Farewell, Martin Shkreli: ‘Pharma Bro’ Convicted on 3 Counts of Fraud and Conspiracy

Martin Shkreli was found guilty on two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud. He is facing up to 20 years in prison.

Martin Shkreli
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Martin Shkreli

This may be goodbye for Martin Shkreli. The 34-year-old "Pharma Bro" was found guilty on two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit fraud at a federal court in Brooklyn. He faces up to 20 years in prison.

Shkreli was convicted of only three out of eight counts. The charges stem from his time managing the hedge funds of MSMB Capital Management and MSMB Healthcare between 2009 and 2014. The government has said that Shkreli defrauded investors and stole upwards of $11 million from his company Retrophin to pay the defrauded investors back. Shkreli did not testify. The deliberation took five days.

The trial was an odd one: Shkreli reportedly read a book during the prosecution’s rebuttal argument; the defense talked about how Shkreli brushed his teeth often due to his anxiety; and Shkreli held livestream sessions after court. 

Prosecutor Jacquelyn Kasulis​ remarked that the trial "has exposed Martin Shkreli for who he really is—a con man who stole millions." Following the verdict, Shkreli told reporters, "This was a witch hunt of epic proportions."

"Pharma Bro" Shkreli came into the national spotlight in 2015 after his company Turing Pharmaceuticals inflated the price of life-saving AIDS medications by more than 5,000 percent. Shkreli, a noted bad and terrible human being, has been in the news for doing a variety of bad and terrible things. From trying to buy the gun George Zimmerman used to kill Trayvon Martin to harassing women online to a very long list that I'm not even going to get into. 

Though Shkreli is facing up to 20 years in prison, it's likely he'll receive, and serve, less than that

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