Martin Shkreli pays price for arrogance – and 'egregious multitude of lies'
Martin Shkreli sounded uncharacteristically contrite in the letter he wrote to the judge last week, shortly before his sentencing. “I was a fool,” the disgraced pharmaceutical boss wrote in a last-ditch attempt to head off a heavy sentence. “I have learned a very painful lesson.”
On Friday in Brooklyn, Judge Kiyo Matsumoto seemed unconvinced, handing down a seven-year sentence following Shkreli’s conviction last August on charges that he deceived investors in a pair of failed hedge funds. Prosecutors had asked for Shkreli – dubbed the “Pharma Bro” – to be given 15 years in prison. Legal experts said he could easily get 10. Matsumoto said Shkreli had shown remorse, but the case was about an “egregious multitude of lies” and mentioned that Shkreli’s bail was revoked by after he offered a $5,000 bounty for a Hillary Clinton hair – with the follicle.
John Coffee of Columbia law school said Shkreli’s crimes were similar to insider trading, and the longest sentence handed out in such a case is the 11 years given to the hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam. Rajaratnam was convicted of trading on illegal tips in the biggest such case brought in decades. That case was “longer-term, more egregious and absolutely predatory”, said Coffee.
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