An Elle magazine profile detailing the love story between "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli and the reporter who broke the news of his arrest has once again thrust Shkreli back into the headlines.
Shkreli became pharma’s most-loathed CEO in 2015 after Turing raised the price of Daraprim, which is used to prevent infections in HIV or transplant patients and treat toxoplasmosis, by 5,000 percent overnight. In the midst of the backlash, Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud and sentenced to seven years in a prison near Philadelphia.
In the detailed and mind-boggling profile that recently hit the internet, former Bloomberg News journalist Christie Smythe recounts how she fell for Shkreli while covering the federal fraud case against him. In a nine-month timespan in 2018, Smythe quit her job, moved out of her apartment and divorced her husband. Smythe has also authored a book about Shkreli.
But things seemingly took a turn for the worse after Shkreli heard about the article in Elle magazine. According to Smythe, Shkreli stopped communicating with her upon learning about the article, and appears to have broken up with her.
According to the profile, Smythe says she will continue to wait for Shkreli while he serves the remaining years of his sentence.