NEW YORK — Martin Shkreli, the eccentric former pharmaceutical CEO notorious for a price-gouging scandal and for his snide “Pharma Bro” persona on social media, was convicted Friday on federal charges he deceived investors in a pair of failed hedge funds. Former drug company executive Martin Shkreli is surrounded by news cameras as he exits U.S. District Court following the second day of jury deliberations in his securities fraud trial in the Brooklyn borough of New York City Thomson Reuters Martin Shkreli, the former pharmaceutical CEO most known for a price-gouging scandal, was convicted Friday on two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Shkreli said during a press conference following the jury's announcement that he was "delighted by the verdict" since he was found not guilty of a key charge regarding a former company, Retrophin. Outside court, Shkreli called his prosecution “a witch hunt of epic proportions,” and he focused on the acquittals. Federal prosecutors had accused the 34-year-old of defrauding investors in his hedge funds and stealing from his old drug company, Retrophin Inc, to pay them back. As NPR's Laurel Wamsley has written about the case:



"Before he made headlines as the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, Shkreli founded a pharmaceutical company, Retrophin, and a pair of hedge funds, MSMB Capital Management and MSMB Healthcare. Prosecutors argued that he lied to investors at MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare about how well the funds were doing, and that he used money from Retrophin as a piggy bank to pay off MSMB investors, and to cover personal loans and other debts. He said that Shkreli never intended to defraud anyone, and called him an “honest kid.”

Shkreli drew national scorn two years ago when, as the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, he unapologetically raised the price of an AIDS drug from $13.50 per pill to $750.
Former pharmaceutical company executive Martin Shkreli is convicted of three counts of securities fraud in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York.