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Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

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Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#101

Post by king_magic »

Clubber wrote: post #83
9889095r3jh wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No here's what actually happened. 1. Shkreli lied to investors. Regardless of whether the investors eventually made money, Shkreli put them needlessly at risk, and broke the law. 2. He could have gone away for 15 years, or walked away with a slap on the wrist. The judge sentenced him for 7 years in prison, given the fact that this guy showed no remorse, and thought it made him likely to reoffend, perhaps with more se…

Yes, but you are getting distracted by exactly what you were supposed to get distracted by. He was hated because he hiked drug prices (and he was a dick). The news jumped all over this story and he was a perfect scapegoat. Sadly, It's still perfectly legal to corner a drug and hike the prices. That was the bigger crime, and it continues to go on, costing taxpayers and patients millions if not billions of dollars, and…

I initially did not agree with you, then re-read your posts several time, and have come to the conclusion you are absolutely right. Cornering a drug and hiking the price simply for profit and no other legitimate reason (supply chain issue, newer/more effective version, etc...) should be illegal. It is a crime, maybe not in the letter of the law, but ethically, it's a crime.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#102

Post by twblalock »

Clubber wrote: post #83
9889095r3jh wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No here's what actually happened. 1. Shkreli lied to investors. Regardless of whether the investors eventually made money, Shkreli put them needlessly at risk, and broke the law. 2. He could have gone away for 15 years, or walked away with a slap on the wrist. The judge sentenced him for 7 years in prison, given the fact that this guy showed no remorse, and thought it made him likely to reoffend, perhaps with more se…

Yes, but you are getting distracted by exactly what you were supposed to get distracted by. He was hated because he hiked drug prices (and he was a dick). The news jumped all over this story and he was a perfect scapegoat. Sadly, It's still perfectly legal to corner a drug and hike the prices. That was the bigger crime, and it continues to go on, costing taxpayers and patients millions if not billions of dollars, and…

Don’t assume that people who disagree with you are distracted or deluded.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#103

Post by mannykannot »

Clubber wrote: post #83
9889095r3jh wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No here's what actually happened. 1. Shkreli lied to investors. Regardless of whether the investors eventually made money, Shkreli put them needlessly at risk, and broke the law. 2. He could have gone away for 15 years, or walked away with a slap on the wrist. The judge sentenced him for 7 years in prison, given the fact that this guy showed no remorse, and thought it made him likely to reoffend, perhaps with more se…

Yes, but you are getting distracted by exactly what you were supposed to get distracted by. He was hated because he hiked drug prices (and he was a dick). The news jumped all over this story and he was a perfect scapegoat. Sadly, It's still perfectly legal to corner a drug and hike the prices. That was the bigger crime, and it continues to go on, costing taxpayers and patients millions if not billions of dollars, and…

In this dialog, only one party has constructed a narrative that involves drug prices, and it is not 9889095r3jh.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#104

Post by ggg9990 »

m_mueller wrote: post #96
ggg9990 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it’s what the justice system is in place to formalize.

... in the US, apparently.

Pretty much everywhere, if the justice system doesn’t reflect the population’s desire for mob justice, the people will administer it extrajudicially. The places with low bloodthirst traditionally have strong civic fabrics and low violent crime. If those things change the justice system will adapt or die.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#105

Post by swedish_mafia »

This is a travesty.

He is sentenced not for drug prices but for this: he started a hedge fund which lost money, used some of the funds to start a pharma co, the pharma co did well went public and he returned the investors their money at a huge profit for them.

Who sufffered? No one.

But he misrepresented his funds performance and did not inform them of the pharma co investment.

This man is an entrepreneur.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#106

Post by sigstoat »

jcoffland wrote: post #22

The good news is that the Wu Tang album Shkreli bought is forfeit and can now presumably be released to the public. https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/03/05/590980850...

that's not how intellectual property, property in general, or being forced to pay fines works, as is pretty clear if you read to the end of that article.

if he still owned the album, and it is seized by the government, it would go up for auction, at which point whoever pays for it gets it. and they'd be under no more obligation to release/sell it than shrekli was.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#107

Post by zaidf »

Clubber wrote: post #20

Here's what we just witnessed. 1. Companies were cornering certain drugs, then hiking their prices up significantly. Shkrelli did the same thing (but stated he was willing to give it free for anyone who asked). Note, that this is not illegal in any way, but news was all over it and citizens were pissed. 2. Shkrelli, being outspoken, became the focus of this issue. He dug a hole for himself, but concerning drug prices…

I’m not fan of Shrekeli but the 7 years seems to be excessive relative to other similar cases. For example, Rajaratnam got 11 years in what was dubbed as the biggest trading scandal on Wall Street. (source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-galleon-rajaratnam/rajara... )

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#108

Post by Clubber »

k3d wrote: post #94
kolpa wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He didn't even defraud the wealthy. He played fast and loose but he won for his investors.

defrauding isn't synonymous with stealing- he did take the money under false pretenses. if I come to you for investment in my cool new startup that does distributed crypto machine learning ai for entertaining bored housecats on the blockchain and come back a year later having sextupled your investment in money from illegal arms smuggling, you've still been defrauded.

Except derivatives that almost sank the country for a few decades in 2008. For some reason selling derivative where it's incredibly difficult or impossible to know what securities they are derived from isn't fraud.

https://www.thebalance.com/role-of-derivatives-in-creating-m...

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#109

Post by dragonwriter »

foxhound6 wrote: post #41
jcoffland wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shkreli has repeatedly flaunted his wealth, privilege and false sense of superiority. Although not illegal, it's offensive. Offending the public, whether right or wrong, has consequences. Shkreli is getting a taste of mob justice, or just what he asked for.

> ...Offending the public, whether right or wrong, has consequences. Shkreli is getting a taste of mob justice, or just what he asked for. Isn't that exactly what the justice system is in place to prevent?

Criminal punishment in a republic [0] is exactly the institutionalization of the idea that offending the public has consequences. Hence, in the US, the popular styling of criminal cases as “The people vs. defendant”.

[0] a “republic” in the sense of a regime where government is notionally an institution for the interest of the public rather than a private property interest of a ruler or distinct ruling class; in non-republics, the non-public “owners” are the persons of whose offense consequences are institutionalized by the criminal justice system.

Re: Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison

#110

Post by mkhalil »

Clubber wrote: post #20

Here's what we just witnessed. 1. Companies were cornering certain drugs, then hiking their prices up significantly. Shkrelli did the same thing (but stated he was willing to give it free for anyone who asked). Note, that this is not illegal in any way, but news was all over it and citizens were pissed. 2. Shkrelli, being outspoken, became the focus of this issue. He dug a hole for himself, but concerning drug prices…

In regards to 3:

His investors only eventually made money after Shkreli paid them in stock and cash from Retrophin.

Prosecutors, on the other hand, have argued that Shkreli should not get any credit for what they described as stealing from Retrophin to pay off the investors.

source: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/09/pharma-bro-shkreli-to-be-sen...

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