US ex-pharmaceutical executive convicted of securities fraud

New York, Aug 5 (IANS) A controversial American former pharmaceutical executive, notorious for vastly inflating the price of a life-saving prescription drug, has been convicted in a New York federal court of two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.

After five days of deliberations, the jury on Friday acquitted Martin Shkreli of five of the eight counts he faced stemming from his management of two hedge funds, the most important of which was a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, reports Efe.

The 34-year-old, who will be sentenced at a later date, faces up to 20 years behind bars.

Prosecutors said he had misled investors in his MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare hedge funds into believing they were earning big returns, squandered their money and then paid them back with $11 million in stock and cash pilfered from a publicly traded company, Retrophin, he had founded.

As the Chief Executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals — a company he founded after Retrophin — he bought in 2015 the rights to a life-saving drug used in AIDS treatments and jacked up the price from $13.50 a pill to $750.

He was included several years ago on a Forbes magazine list of top entrepreneurs under the age of 30.