insider told the paper.
They have been watching his back, giving him protective escorts through the prison common areas and even warning him not to join the prison rock band, for which he’d hoped to play guitar, the paper said — advising him that the other band members were convicted child molesters.
More seriously, the feds are probing Shkreli’s alleged continued role at Phoenixus from behind bars, the paper said.
Phoenixus is the new name Shkreli gave to Turing Pharmaceuticals, which infamously jacked up the price of a drug used by AIDS patients from $13.50 to $750 per pill.
Shkreli is just 16 months into his seven-year sentence for securities fraud.