Martin Shkreli Convicted of Fraud

Ryan Fredrick, Reporter

As of September 14,  Martin Shkreli is prisoner “#87850-053” at a Brooklyn Federal jail. Shkreli  is known for raising the price of the life-saving drug, Daraprim, to $750 from $13. More recently, Shkreli was charged for security fraud related to hedge funding, according to CNN.com.

“It is made worse by the fact Shkreli has defended raising the price, because it makes him and his investors more money… He also said he wished he had raised the price more.  I understand businesses are here to make money, but it seems he had no compassion for the people who needed this life saving medicine,” government teacher Melissa Stephens said.

Daraprim, used to treat victims of A.I.D.S, was raised 500 percent. The less wealthy could not get access to this drug, and ended up dying from it, according to the article from CNN.com.

“People will always talk trash on Shkreli, because what he’s doing is immoral, but bottom-line, he’s making money. It’s an immoral business decision, but he’s making that money, and that’s showbiz baby,” senior Luke DeRousse said.

Some people think that Shkreli was justified in what people call his immoral decisions, while he says he was unjustly prosecuted.

“It gratifies me personally that this was a witch hunt of epic proportions… Maybe they found one or two broomsticks, but at the end of the day we’ve been acquitted of the most important charges of this case,” Shkreli said during his hearing in June.

Of the eight charges Shkreli was charged with, he was only convicted of three. Two of the charges were Securities fraud and one was conspiracy to commit securities fraud. The other five were related to hedge funding and fraud.

“There’s a good chance of no jail sentence at all. If it’s a year, that’s four months at Club Fed. I’ll play basketball and tennis and X-Box, and be out on these streets in four months,” Shkreli said.

Shkreli will likely reside in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center until at least January 16, when his sentencing takes place. He is facing up to 20 years in prison, but he is unlikely to get the maximum sentence because his victims all profited from his misdoings. Shkreli could also be getting more time based on a tweet he sent earlier in September offering $5,000 to anybody who could get a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair, according to NBC.com.