The 15 biggest career crashes of 2015

AP, NBC News/Anthony Quintano, Getty Images

Plenty of people resolve to jump-start their careers in the new year. For some, this resolution is more of a necessity than lip service.

Here are 15 high-profile people (and teams) whose careers or reputations took a big hit in 2015. While we expect many to bounce back, others may never recover.

Former pharma CEO Martin Shkreli

Bloomberg TV screenshot

The former hedge fund manager took a lot of heat in September after he jacked up the price of a critical antiparasitic drug by more than 5,000%, from $13.50 a tablet to $750.

The controversial move prompted anger from Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, legislators to call Shkreli to Washington to explain his business practices, and a bipartisan senate investigation into price increases across the pharmaceutical industry.

Shkreli made news again in December when he was arrested by the FBI on charges of securities fraud related to events that happened while he was managing hedge funds. Following his arrest, Shkreli resigned as CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals and was fired as CEO of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals. He has pleaded not guilty to charges and is out on $5 million bond.

Former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle

AP

Federal authorities raided Fogle's Indiana home in July as part of a child-pornography investigation. Hours later, Subway announced that the company and Fogle "mutually agreed to suspend their relationship." The company severed all ties with Fogle and scrubbed every mention of him from its website and stores.

In November, Fogle pleaded guilty to charges involving at least 14 girls and boys under the age of 18 and was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison for possession and distribution of child pornography and traveling across state lines for sex with a minor.

Former president of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP Rachel Dolezal

Screenshot / Today show

The prominent civil-rights leader made headlines in June when her parents told media outlets in the Spokane area that, though Dolezal identified herself as white, black, and Native American in public appearances and on applications, her family's ancestry consists of Czech, Swedish, and German with traces of Native American heritage.

Dolezal told "Today" that she started identifying as black when she was 5 years old, noting that at the time she drew self-portraits with a brown crayon instead of a peach crayon.

Less than a week after the news broke, Dolezal announced her resignation from the NAACP, writing in a lengthy Facebook post that her decision to step down had been influenced by the "unexpected shift" in dialogue to her "personal identity in the context of defining race and ethnicity."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider