Jury Deliberates For 4th Day At Martin Shkreli's Fraud Trial
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Jurors are on their fourth day of deliberations at the securities fraud trial of former pharmaceutical company CEO Martin Shkreli.
Their work resumed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors say Shkreli looted his drug company to pay back investors in two failed hedge funds he ran. The defense says investors got their original investments back and even made hefty profits.
Day three of deliberations brought no resolution and no questions. Without a note from the jury, it's hard to gauge where things stand, WCBS 880's Peter Haskell reported.
On Tuesday, there was a question about the definition of fraudulent intent.
While the jury deliberated, a Twitter user believed to be Shkreli sparred with reporters on social media, Haskell reported.
Before his arrest in 2015 in the securities fraud case, Shkreli became notorious for purchasing the rights to a life-saving drug and promptly raising the price by 5,000 percent, from $13.50 to $750 per pill. The defendant, who didn't testify, also came into the trial with a reputation for trolling his critics on social media to a degree that got him kicked off Twitter and earned him the moniker "Pharma Bro."
Shkreli faces eight counts of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. If convicted of the most serious counts, he faces up to 20 years in prison but would likely receive far less time under sentencing guidelines.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
