Martin Shkreli—the former hedge fund manager and pharmaceutical executive who is best known for hiking the cost of a life-saving AIDs drug by 5,000 percent—was sentenced to 7 years in prison Friday for defrauding investors.
U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto sentenced Shkreli after he was found guilty of securities fraud in 2017.
After flouting conventions throughout his federal fraud case—live-streaming and tweeting throughout his trial, referring to the prosecution as a “witch hunt,” and threatening a reporter with unwanted sex—Shkreli, who's been described as "the most hated man in America," asked the judge for leniency earlier this month.
“I accept the fact that I made serious mistakes, but I still believe that I am a good person with much potential,” Shkreli wrote in a letter to Judge Matsumoto.
During the sentencing hearing, Shkreli's lawyer Benjamin Brafman, said his client's antics made his job more difficult.
Shkreli also addressed the judge.
In addition to his prison sentence, Matsumoto last week ordered Shkreli to hand over $7.3 million in assets, including a one-of-a-kind Wu Tang album, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” which Shkreli paid $2 million for in 2015.
