Following five days of a deliberation, a Brooklyn-based jury found Martin Shkreli guilty of two counts of securities fraud as well as conspiracy.
The 34-year old businessman was acquitted of five charges of conspiracy.
Shkreli’s sentence hasn’t yet been set.
After tossing a nervous smirk to his legal counsel, Skhreli headed outside to decry the prosecution as “a witch hunt of epic proportions.”
Pausing, he admitted, “Maybe they found one or two broomsticks, but at the end of the day we were acquitted of the most important charges in the case.”
Shkreli said he and his attorney were “delighted in many ways” by the jury’s decision to acquit the five conspiracy charges.
CNN Money reported that less than hour after being convicted, Shkreli was livestreaming a self-shot video to YouTube.
Holding a beer and speaking to the camera, Shkreli speculated that his sentence would be “close to nil,” despite each charge of securities fraud carrying a potential sentence of up to twenty years in prison. Even if he does end up serving time behind bars, he said, it would probably be in a so-called ‘Club Fed’ where he’d get to “play basketball and tennis and Xbox” for a couple months before being released.
The charges brought up against Shkreli are far from petty – federal prosecutors allege that he cheated investors out of $11 million from Elea Capital, MSMB Capital, and MSMB Healthcare, all while working as Chief Executive Officer of Retrophin.
According to the prosecution, Shkreli lied about the health of the funds under his care. He also siphoned out finances and applied them to his own personal loans.
“Shkreli misled investors in his self-indulgent scheme,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney. “Today’s conviction shows that those who corrupt the market will ultimately be brought to justice.”
Once described by The Daily Beast as ‘the most hated man in America,’ Shkreli attracted public scorn as the head of Turing Pharmaceuticals.
During his tenure as Turing’s chief executive officer, Shkreli boosted the cost of a certain sort of life-saving AIDS medication from $13.50 per pill to $750. Unapologetic, the businessman said his company needed to turn a profit from its sales of Daraprim.
The conviction came as a rare victory for federal prosecutors, who have struggled in recent years to control corruption and corporate crime on Wall Street.
“Rarely has a white-collar criminal defendant evoked hatred and scorn from public [sic] in the way Shkreli has. Shkreli’s willingness to lie, step on people, flaunt his wealth and look down on others made him a villain that many wanted to see go down in flames,” said attorney James Goodnow of Fennemore Craig to The Washington Post.
David Chase, a former prosecutor for the Securities and Exchange Commission, told the Post there’s a possibility Shkreli’s cockiness might be muted by a harsh sentence.
“He’s likely going to second-guess his decision not to plea and he’ll have a long time to think about it,” said Chase. “Some offers from the government are no-brainers that make sense and others aren’t. Some defendants feel they are better off rolling the dice.”
Sources
Martin Shkreli convicted of securities fraud, conspiracy
Martin Shkreli is found guilty of three of eight securities fraud charges
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