Rot in ‘Shkrel’!
Reviled Pharma Bro gets 7 years
Pharma felon Martin Shkreli got a taste of his own medicine Friday when a Brooklyn judge slapped him with seven years behind bars for securities fraud.
The ever-arrogant Shkreli, 34, broke down in tears while making one last plea for leniency before Brooklyn federal Judge Kiyo Matsumoto.
“I was never motivated by money. I was trying to grow my stature and reputation,” he blubbered as a clerk passed him a box of tissues. “The only person to blame for me being here today is me.”
“There is no conspiracy to take down Martin Shkreli,” he added, clutching a piece of paper. “I took down Martin Shkreli with my disgraceful and shameful actions. This is my fault. I’m not a victim here. I am the defendant.”
Shkreli must also undergo mental-health treatment and perform community service.
Putting Shkreli’s net worth at $27.8 million, Matsumoto imposed a $75,000 fine on top of a forfeiture order she signed earlier this week allowing feds to go after $7.3 million in assets — including his one-of-a-kind $2 million Wu-Tang Clan album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.”
Prosecutors asked for a sentence of at least 15 years.
Shkreli showed little emotion when the sentence was meted out as 84 months, prompting him to turn to a note pad to do the math. He gave his father and another relative, who were seated in the front row of the gallery, the OK symbol with his hand before being led out of the courtroom.
A jury returned a mixed verdict against Shkreli in August, convicting him of defrauding investors in his hedge funds, MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare.
The government claimed he had also looted his drug company Retrophin to pay back the investors after he lost their money in a bad trade. He was acquitted of that charge.
In deciding his sentence, Matsumoto pored over dozens of letters from Shkreli’s supporters and acknowledged his “lonely” childhood and abusive parents.
But ultimately, Matsumoto decided that his conviction was the result of an “egregious multitude of lies.”
“This case is not about Mr. Shkreli’s self-cultivated public persona or his actions or statements regarding pricing,” Matsumoto said. She was referring to Shkreli’s reputation as the “most hated man in America” for jacking up the price of Daraprim (above), a lifesaving drug, by 5,000 percent and bragging about it.
“This is a serious crime. I do feel that time is necessary to protect the public,” she said.
Shkreli’s lawyers asked for a more lenient sentence of 12 to 18 months with community service. But prosecutor Jacquelyn Kasulis cited a psychiatrist’s report that found Shkreli “cannot tolerate failure and instead will lie and rationalize his failures to perpetuate his self-image.”
Shkreli has been cooling his heels at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center since September after the judge revoked the Internet troll’s bail for setting a $5,000 bounty for a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair.
Matsumoto said that incident, as well threatening to rape a reporter if he was acquitted — a boast he made on his livestream YouTube channel — factored into her sentence.
Shkreli will get sentencing credit for time served.
I took down Martin Shkreli Shk with my disgraceful dis and shameful sha actions. — Martin M Shkreli, in court Friday