Martin Shkreli, the disgraced ex-pharmaceutical executive better known as “Pharma Bro,” has become a father — and said he has given his newborn a bizarre name.
In a video posted to X, Shkreli announced the arrival of his child: Torque “EZMONEY$TAXX” Shkreli.
The clip showed the infant squirming as the message “Welcome to the world!” flashed on screen. It’s unclear whether the eccentric moniker will appear on the official birth certificate.
An unidentified woman is heard in the video saying that the newborn “has a big head” while others note that the new arrival came into this world weighing 7 pounds and 7 ounces.
On X, Shkreli thanked many well-wishers who offered their congratulations, but he had some foul-mouthed and snarky responses for those who used the opportunity to remind the “Pharma Bro” of his dark past.
One X user named Skoti congratulated Martin Shkreli and another user, joking that they didn’t even know humans could gestate for 27 months. Shkreli replied, “Who said anything about human.”
Another X user commented to Shkreli that his child “looks evil” and joked the kid would “make a ton of money killing old people” when he grows up. Shkreli replied with, “Hahahaha retard.”
Details about the child’s mother remain undisclosed.
After his release from prison, Shkreli publicly set up a Google spreadsheet where women could sign up to be on his dating schedule.
The form, widely reported and discussed online, included questions about physical attributes, willingness to travel, and personal interests. Women could select or request a time slot for a date with Shkreli.
There were even references to “first date” expectations and applicants undergoing “processing” before approval. At least 14 dates were listed as approved, and the scheduling extended over weeks, except for blocked “GUY’S NIGHT” slots.
Christie Smythe, a Bloomberg journalist who first broke the story of Shkreli’s arrest, later fell in love with him while covering his trial and visiting him in prison.
She upended her life — quitting her job, divorcing her husband and freezing her eggs — in hopes of a future with him, though prison rules limited their relationship to letters, calls, and brief physical contact.
Their romance, revealed in a 2020 Elle article, drew intense public scrutiny, with Shkreli eventually distancing himself through a lawyer’s statement while Smythe continued to defend her choices.
By 2022–23, Smythe had begun dating others but described her relationship with Shkreli as a transformative chapter in her life.
Shkreli, 42, shot to infamy in 2015 as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals after hiking the price of Daraprim — a life-saving antiparasitic drug often prescribed to AIDS patients — by nearly 4,000%, from $13.50 per pill to $750.
The move sparked global outrage and made him a poster child for pharmaceutical greed.
Though the Daraprim scandal cemented his notoriety, Shkreli was ultimately convicted in 2017 on unrelated securities fraud charges tied to misleading hedge fund investors and manipulating stock in his former biotech firm Retrophin.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison, serving just over four before being released in 2022 to community confinement.
The legal fallout didn’t end after his release from prison, when a federal judge barred Shkreli from the pharmaceutical industry for life.
A federal appeals court upheld the ruling in 2024, and later that year, he was ordered to repay $64.6 million in profits from monopolizing Daraprim.
Despite his ban, Shkreli has remained a controversial public figure, often active online and still embraced by some internet fans.
The baby announcement — complete with the flamboyant “EZMONEY$TAXX” — suggests he hasn’t lost his flair for provocation.
For years, Shkreli cultivated an image as both a villain and a provocateur, relishing his role as the “most hated man in America.”
He livestreamed hours of his private life, bought the sole copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album for $2 million, and even taunted critics during his trial.
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