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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

#201

Post by cdr »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #68
cdr wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do when you also commit fraud with a 7 year sentence.

Remember this when you end up on the wrong side of the law, and the book is thrown at you when it shouldn't be. Easy to cast the first stone. Aaron Swartz was eligible for 50 years in prison and a million dollar fine based on his computer crimes. That's fair too, right? Y'all need some empathy and compassion. People are human, and make mistakes. The punishment should fit the crime. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron…

That's quite disingenuous. Entirely different circumstances and facts.

You're using the absolute maximum prosecutors were threatening Swartz with in order to extract a plea deal. They would not have brought anything near that to trial had it gone to trial, much less convicted him on it. In fact, in your link, this is what he was offered: "During plea negotiations with Swartz's attorneys, the prosecutors offered to recommend a sentence of six months in a low-security prison".

The statute Swartz was charged under has also widely been recognized as flawed. Not the case with what Shkreli was charged with.

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

#202

Post by singhrac »

Clubber wrote: post #150
elefanten wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you're arguing the wrong topic. The linked article is about the outcome of the trial that occurred. Your 5-point "here's what happened" muddled the relationship between this sentencing and other reasons Shkreli is a public figure. And thus the "here's what happened" attitude is exactly false; what happened was a petulant fraudster got a middle-of-the-road sentence for exactly the crime he was on trial for.

You're discussing the latest chapter, I'm discussing the whole book. I'm including all the "Pharmabro" chapters over the last couple of years. Google his name. He isn't famous for fraud.

We understand, you're trying to draw attention to drug price hiking still occurring, and you think that this conviction will blow the whole thing under the rug. I agree with you on the first statement, but I think we disagree that the second was intentional.

The original replier (9889095r3jh) had an issue with (3), which is not really an accurate summarization (I don't think the prosecutors acted because he was hated; using the word misstate makes it seem like a mistake rather than outright lying; and it's totally irrelevant whether he tripled their money).

I agree we should change the regulation structure to prevent drug price hiking: any suggestions on how to do it? I for one would love to donate money to this cause if it's actionable.

Also, I'm sorry you're getting a lot of flak for that comment. It's mostly nitpicking, so safe to ignore once you see the point the nitpickers are making (including me).

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

#203

Post by s73v3r_ »

gfosco wrote: post #81
cowsandmilk wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you believe there were no actual damages? Because investors eventually got their money back after years of fraud? (I would also argue the investors in Retrophin lost millions in returns due to Shkreli's paying off MSMB Capital investors, but that is not what he was convicted of)

They actually had their money tripled. Tripled. Tripled.

Yeah, they got lucky. Can you guarantee that the next set of investors he pulls this fraud with will be as lucky?

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

#204

Post by dayaz36 »

To give some background on how his sentencing increased so dramatically, initially he was convicted but since no one lost any money his sentencing guidelines were 0-12 months(most likely no jail time since it was his first offence). As a general rule of thumb in federal fraud cases sentencing is primarily determined by the what's called the "loss amount" of the crime in question. But a couple weeks ago the judge decided to come up with a HYPOTHETICAL loss and base the sentencing on that! And that hypothetical loss was set at $10.4M! Meaning he just went from no jail time 7 years overnight. This seems beyond absurd and as far as I know has no precedence.

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

#205

Post by Florin_Andrei »

brucephillips wrote: post #188
s73v3r_ wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Schools and some other public places were also required to keep Epi-pens on hand, by law. Some of them did pay the exorbitant prices.

Shkreli did not increase epipen prices.

It's amazing to watch the amount of mental contortions you're going through. I guess it's very important for you to maintain the consistency of your current worldview, and seeing the likes of Shkreli in a favorable light is an integral part of that. Ayn Rand would be proud.

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

#206

Post by s73v3r_ »

Clubber wrote: post #114
DanBC wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He didn't accidentally defraud people. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Yes, but that's not the point. The point is the US government has many ways of throwing people in jail it doesn't like, including me or you. That's doesn't equate with a free society.

Neither does being perfectly free to defraud investors.

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

#207

Post by Clubber »

FussyZeus wrote: post #88
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…

For as much of a smug bastard he was, I did have a hearty laugh at his congressional questioning. He treated it with all the dignity and respect it deserved; exactly none. It was political theater performed so the political class could act like they were doing something while the company Shkreli worked for and the rest of their compatriots were, whilist he was humiliating Congress, making record profits doing exactly…

It's a brilliant charade. Politicians were in trouble. They of course are paid to keep things nice for Pharma (including monopolistic practices on drugs) but people were angry and they after all have to get reelected every 2,4,6 years, so they had to make it look like they were doing something without actually doing something. The brought Shkrelli in so they could perform as politicians concerned about their constituents. He wasn't willing to play his part.

Shkrelli still made a perfect scapegoat. The news has seemed to move on from the monopolistic practices thing like it never happened.

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

#208

Post by techman9 »

hb3b wrote: post #14

Cruel and unusual given the crime. Half the sentence of Jeffrey Skilling who destroyed thousands of families. No question in my mind that the judge had it out for him from the get-go.

As a quick first pass at this, it looks like Shkreli was convicted of 2 counts of securities fraud (15 USC § 78j) and 1 count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud (18 USC § 1343) [0][1]. According to the US Sentencing Guidelines[2] §2B1.1, each offense of securities fraud carries, conservatively, 6 points, plus let's say 4 additional points under §2B1.1(19) for being an officer or broker, which it's my understanding he was. Let's ignore the fact that this fraud deals with potentially millions of dollars, and how that increases the number of sentencing points. Let's just say the conspiracy conviction carries the same penalty (although it seems like it could actually be higher, but not sure).

This all adds up to 30 sentencing points, which carries a recommended sentence of 97 to 121 months in federal prison under the US sentencing table [3].

A 7 year sentence (84 months) in prison doesn't seem cruel or unusual by any stretch of the imagination, and if anything seems like he got off easy. The judge didn't have it out for him, he committed a serious crime, was found guilty by a jury of his peers, and is now going to serve serious federal time for it. He broke the law and knew what he was doing. Maybe the guidelines are harsh, but that's way our laws our written. Take it up with congress.

[0] http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/04/news/martin-shkreli-verdict/...

[1] https://www.scribd.com/doc/293530336/1-main

[2] https://www.ussc.gov/guidelines/2016-guidelines-manual/2016-...

[3] https://www.ussc.gov/sites/default/files/pdf/guidelines-manu...

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

#210

Post by mabbo »

Looking at the photos of this guy, I'm starting to wonder if that sick little smile he has is actually his stress response. Maybe that's how he looks when he's sweating bullets and feels guilty, and we all interpret that as him being an asshole who is glad he got away with the things he's done. I've certainly known people with weirder ticks.

Or maybe he's literally a horrendous human being who is rightfully hated for the horrible things he's done.

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