'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli convicted of securities fraud, conspiracy

Brooklyn [U.S.A.], August 5 (ANI): Martin Shkreli, who gained national notoriety in the United States two years ago for jacking up the price of an AIDS drug, has been convicted of securities fraud for mismanaging two investment funds.

A jury in Brooklyn gave guilty verdicts against the 34-year-old on two counts of securities fraud and a single count of conspiracy. He was acquitted on five other counts of conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors accused Shkreli of cheating investors out of more than $11 million between 2009 and 2014.

Shkreli is accused of mismanaging money at the investment funds Elea Capital, MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare, as well as while he was CEO of Retrophin (RTRX), a pharmaceutical company he founded in 2011.

Shkreli, as the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, is accused of unapologetically raising the price of an AIDS drug from $13.50 per pill to $750. That episode is unrelated to the fraud case.

He had defended the price hike, claiming that his company needed to profit from the drug. He also said that everyone who needs it would be able to afford the drug, Daraprim. "My case is a silly witch hunt perpetrated by self-serving prosecutors," he had once said on Facebook. (ANI)

This story has not been edited. It has been published as provided by ANI