Martin Shkreli in 2015 had decided to increase the price of a life-saving drug by 5 thousand percent. A federal court found him guilty of financial crimes related to his time as a hedge fund manager.
NEW YORK - A braggart, braggart, cheat, who has become the symbol of the most sinister American "pharmaceutical capitalism", Martin Shkreli was convicted on Friday of financial fraud and criminal association, after a five-week trial in the Brooklyn court. "I am truly innocent," the "half-wolf of Wall Street" declared at the first hearing.
And even after his conviction, which he quickly dismissed as "a witch hunt of epic proportions" (using Trumpian language), he boasted that he had been acquitted of some more serious crimes. But beyond the many effective statements, which continue to delight the tabloids, Shkreli, who is just 34 years old, now risks twenty in prison.
Its fame is linked to Daraprim, a medicine to cure infections referred to overnight as chief executive of a pharmaceutical company had raised the price from $13.50 per pill to $750. That astronomical increase of 5 thousand percent, although allowed by the market laws that dominate American healthcare, had made him a target of evening talk shows (he was nicknamed "Pharma Bro"), of Democratic candidates in the last electoral campaign and above all of an exasperated public opinion for the cost of drugs, which in the United States are much higher than in all other countries.
But it was not this bad reputation, deserved as it was, at the basis of the investigation that kept New York magistrates busy for four years, as much as the propensity of "Pharma Bro" to defraud investors and to manipulate the money of hedge funds and companies that he managed as if they were all his own.
Shkreli led two funds, MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare. In 2011 some of his risky speculations on the stock market proved disastrous. But the young "wolf" hid his losses by telling a series of lies to investors who were beating cash and asking for clarifications: "It's all right", he replied calmly. "Lawyers and auditing firms" have the complete picture of the situation. But it wasn't true: it distorted the balance sheets.
Then he secretly used embezzled funds from a pharmaceutical company he'd taken control of, Retrophin Inc, to repay impatient creditors. This too was certainly not regular. And the prosecution has demonstrated his systematic violation of all financial laws and regulations, as well as defrauding shareholders.
The trial also went unusually. Presiding Judge Kiyo Matsumoto was even forced to order Shkreli to remain silent in the courtroom and in front of reporters to prevent him from influencing the jurors. He then started reading books in the dock, as if the judicial process didn't concern him, letting the defense lawyer scramble to prove that the fraud hadn't occurred because the investors had been repaid. A thesis that obviously did not convince the jurors, who convicted him of at least three of the eight crimes charged against him.
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