'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli advises Sam Bankman-Fried on potential prison time, saying he should prepare by listening to rap music and shaving his head

• Disgraced FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested and faces eight criminal charges.
• Martin Shkreli, released from prison in May, advised him on preparing for potential prison time.

The so-called "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli advised Sam Bankman-Fried on potential prison time, saying that the disgraced FTX founder should prepare by listening to rap music, deepening his voice, and shaving his head.

Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old former billionaire, was arrested in the Bahamas earlier this month after the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and has been charged on eight criminal counts. If convicted, he faces up to 115 years in prison.

Shkreli, who was released from prison this year, told the crypto journalist Laura Shin on her podcast "Unchained" that he thinks Bankman-Fried "isn't exactly gonna be somebody that fits into prison."

"You know, my advice for him includes shaving his head, my advice for him includes deepening his voice," Shkreli said. "Sam is going to have a lot of issues because he is a bit of an effeminate guy, and his demeanor, some people say autistic sort of sense or sensibility is not something that goes over well in prison."

Shkreli added that these changes in prison "could save your life."

"He probably should no longer say that he's from Stanford or something," Shkreli said.

"He can say that he's from Oakland, I think that people would rather hear him lie than hear the truth," he added. "Even if they know it's a bit of a lie, he should probably start to reinvent his background and history because the rich white kid from a good neighborhood — that story doesn't sound great."

Bankman-Fried's charges include wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, and money laundering. He was extradited to New York on December 21 and released on $250 million bail the following day.

He was ordered to surrender his passport and stay with his parents at their home in Palo Alto, California, until the trial. Another court hearing is scheduled for January 3 in Manhattan, where Bankman-Fried is expected to enter a plea.

Shkreli, a former pharmaceutical CEO, earned the moniker "pharma bro" in 2015 after he was heavily criticized for hiking the price of AIDS medication from $13 to $750.

In 2017, he was found guilty of securities fraud and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

He was released from a Pennsylvania prison in May this year after serving only part of his seven-year sentence and moved to a "community confinement" program, the US Bureau of Prisons confirmed to Insider.

He was released from the program in September.