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Martin Shkreli, the widely-reviled pharmaceutical industry financier who became known as » Pharma Bro » after buying the patent for an HIV drug and raising the price 5,000 percent, was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday for defrauding investors.
Prosecutors argued for a sentence that was double that, while the defense requested 18 months or less. Shkreli, reportedly, sobbed before the judge, cutting a remorseful figure absent of the supercilious, headline-grabbing antics that made him into » the world’s heel, » in his words.
« The only person to blame for me being here is me, » he said in federal court in New York. « There is no government conspiracy to take down Martin Shkreli. I took down Martin Shkreli with my disgraceful and shameful actions. »
« This case is not about Mr. Shkreli’s self-cultivated public persona, » the judge explained, « nor his controversial statements about politics or culture. »
But the 34-year-old’s reputation preceded him. Shkreli first made headlines when he was the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals and hiked prices of the lifesaving HIV drug Daraprim to a whopping $750 per pill — a move that, while not illegal, made him widely reviled, a cartoonish caricature of evil that he reveled in.
Shkreli was convicted of a separate securities fraud case last year. Aside from his prison sentence, for which Shkreli received credit for the six months he has already served, he was fined $75,000 and will have to forfeit $7.3 million in personal assets and in a brokerage account. Shkreli previously purchased a one-of-a-kind record album by hip hop legends The Wu-Tang Clan, the sole copy to have been produced, for $2 million; that album will be included in the forfeiture once Shkreli has a chance to appeal, the judge said.
Shkreli has been incarcerated since September, when the judge revoked his bail after he told his online followers he would pay $5,000 to anyone who could secure a lock of Hillary Clinton’s hair. Previously, Shkreli had been booted from Twitter for harassing a female journalist.
Assistant U. S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis argued that Shkreli deserved a harsh sentence not because he is « the most hated man in America, » according to the Chicago Tribune, but because he was convicted of a serious crime.
