Everyone loves to hate a villain. Is there anything more villainous than taking a lifesaving drug and hiking the price to such a degree that those who need it are either held hostage or die if they can’t afford it? The man who America loves to hate, Martin Shkreli, is not using the defense “the devil made me do it”. Instead, he is using the defense that his lawyers are at fault for advising him wrongly.
It was nearly a year ago that Martin Shkreli took a drug’s price up over 5500 percent overnight, literally. Labeled the “pharma bro”, he was arrested and charged with eight various counts of fraud. After seven months, his case is finally set for trial, and for the first time, he laid out his defense.
Not surprisingly, he didn’t throw himself on the mercy of the court. Judge Kiyo Matsumoto has set a date for June 26, 2017. Shkreli was accused of fraud by the Securities Exchange, as well as the Federal Government. Not the consumer, he is being accused of defrauding those who invested in two of the hedge funds that he managed using the monies collected from his former drug company.
Ben Brafman, the lawyer for the defense, insists that he has already working a case involving illegal Iran sanction misconduct on his docket and would not be available until early summer 2017. That allows not only time for the defense to beef up their evidence and to make their case, but it also leaves his defendant free while awaiting charges. Paying a hefty price with a $5 million bail allowing him only to travel to the eastern and southern districts of New York, it still leaves him out from behind bars awaiting a trial by his peers.
Not the same three-ring circus as the previous showings of Shkreli, the courtroom didn’t have the artists, or a fraction of the cameras, which is exactly what his lawyers want. If there is one thing that the defense doesn’t want is public opinion to make its way into this case. The public believes him to be a monster. Not caring about his shareholders, they are more concerned with his moral moves than his illegal ones.
The biggest news of the trial was not anything that Shkreli had to add to his defense; rather it was between him and Even Greebel, who is the co-defendant in the case. He was the attorney who represented Shkreli’s drug company. They both pleaded not guilty, but there is a motion to sever their cases so that they can be tried individually, by a criminal lawyer in Philadelphia, for their crimes instead of being tied together for prosecution.
The defense that Shkreli is likely going to use is to invoke an advice-of-ousel defense, which means that he will testify that he was completely unaware that his actions were illegal due to the misgiven legal advice of his co-defendant Greebel. He is going to attest to the fact that he was only following the legal advice that he was given and acting out of good faith, according to wrong information.
Greebel’s attorneys have asked for even more time for their trial date, hoping to go after Shkreli in either September or even October. That had most in the courtroom rolling their eyes wondering when there would be a resolution to this case. The government is ready and willing to prosecute now and isn’t interesting in dragging it out another year, giving the public and time to fade the true story.
During the hearing, there were three consultants who were put on the stand to testify. Although all being paid to be consultants, the government could find no evidence of their ability to consult. There was no evidence that they were consultants at all, just more people who helped Shkreli defraud the company, so that he could redeposit the funds that were misappropriated illegally. Using the funds to pay off those who would be whistle-callers, anyone who knew what was going on in his hedge fund, eventually made their way to the pay role as a consultant.
The longer that the case carries out, the more that the media will lose interest. In between the time he was caught and the time he will be prosecuted, a lot more shocking cases will meet the docket and tempers and revenge seekers will begin to lose their fire, or will they? That is what the defense is wishing for.
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