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“Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli sentenced to 7 years in prison

He was facing a maximum of 20 years.

“Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli will spend seven years in federal prison, a judge decided on Friday.

The 34-year-old Shkreli, famous for raising the price of an AIDS drug by 5,000 percent in 2015, was convicted of securities fraud in U.S. federal district court in Brooklyn, New York, in August 2017. The conviction, however, is unrelated to the price-gouging.

After Shkreli lied to investors in two of his hedge funds and one of his pharma companies about the funds’ performance in 2015, he lost their money and then misappropriated funds to pay them back.

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U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto already ordered Shkreli to pay $7.36 million to the government — the amount he'd made in the fraud scheme — as part of his sentence on Monday. He will have to turn over the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album he purchased for $2 million in 2015 and a Picasso painting.

Shkreli cried during the hearing as he apologized to his investors.

"I'm not the same person I was. I know right from wrong. I know what it means to tell the truth and what it means to lie," he said, according to the Associated Press. "I am terribly sorry I lost your trust. You deserve far better."

In a candid exchange with Matsumoto at the sentencing hearing Friday, Shkreli’s lawyer said he sometimes wants to hug his client and sometimes wants to punch him in the face, according to the Associated Press.

Shkreli’s seven-year sentence is below the maximum possible sentence of 20 years. Prosecutors asked the judge for 15 years, while Shkreli’s lawyer wanted just 18 months.

Cover image: In this Aug. 4, 2017, file photo, former pharmaceutical CEO Martin Shkreli talks with reporters after leaving federal court in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)