Former drug company executive Martin Shkreli is surrounded by news cameras as he exits U.S. District Court following the second day of jury deliberations in his securities fraud trial in the Brooklyn borough of New York CityThomson Reuters
Martin Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical CEO most known for a price-gouging scandal, was convicted Friday on two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
He was found not guilty on five other counts in the case — three counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
He faces as much as to 20 years in prison.
Shkreli said during a press conference following the jury’s announcement that he was “delighted by the verdict” since he was found not guilty of a key charge regarding a former company, Retrophin.
“This was a witch hunt of epic proportions,” Shkreli said. “Maybe they found one or two broomsticks, but at the end of the day we’ve been acquitted of the most important charges in this case and I’m delighted to report that.”
Still, even the mixed verdict was a blow for Shkreli, who said before the trial that he was “so innocent” that the jury and prosecutors would have to apologize to him after the case was resolved.
Shkreli made headlines in September 2015 after he raised the price of Daraprim, a drug used to treat a parasitic infection, by 5,000%.The charges for this trial weren’t related to that price hike; they stemmed from events earlier in his career while he managed hedge funds.
In court, his lawyer argued that his notoriety shouldn’t influence the case.
“You may not like Martin Shkreli,” Shkreli’s lawyer Ben Brafman said in the case’s opening statement. “And you may have reasons to hate Martin Shkreli, but that is not a basis on which to convict.”
Prosecutors on the other hand, had claimed that starting in 2009, Shkreli lost money in two of the hedge funds he ran, hid that from his investors, and instead paid them back with money he obtained from Retrophin.
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