Martin Shkreli’s notorious brilliance in pumping up the price of Daraprim, an antiparasitic drug, by 5,000% had earned him the sobriquet – The most hated CEO – in 2015.
Now, after three years, Shkreli aka “Pharma Bro” is staring at a decade-long sentence after being convicted in an unrelated case. Karma is like a boomerang, or so they say!
Shkreli is accused of misleading his investors about two of his failed hedge funds, and is held responsible for causing losses of around $10.4 million. Shkreli hid the losses from his investors, started the drug company Retrophin and then used its assets to pay them back. He even made a profit. But the prosecution argued that Shkreli did not deserve credit for this repayment because he made risky investments without the knowledge or permission of his investors using their money.
This ruling comes as a blow to the defense lawyers who were pushing for a lighter sentence.
The court rejected the defense’s argument that there was no loss as the investors had gotten back their money along with some more. The judge pointed out that by the time Shkreli had started to move the money from Retrophin to his hedge fund, the fraud had already been spotted.
The sentence, which could go up to 20 years of imprisonment, is set for March 9.