The U.S. Bureau of Prisons opened an investigation into pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli’s behavior behind bars, the Wall Street Journal reports. Shkreli, 35, has been running his former drug company, Phoenixus AG, from his cell in Fort Dix, N.J., via a contraband smartphone. He has served 16 months of a seven-year sentence for securities fraud. A U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesperson declined to comment on Shkreli’s living conditions or on whether he had been separated from the prison’s general population. The department’s registry shows he is housed at Fort Dix, a sprawling complex of 4,000 male prisoners an hour east of Philadelphia.
Shkreli gained world-wide infamy in 2015 as chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals—later renamed Phoenixus—when the company acquired U.S. marketing rights to a rare drug and boosted the sticker price fiftyfold. The move, along with Shkreli’s seeming lack of contrition, earned him the nickname “pharma bro” and led international media to label him “the most hated man in America.” Now, fellow inmates call him “asshole”—it’s intended as a compliment. Instead of the chess matches he favored before prison, Shkreli now plays poker and has covered gambling debts of other prisoners. He has a keen eye on the pharmaceutical industry, poring over industry research and frequently posting on Twitter Inc. despite a ban from the social-networking service. The account was deleted Tuesday. Federal law forbids federal inmates from having cellphones. If convicted of having one, Shkreli could receive an additional year in prison and a fine. The BOP “inmate discipline program” describes possession of a cellphone as a “great severity level” offense, on the same level as killing, escape, taking a hostage and sexual assault.