Ex-lawyer of pharma executive Shkreli gets 18 months prison for fraud scheme

FILE PHOTO: Former drug company executive Martin Shkreli exits U.S. District Court following the fourth day of jury deliberations in his securities fraud trial in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, U.S., August 3, 2017. REUTERS/Amr Alfiky/File Photo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York lawyer was sentenced to 18 months prison on Friday for helping Martin Shkreli, currently serving a seven year prison sentence after being convicted of related charges, defraud a drug company that Shkreli had founded.

Evan Greebel, who was outside counsel to Shkreli's former company Retrophin Inc, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto in Brooklyn. His lawyers had asked that he be given no jail time, while prosecutors had asked for five years.