Shkreli Sued Over $2M Wu-Tang Album

Meanwhile, his Internet beef with Ghostface Killah escalates
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 9, 2016 4:13 PM CST
Shkreli Sued Over $2M Wu-Tang Album
On Tuesday, Martin Shkreli was sued over the Wu-Tang Clan album he bought for $2 million while simultaneously being insulted by a Wu-Tang member in a completely unrelated incident.    (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Fresh off smirking his way through a Congressional hearing, "pharma bro" and Internet villain Martin Shkreli is being sued over the Wu-Tang Clan album he bought for $2 million, Reuters reports. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday by New York artist Jason Koza, who claims his drawings of Wu-Tang members were used as album artwork for Once Upon a Time in Shaolin without his permission. According to NBC News, Koza blames Shkreli for "permitting at least three of the nine Wu-Tang Clan portraits to be displayed to the public in a news article," referring to a story in Vice. Koza is also suing the Wu-Tang's RZA, an auction house, and a Wu-Tang producer. The Wu-Tang only made one copy of the Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which Skhreli says he bought in order to "keep it from the people."

Meanwhile, Skhreli is also in the midst of an escalating battle with the Wu-Tang's Ghostface Killah, CNBC reports. The two have gone back and forth online ever since Ghostface expressed his unhappiness at the fact that Shkreli was Shaolin's buyer, and Skhreli recently threatened to erase Ghostface "from the record books of rap," said he'd like to "smack him right in the face," and demanded an apology for Ghostface's insults. On Tuesday, Ghostface released a video calling Shkreli a "fake Peter Pan cat" and a "soft killer" for hiking drug prices. He also promotes a marijuana product he claims "combats tumors and cancer cells." Shkreli promptly responded to the new video by tweet: "The format of your apology was unacceptable …The consequences will never be the same. (Also, stop making medical claims.)"

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