‘Pharma Bro’ Shkreli sheds tears over 7-year sentence
Prosecutors could go after Wu-Tang album
“Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli was sentenced Friday to a seven-year prison term, ordered to forfeit nearly $7.4 million, and fined $75,000 for the securities fraud and conspiracy convictions in 2017 that upended the drug industry investor’s career.
U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto imposed the punishment after Shkreli, who orchestrated a 5,000% price hike on a drug used to treat AIDS patients and others, tearfully acknowledged his guilt and asked for mercy.
The sentence gave the 34-year-old New York City businessman credit for six months of jail time he’s served.
Before his punishment was handed down, Shkreli addressed the court: “The only person to blame for me being here today is me,” he said as his voice broke and he tried to hold back tears. “There was no conspiracy to take down Martin Shkreli. I took down Martin Shkreli with my shameful and disgraceful actions.”
Matsumoto ordered him jailed in September after Shkreli asked supporters via social media to “grab” strands of hair from former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for him.
The episode was one in a series in which Shkreli, either in person or online, dismissed prosecutors as “junior varsity,” called members of Congress “imbeciles,” ridiculed reporters, boasted that he would win an acquittal, predicted he would serve little prison time and then called himself a fool in a written plea for mercy from Matsumoto.
His defense team, which recommended that he serve no more than 18 months behind bars before receiving unspecified therapy and performing 2,000 hours of community service, made a final written plea for leniency in a letter submitted to Matsumoto by lead attorney Benjamin Brafman.
The letter focused on the conundrum of Shkreli: How could the reviled poster boy for drug price hikes and degrading, bro culture verbal smackdowns also be the founder of a successful biopharmaceutical company and the would-be developer of medications for diseases that attack children?
“There are times when I want to hug him. There are times when I want to punch him in the face because he’s made my job more difficult,” Brafman said.
Days after countering defense pleas for leniency with a recommendation that Shkreli serve at least a 15-year prison term, prosecutors used the sentencing hearing to characterize him as a calculated liar who stole millions of dollars and deceived his investors.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn Kasulis argued that a long prison term was warranted because the scheme with which Shkreli was charged took place over at least a five-year period and he had shown “no respect for the law.”
Matsumoto previously ruled that the total loss in the fraud case was more than $10.4 million. She announced the forfeiture amount Monday, agreeing that prosecutors should be allowed to seek many of Shkreli’s assets, including a one-of-a-kind album by the influential hip-hop band Wu-Tang Clan, a painting by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and an album by rapper Lil Wayne.
Having the final say Friday, the judge said that “it is more than clear that Mr. Shkreli is an incredibly gifted individual who has a capacity for kindness,” a reference to letters from family, friends and acquaintances who told of his charitable giving and other contributions.
However, Matsumoto said, Shkreli was responsible for “lies,” “egregious abuses of trust” and manipulation of a public company.
At the conclusion of the sentencing, she urged Shkreli to continue to try to make a contribution in the area of orphan drugs, saying he showed a special capacity for that research.
Shkreli could have fared worse. Federal sentencing guidelines for his case called for 27 to 33.75 years of incarceration. He plans to appeal his conviction.
“There was no conspiracy to take down Martin Shkreli. I took down Martin Shkreli with my shameful and disgraceful actions.”
Martin Shkreli