Martin Shkreli will serve seven years for securities fraud, a judge ruled Friday in a court in Brooklyn, New York.
At the sentencing, Shkreli was seen crying as he apologized for his crimes.
The notorious “Pharma Bro” who gained public attention after he increased the price of Daraprim, a life-saving drug his company Turing Pharmaceuticals sold, by 5500%, was found guilty on three counts of securities and wire fraud in August.
In February, the judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, ruled that Shkreli could be held responsible for $10.4 million in losses after he misled investors about hedge funds he operated, despite the fact that he used money from another fund, Retrophin, to pay back those investors. He was acquitted of looting Retrophin to reimburse investors in the two hedge funds.
Though Judge Matsumoto has certainly not taken it easy on Shkreli throughout the case, the ruling is more mild than the 20 years he could have served for his crimes.
On Mar. 5, the judge ordered him to turn the $7.4 million he made from his crimes over to the government (including the one-and-only copy of a Wu Tang clan album he purchased and proceeded to hold ransom last year).
Shkreli, who has been in jail since September when he put out a $5,000 bounty on a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair, was hoping for a sentence of 16 months or less.
This sentencing was not related to that bounty or to the inflation of drug prices. This jail time only addresses his misleading investors about his MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare hedge funds.
“The fact that he continues to remain unaware of the inappropriateness of his actions or words demonstrates that he may well be an ongoing danger or risk to the community,” Matsumoto said when ordering the pharma bro to remain behind bars prior to sentencing on Friday.
Shkreli said in a letter that jail “has some redeeming qualities.” He plans to appeal his conviction.
