Thursday 19 May 2022 03:43 AM Ex-Bloomberg journalist dumped by 'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli says she'd 'love ... trends now

Martin Shkreli's journalist ex-girlfriend has said she is eagerly waiting for him with open arms after he was released from prison almost two years early on Wednesday. 

Christie Smythe, a former rising Bloomberg journalist who quit her job and divorced her husband to pursue a doomed relationship with Shkreli has not been shy about voicing she still has feelings for the infamous 'Pharma Bro.' 

'I spoke to him a few days ago,' Smythe told The New York Post hours after Shkreli's was released from the Allenwood state prison. 

'I hope to see him and give him a hug. I'll always have feelings for him.' 

Smythe holds no grudges after Shkreli broke up with her through his lawyers when she sensationally went public with the relationship in a 2020 Elle magazine feature.

The couple had enjoyed a secretive relationship after she broke the news of Shkreli's arrest for securities fraud while working at Bloomberg. 

Despite never consummating their relationship as they were only allowed two hugs and one close-mouthed kiss whenever she visited, the couple planned on having children and Smythe, 39, froze her eggs in hopes of one day starting a family with Shkreli.

Since the break-up, the couple has remained in contact, exchanging thoughts and supporting each other's ventures. 

Shkreli is reportedly fully supportive of Smythe's upcoming serialized memoir 'SMIRK: How I Fell in Love With the Most Hated Man in America' - a reference to his infamous smirk at a congressional hearing that scrutinized his actions, which earned him the 'Pharma Bro' alias.

On Wednesday, Shkreli was unexpectedly released and placed o a halfway home roughly two years early after serving just five of a seven-year stretch behind bars.

Shkreli had been imprisoned at Allenwood after running a pyramid scheme to prop up his pharma empire in 2015. He was already known as one of the most hated men in America for jacking up the price of a life-saving AIDS drug from $13.50 to $750. 

Shkreli's attorney, Ben Brafman, said in a statement to the New York Post: '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.' 

Smythe also told the Post her relationship with Shkreli had been misconstrued  by the media and people who believed she was being manipulated by the criminal mastermind and saw her as his victim. 

'It was such a slap in the face to the media establishment. The matter had been settled. Martin was the villain and that was that. Then I came along trying to humanize him a little and they were like, ''Wait, this woman doesn't fit the narrative. She must be crazy,''' Smythe said.  

Smythe said that she felt drawn to Shkreli right after meeting him but did not trust her own instincts at first. Eventually, however, she said she realized there was a human side to him. 

Smythe left Bloomberg in 2018 and got divorced from her husband in 2019. She  had said she would wait for Shkreli while he served the remaining of his sentence. She also froze her eggs. 

The former rising journalist then made the relationship public in an Elle profile. 

'He was very angry with me when I went public but I was worried he'd get sick in prison and nobody would stand up for him because he was so hated,' Smythe told The Post. 

'We talked about everything. The reason why Martin and I got in a relationship in the first place was we really like talking.' 

She continued: 'He's a huge nerd who inhales information. We'd talk about science, technological innovations and even his legal case because of my background as a legal reporter.'

Although she is now dating someone else, Smythe has made it clear in her many interviews after going public with the romance that she will always have love for Shrekly. 

Smythe is now a senior writer at The Business of Business and said her journalistic career, if anything, is thriving after many people had said she threw away her life for Shkreli. 

'There were many, many doomsayers who were proclaiming the end of my journalism career, but they were wrong,' Smythe told Elle last week. 

'This is a small world where people get a sense like, ''Oh she's good and she knows what she's doing.'' Sometimes that outweighs ''Oh, her ex-boyfriend is a famous white collar criminal.'' 

But according to The Daily Beast, the startup company is struggling and several workers have stopped receiving paychecks.  

Shkreli - once dubbed the 'most hated man in America' - appeared to be wearing a prison-style grey sweatshirt and pants in a series of photos he shared after leaving jail Wednesday.

In one, a selfie, he posted it on Facebook with the caption: 'Getting out of real prison is easier than getting out of Twitter prison.'

Another post shared that he had been picked up by Edmund Sullivan who shared two photos of them together, including one in a car. One final car photo showed that Shkreli appeared to be filming something. 

The 39-year-old's original prison release date was set for October 2023.

The court heard he defrauded investors by lying to them about the performance of two hedge funds he ran, withdrawing more money from those funds than he was entitled to get, and defrauding investors in a drug company, Retrophin, by hiding his ownership of some of its stock. 

He took $11million of stock from his firm and shelled it out to investors in two failed hedge funds he ran.

In 2015, he became infamous for suddenly raising the price of the drug Daraprim in 2015 by 5,000 percent - from $13.50 a pill to $750. The drug treats toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that threatens people with weakened immune systems. 

Shkreli became the 'most hated man in America' after the move.  

Twitter users were quick to give their takes on his release, with one user writing: 'Instead of releasing him, they should have increased #MartinShkreli's sentence by 5,000 [percent] overnight.' 

User Daniel Larkin questions on Twitter: 'I wonder if anyone defending Martin Shkreli were to have their utility and rent/mortgage hiked 5,000 [percent] overnight would still favorably view their landlord?'

Another user, who goes by Kara Kryptonite, said: 'If you thought Trump supporters were loyal, just wait until you meet #MartinShkreli supporters.' 

Twitter user Rodney D. Giles joked Elon Musk should consider Shkreli for a board position, writing: 'Twitter is about to get even better. Hey @elonmusk, have you considered #martinshkreli as Chair of @Twitter?' 

Another pointed out the disparity in sentencing compared to other crimes, writing: Had he stolen a loaf of bread from the supermarket, he'd be in jail for ten years. #MartinShkreli.'