On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to overturn his seven-year conviction for securities fraud.
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Martin Shkreli will remain in prison until he has completed his sentence. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court ensured that when it refused to overturn his seven-year conviction for securities fraud.
The high court opted to not hear an appeal of Shkreli’s conviction that had already been upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Shkreli was found guilty in 2017 on two charges of securities fraud and one charge of conspiracy to commit conspiracy fraud. According to the government’s indictment of Shkreli, the brash pharmaceutical executive and former hedge fund manager orchestrated three interrelated fraudulent schemes—a scheme to defraud investors and potential investors in MSMB Capital; a scheme to defraud investors and potential investors in MSMB Healthcare; and a scheme to defraud Retrophin, the company Shkreli founded. The indictment said Shkreli’s scheme, which caused his investors to suffer a loss of more than $11 million, was carried out over a five-year period, from 2009 to 2014.
Last year, he was sentenced to seven years in prison. Shkreli’s legal team sought an appeal based on claims that the instructions given by the trial judge to the jury were “incorrect and confusing to jurors.” Shkreli’s attorneys attempted to overturn the forfeiture by arguing that not all of the investors in the funds he managed testified. Also, the attorneys argued that the investors ultimately saw large returns from Shkreli’s actions, which should nullify the forfeiture. However, in June of this year, a three-panel team of judges from the Court of Appeals disagreed with that argument and ruled that the instructions were correctly stated.
Shkreli will serve out the rest of his sentence in a federal prison in Pennsylvania. He is eligible for release in 2023.
Mark Baker, attorney for Shkreli, told Reuters that the appeal to the Supreme Court was a “long shot.” Baker added that he and Shkreli were disappointed in the high court’s refusal to hear the case but added that they will “move on.”
Although he has been in prison for a year, Shkreli, who earned the infamous nickname “Pharma Bro” for his braggadocios defense of the 5,000% price hike on the toxoplasmosis drug Daraprim, has remained in the limelight. While in prison, Shkreli used a website to provide his insights on the pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, he also allegedly used a contraband cell phone to call the shots at Turing Pharmaceuticals, the company that he founded following Retrophin. According to reports, Shkreli used the phone to terminate the CEO who had been running the company in his absence. Most recently, Shkreli settled a lawsuit with Retrophin, the company he helmed at the time he was conducting securities fraud. It was with shares of Retrophin that he ultimately paid back investors in his hedge funds. In May, Shkreli filed his own lawsuit against Retrophin, accusing several of the company’s leadership team members of “using fraud” to oust him as CEO. Both lawsuits have now been settled.
