Martin Shkreli has been sentenced to seven years in prison for defrauding investors in two botched hedge funds.

The former drug company executive - dubbed "Pharma Bro" and vilified for increasing the prices of a life-saving drug - was also fined $75,000 (€61,000) by a court in New York.

Shkreli cried as he apologised to investors and told the judge he had made mistakes.

He said: "I want the people who came here today to support me to understand one thing, the only person to blame for me being here today is me. I took down Martin Shkreli.

"I am terribly sorry I lost your trust," he said. "You deserve far better."

Prosecutors had described the 34-year-old as a master manipulator who duped investors, and were calling for a 15-year sentence.

They said he deserved a stiffer sentence not because he is "the most hated man in America", but because he is a criminal convicted of serious fraud.

In 2015, Shkreli hit the headlines after defending his decision to increase the price of Daraprim, a cheap drug for treating HIV, by 5,000%.

When questioned about the price hike by Congress a few months later he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, only to tweet after the hearing that the politicians were "imbeciles".

Shkreli was later thrown of Twitter after apparent 'targeted harassment' of a female journalist, and caused controversy by making speeches with the conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.