'Pharma bro' Martin Shkreli sentenced to 7 years in prison

Notorious "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli, after making a sob-filled plea for leniency, was sentenced Friday to seven years in prison for federal fraud charges related to hedge funds and a drug company that he once ran.

"There one person to blame for me being here today is me," a choked-up Shkreli told a judge before she imposed the prison term. "Not the government. There is no conspiracy to take down Martin Shkreli."

"I took down Martin Shkreli."

"This is my fault. I am no victim here," Shkreli said, before breaking down into tears as he promised his lawyer not to let him down in his efforts to contribute to society.

The seven-year sentence was significantly higher than the 18-month maximum requested by defense lawyers.

But it was also less than half the minimum 15-year term that prosecutors said they wanted Friday in from U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in Brooklyn, New York, court.

Shkreli, who will get credit for six months he has already spent in jail since shortly after his conviction, also was sentenced to three years of probation after his release and ordered to pay a $75,000 fine.

The judge had already ordered Shkreli, who will turn 35 on March 17, to also forfeit nearly $7.4 million to the federal government. And she ordered him to obtain mental health counseling while on probation.

A psychological examination of Shkreli performed before his sentencing found that he suffered from generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, and an unspecified personality disorder.

The three-hour sentencing hearing came 2½ years after Shkreli attracted widespread negative media attention for his decision to hike the price of a drug by 5,500 percent at Turing Pharmaceuticals, another company he founded.

But Shkreli's sentencing was not connected to that pricing of the anti-parasite medication, Daraprim.

It also wasn't related to his social media trolling of adversaries, who have included Hillary Clinton, members of the hip-hop group the Wu-Tang Clan and journalists.

Instead, Shkreli will head off to prison from his current jailhouse abode for misleading investors about key details and the dismal financial market performance of the MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare hedge funds that he operated.

Shkreli also was convicted last August of conspiring to fraudulently manipulate stock shares of Retrophin, the pharma company he created after both hedge funds effectively collapsed.

Evidence at trial revealed that Shkreli had used stock and cash from publicly traded Retrophin to pay back the duped hedge fund investors, who all ended up getting more than they had originally invested.

Witnesses at that trial also painted a picture of Shkreli as a complicated person who could inspire grand visions of life-saving pharmaceutical treatments while also frustrating people with his habit of playing fast and loose with the facts.

A number of those witnesses testified to Shkreli's brilliance, or even genius, as well as to his tendency toward depression and self-sabotage.

Defense lawyers had asked Matsumoto in a court filing last week to give Shkreli a relatively light prison term of 12 to 18 months, followed by 2,000 hours of community service and mandatory therapy.

They called Shkreli a "very unique defendant" who "is a kind, caring and generous person who uses his time and effort to help those in need."

"If not warehoused in prison, Martin could literally save lives," Shkreli's lawyers wrote in their sentencing recommendation.

But prosecutors had asked for at least 15 years in prison.

They argued that Shkreli lacked "genuine remorse " for his crimes, and had a pattern of deceptive schemes spanning even after the crimes for which he was convicted.

They called Shkreli "a man who believes the ends always justifies the means."

Federal sentencing guidelines had suggested a prison term of decades, in large part because of Matsumoto's finding that the losses from Shkreli's crimes totaled $10.4 million.

The judge refused to give him credit for the fact that his hedge fund investors all ended up with more than they originally placed with him, noting that Shkreli only began his scheme to repay them with Retrophin's assets after investors began raising red flags that they had been defrauded.

In addition to his prison term, Shkreli already had been ordered by the judge to forfeit nearly $7.4 million to the federal government because of his crimes.

To secure that award, Matsumoto had ordered Shkreli to give up his ownership of a $5 million stock account that had been used as collateral for a now-revoked release bond.

She also told him to give up his ownership if a one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album that he bought for $2 million, a Picasso painting, a Lil Wayne album, and his stake in Vyera Pharmaceuticals, which previously was known as Turing.

Shkreli has been locked up in a federal jail in Brooklyn since September, a month after his conviction, when Mastumoto revoked his $5 million release bond.

Mastumoto's move came after Shkreli, in yet another social media stunt, offered his Facebook followers a $5,000 bounty for samples of Clinton's hair. The offer, which Shkreli claimed was satire, drew the attention of the Secret Service, which provides protection for Clinton, and drew the ire of prosecutors.

Matsumoto said Shkreli represented a danger because of his bounty offer.

In a letter sent to the judge in advance of his sentencing asking for a light prison term, Shkreli wrote, "I was a fool," and called himself "far from blameless."

"I accept the fact that I made serious mistakes, but I still believe that I am a good person with much potential," Shkreli wrote from jail.

"The trial and the six months in a maximum security prison has been a frightening wake-up call," Shkreli wrote. "I understand how I need to change."

Shkreli plans to appeal his conviction.

Additional reporting by Ashley Turner

See how Martin Shkreli the "Pharma Bro" got to today's sentencing TONIGHT on American Greed at 10p ET.

WATCH: Co-worker says Shkreli 'mentally unstable'

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