Martin Shkreli was recently sentenced to a prison term in connection with a conviction on conspiracy and fraud charges. The prison sentence shocked some people who thought that the “pharma bro” didn’t deserve a period of incarceration that long. In fact, his defense attorney was pushing for an 18-month incarceration with 2,000 hours of community service and an unspecified therapy.
In his quest for leniency, Shkreli stood before the court filled with repentance. He acknowledged his wrongdoing and admitted that he didn’t have anyone to blame but himself. This comes from the same man who put out a call on social media for people to grab a lock of Hilary Clinton’s hair and who raised the price of a life-saving AIDS drug by 5,0000 percent.
People who are facing criminal charges have to understand how their actions can impact their case. By his own defense attorney’s admission, Shkreli is a man who is easy to love and just as easy to not love. He noted how Shkreli had sometimes made his job as a defense attorney much more difficult. All defendants can take a lesson from this case and work with their defense attorney as much as possible.
Ultimately, Shkreli fared better than the prosecution hoped. The prosecutor had recommended a 15-year incarceration term and made the man seem like a person who was a calculated liar who schemed people over a five-year period.
In the end, Shkreli was sentenced to serve a total of seven years in the federal prison system. He also has to pay a $75,000 fine and forfeit $7.4 million that was connected to the securities fraud conviction. He was sent to jail in September of 2017 after the previously mentioned social media incident involving Hilary Clinton. As part of the sentence, the judge did give him credit for those six months that he was behind bars.
Source: USA Today, “Martin Shkreli sentenced to 7 years in prison for fraud, conspiracy,” Kevin McCoy, March 09, 2018
