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In a motion filed in Brooklyn federal court, Shkreli's lawyers
said their client was convicted of conspiring to manipulate the
stock price of his old company, Retrophin Inc, after a
prosecutor improperly defined a key legal term during closing
arguments.
The motion does not seek to overturn Shkreli's conviction on two
more serious counts of defrauding investors in his hedge funds.
Those counts carry a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, though
Shkreli is likely to serve far less time, in part because his
investors did not lose money.
Instead, it challenges his conviction of conspiring to
manipulate Retrophin's stock price by telling employees what to
do with their shares. Shkreli's lawyers said a prosecutor
falsely told jurors in closing arguments that Retrophin
employees were automatically "affiliates" of Retrophin under
federal securities law, which would restrict how they could
trade their shares.
A representative for the prosecutors declined to comment.
The motion came the day after prosecutors asked U.S. District
Judge Kiyo Matsumoto to revoke Shkreli's $5 million bail.
They said Shkreli could be a "danger to the community," pointing
to a Sept. 4 Facebook post in which he offered $5,000 to
followers who could grab a strand of Hillary Clinton's hair
during her upcoming book tour.
The post prompted an investigation by the U.S. Secret Service,
which is charged with protecting the former Democratic
presidential candidate. Shkreli is an outspoken fan of President
Donald Trump, a Republican.
"However inappropriate some of Mr. Shkreli's postings may have
been, we do not believe that he intended harm and do not believe
that he poses a danger to the community," Shkreli's lawyer,
Benjamin Brafman, said in an email.
Shkreli, 34, was convicted in August of defrauding investors of
two hedge funds he ran, MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare, and of
conspiring to manipulate Retrophin stock. He was acquitted of
stealing from Retrophin to pay back investors.
Before the trial, Shkreli was best known for raising the price
of anti-infection drug Daraprim by 5,000 percent in 2015 while
he was chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals. The move
sparked outrage by patients and U.S. lawmakers, earning him the
nickname "pharma bro."
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Bernadette
Baum and Andrew Hay)
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