Shkreli Attorney Sentenced to 18 Months Behind Bars

prison bars

Martin Shkreli’s attorney and accomplice in committing wire fraud Evan Greebel has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. Greebel will spend far less time in prison than Shkreli, who was sentenced to seven years behind bars.

Greebel was found guilty for his part in the scheme to defraud investors and potential investors in two hedge funds once operated by Shkreli, MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare, as well as a scheme to defraud pharma company Retrophin, which Shkreli founded.

The prosecution sought a five-year prison sentence for Greebel for his part in the schemes, The Wall Street Journal reported late Friday. Prosecuting attorneys described Greebel as a “corrupt lawyer” and said he abused his position as a member of the court to help Shkreli “steal millions of dollars’ worth of cash and shares from the company (Retrophin) to pay investors in Mr. Shkreli’s failed hedge funds,” the Journal reported.

Indictments against Shkreli said the scheme, which caused his investors to suffer a loss of more than $11 million, was carried out over a five-year period, from 2009 to 2014. Shkreli rose to infamy not for the schemes that landed him in prison, but for the 5,000 percent price-hike for Daraprim, as well as his brash defense of the criticism he and his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, received.

Greebel’s attorneys argued that Shkreli, who was found guilty in August 2017, was the real villain and that any allegations of misconduct should be aimed at the disgraced pharma executive and not Greebel. During the trial they presented evidence of Greebel’s long history of charitable work to bolster the claims that he was a good man who got caught up in a bad situation, working with Shkreli. Prior to his sentencing, Greebel begged the court for mercy and said he “will regret every day of my life the day I met Martin Shkreli,” the Journal said.

U.S. District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto, who oversaw the Shkreli trial, said that Greebel was not a pawn of Shkreli and knew what he was doing. She agreed with the prosecution that Greebel abused his position of trust as an attorney, but also noted that he was “personally generous and kind,” the Journal added. While the 18 months sentence was considerably less than the prosecution sought, Matsumoto also ordered Greebel to pay “nearly $10.5 million in restitution to Retrophin, to account for losses incurred as a result of the schemes,” according to the Journal’s report. Interestingly, Shkreli was not ordered to pay restitution to Retrophin, as he was found not guilty of those particular charges last year.

Greebel will appeal the sentence, the Journal said.

Shkreli was given his seven-year sentence in March and reported to the federal prison at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Despite his time behind bars, Shkreli has been blogging about the pharma industry and other topics of interest to him. Shkreli said he is writing his blog on the “TRULINCS” prison email system and sending the information to a friend who posts his musings on the website MartinShkreli.com.

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