Pharma bro Martin Shkreli to miss 2024 Paris Olympics

Finance troll gets seven years for securities fraud

Former finance and pharmaceutical exec Martin Shkreli has been ordered to spend the next seven years in prison.

The notorious businessman and troll known as "pharma bro" was given the sentence on Friday by Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in the New York Eastern District Court. He faced up to 15 years for multiple counts of wire and securities fraud; his defense team asked for just 18 months.

Shkreli gained notoriety when his pharmaceutical company purchased the rights to an AIDS treatment drug called Daraprim and then raised the cost of it by 5,000 per cent. But it was his earlier career running a pair of hedge funds that landed him in legal trouble after he was found to have defrauded his investors.

Shkreli famously used the earnings from his various business ventures to purchase collectables such as an original Enigma machine and a $2m one-off recording of a Wu-Tang Clan album.

He would further irk the public by embracing his villain role and actively trolling both media and political figures through his social media presence and multiple live streams.

His online antics would come back to bite him in September of 2017 when, after offering a "bounty" payment for a strand of Hillary Clinton's hair, his bail was revoked and he was put behind bars pending sentencing.

The Enigma machine and Wu Tang album were subsequently seized by the government to cover Shkreli's debts.

According to reports from inside the court, Shkreli's troll persona was nowhere to be found on Friday as, prior to his sentencing, he read a tearful statement accepting blame for his actions and declaring "the only person to blame for me being here today is me, I took down Martin Shkreli."

Shkreli's lawyer also had a confession, reportedly telling the court that he wanted to punch his client in the face at various points over the course of the trial – an unusual admission by a legal representative.

No word yet on when the Wu Tang album could be released. ®