Martin Shkrell's deceptions are also punished by a lawyer who helped him.

A lawyer accused of helping pharmaceutical entrepreneur Martin Shkreli cover financial fraud was sentenced Wednesday. The prosecutor of the case said this decision would send a powerful “message” to legal professions.

After an 11-week trial, Evan Grebel was sentenced by a federal jury in Brooklyn to plot to commit fraud with valuable letters. His lawyer, Reed Brodsky, said there were “shaken by decision”.

“We will continue to fight for justice for Evan Grebel and his family,” Brodsky said.

U.S. Attorney Bridget M. Rohde said that Grebel helped Shkrell steal millions of dollars and cover Shkrel's fraud while the fund manager was executive director of Retrophin Inc., a biofarmacetic company.

Today's “Act sends a powerful message that this office, along with our law enforcement partners, will hold lawyers responsible when using their legal expertise to facilitate the execution of crimes”, Rohde said in a statement.

Grebel was a foreign adviser to Retrophin from 2011 to 2014, when prosecutors say he conspired with the Shrell for misusing Retroph's assets to pay off deceived investors.

They said he also plotted with Shkrell between 2012 and 2014 to deceive potential investors and investors in Retrofin by illegally trying to control the volume of prices and Retrofin shares.

Grebel, who lives in peripheral Scarsdale, took deliberate action to help Shrelley deceive investors, said FBI deputy director William F. Snape.

“While it has become increasingly clear that Grebel used his knowledge of the law in his efforts to break the law, today we finally see justice served in a case that hasn't spent his time in the centre of attention”, said Sueney, the FBI's office in New York.

It became known as the most hated man in America in 2015 when his company increased the price of an AIDS drug by 5,000 percent.

He was convicted in August of an unbound fraud scheme with letters of value and is imprisoned pending detention.