By Brendan Pierson
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors questioned their last witness in the securities fraud trial of Martin Shkreli on Tuesday, while the former drug company executive's lawyers said they do not expect to call any witnesses of their own, setting the stage for closing arguments later this week.
Prosecutors told U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto that they expect to rest their case on Wednesday after legal arguments about admitting evidence, which will take place without jurors present.
The prosecutors and Shkreli's lawyers told Matsumoto they expect to deliver closing arguments Thursday morning, just over a month after the June 28 opening arguments.
Shkreli, 34, outraged patients and U.S. lawmakers by raising the price of anti-infection drug Daraprim to $750 a pill, from $13.50 in 2015, when he was chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals.
The charges he now faces are not related to Turing, but instead stem from Shkreli's management of his previous drug company, Retrophin Inc, and of hedge funds MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare between 2009 and 2014.
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Prosecutors have said that Shkreli lied about the funds' finances to lure investors and concealed devastating trading losses. They said he paid investors back with money and shares stolen from Retrophin, which he founded in 2011.
Prosectors' last witness, Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Michael Braconi, offered a look at the relationship between Shkreli and a lawyer who worked for him during that time, Evan Greebel, who faces a separate trial on fraud charges in October.
Braconi read a series of emails showing Shkreli repeatedly berating Greebel as Shkreli scrambled to pay back investors using agreements with Retrophin, which prosecutors say were fraudulent.
"Why can't you do your job?" Shkreli asked Greebel in one email.
Later, Shkreli wrote Greebel, "You embarrass me."
When Greebel warned Shkreli that there could be legal problems with Shkreli acquiring Retrophin shares at below-market prices, Shkreli responded, "f that."
Greebel's lawyers have said in court filings that Greebel was deceived by Shkreli, and did not take part in any fraud.
During the trial, jurors heard from several MSMB investors who testified that Shkreli had deceived them. In cross-examining those witnesses, Shkreli's lawyers sought to emphasize that none of them lost money, and that some made large profits.
Jurors also heard from the former chairman of Retrophin's board of directors, Steven Richardson, who said Shkreli never got board approval for agreements he reached between Retrophin and his investors.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr)