Martin Shkreli became notorious for raising the price of a potentially life-saving HIV drug by 5,000 per cent overnight. However, his criminal fraud trial in Brooklyn, New York had nothing to do with that. His trial was about whether he lied to investors, to which he was convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy on August 4.
Shkreli was accused of lying to investors about two, now-defunct, hedge funds that he managed, MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare. Prosecutors said he ran a Ponzi-like scheme, using investors’ money to start a drug company, Retrophin Inc., and later paying them off with $11 million USD of Retrophin assets.
The jury found the 34-year-old guilty of two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. He was acquitted of fraud charges related to Retrophin.
Court documents showed Shkreli lied about everything from the value of the funds he managed to the performance of the funds.
Although investors never ended up losing any money, prosecutors were able to convince the jury that he lied to investors. It’s illegal to make material misstatements of fact to investors.
Shkreli faces up to 2o years behind bars.
Read more at Fortune
