A sniveling Martin Shkreli promised to make a federal judge “proud” in the years to come as he begged for mercy ahead of his sentencing, according to a new court filing.
In a letter to Brooklyn federal court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, Shkreli owned up to duping investors in his failed hedge funds MSMB Capital Management and MSMB Healthcare and waxed poetic about spending the last five months in prison.
“I understand it, I am very far from blameless,” he wrote ahead of the March 9 sentencing. “I caused this entire mess to happen. I lost the trust of my investors who now have questioned my motives and integrity. This is a painful realization that I will never forget.”
Matsumoto tossed Shkreli behind bars in September for putting a $5,000 bounty on Hillary Clinton’s hair. He called his experience while locked up “the most frightening experience in my life but also an opportunity for me to see a side of the world seldom seen or discussed.”
“If I have something to teach my fellow inmates, I implored them to listen and learn,” he wrote. “I have comforted the forlorn and forgotten men facing long sentences, many are severely depressed, and sadly, suicidal.”
It’s an about-face for the Brooklyn-born pharmaceuticals exec – who once boasted after jacking up the price of a life-saving AIDS drug by 5,000 percent.
Last August, he bragged about “facing little to no jail time” following his conviction on securities fraud charges.
“I’d say there’s a good chance there’s no jail at all,” he boasted at the time.
But in his letter, Shkreli humbly promised to clean up his act.
“I assure you that any mercy shown at sentencing will be met with a strict adherence to this oath and I hope to make Your Honor proud of me in the years ahead,” he said.
Under federal sentencing guidelines, Shkreli could face a sentence of 27 years or more, which his lawyers have called “draconian and offensive.”
Instead, they have asked the judge to impose a punishment of 12 to 18 months, with 2,000 hours of community service and court-mandated therapy.
They said Shkreli never intended on stealing from investors.
“The problem was not that Martin tried to cheat or steal from his investment partners; rather, the problem was that Martin was so driven to make them money that he could not bring himself to admit failure,” they wrote.
Dozens of friends and family also wrote letters on Shkreli’s behalf begging the judge for leniency.
Prosecutors will file their own sentencing recommendations next week.