A US jury on Friday convicted former hedge fund manager and pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli, once dubbed "The Most Hated Man in America," of securities fraud.
The 34-year-old, who is best known for jacking up the price of HIV drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750 overnight in 2015, was found guilty on three of eight different counts against him following a month-long trial.
The 12-member jury convicted him on two counts of securities fraud, as well as conspiracy to commit securities fraud on the fifth day of deliberations at a federal court in Brooklyn, New York.
Shkreli -- who is out on bail -- said he was "delighted" with the verdict, saying he had been acquitted on the most serious charges and thanked his defense lawyer, calling him "the greatest lawyer on the planet."
He was accused on an eight-count indictment for allegedly stealing $11 million in stock from his first pharmaceutical company Retrophin to pay off investors who lost money in two of his hedge funds.
He faced up to 20 years in prison if found guilty. On Friday his attorney told reporters that he was hopeful his client may be able to avoid a prison term.
Government prosecutors said the evidence against Shkreli was overwhelming, arguing that he told "lies upon lies" to investors for years in running a Ponzi-like scheme across multiple firms.
Shkreli declined to testify. The defense portrayed him as a troubled genius who camped out in his office in a sleeping bag for two years to build single handedly a successful pharmaceutical to ultimately repay wealthy investors.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
NEW YORK - Jury selection in the New York trial of former drug company
executive Martin Shkreli will enter its third day Wednesday, after some
potential jurors said they could not be fair to a man who gained
notoriety by raising the price of a life-saving drug more than 5,000 percent.
U.S. prosecutors have accused Shkreli, dubbed the "pharma bro," of running a Ponzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund and a drug company he once ran. Shkreli has pleaded not guilty to charges of securities and wire fraud.
The difficulty of finding a jury became apparent on Monday, with potential jurors variously describing Shkreli as "evil" and a "snake." More jurors cited the length of the trial, expected to last up to six weeks, as a hardship.
The ensuing headlines prompted Shkreli's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, to ask U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning to declare a mistrial. She refused.
The trouble continued Tuesday, as Matsumoto asked potential jurors left over from Monday whether they had been exposed to negative media reports about the previous day. Several who said they had were dismissed.
Shkreli, 34, rose to fame in 2015 by raising the price of anti-parisitic drug Daraprim to $750 a pill, from $13.50, when he was chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals. The move sparked outrage among patients and U.S. lawmakers.
Shkreli's upcoming trial is not about Turing but about Shkreli's management at his previous drug company, Retrophin Inc, and the hedge fund MSMB Capital Management between 2009 and 2012.
Prosecutors said Shkreli lied about MSMB's finances to lure investors and concealed devastating trading losses from them. They said he paid the investors back with money stolen from Retrophin, which he founded in 2011.
Tuesday's jury questioning suggested Turing might come up anyway. One juror, a pharmacist, was dismissed after saying he was familiar with the company, and that he would compare any testimony about drug pricing to his own knowledge.
Shkreli himself may have complicated the jury selection. While most criminal defendants lie low, he has sought public attention since his December 2015 arrest, lashing out at critics and boasting of his wealth on social media. He was banned from Twitter in January for harassing a journalist.
One juror was dismissed on Tuesday after saying he was familiar with Shkreli's Twitter account.
"Unfortunately, the Twitter history is just horrific," Brafman said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
