It appears Martin Shkreli is unable to stay out of the headlines. In recent weeks the former pharmaceutical boss and global bogeyman has been charged with securities fraud, brought before Congress and labelled “the man with the 12-year-old body” by Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah. Now the man who bought the only known copy of Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin has another worry to add to his list: he’s being sued by the album’s sleeve artist.
New York artist Jason Koza, who drew the nine portraits of the rap group’s founding members featured in the album’s sleeve booklet, claims they were used without his permission. He originally drew them for fansite Wu Tang Clan Disciples but after being made aware of their appearance in the 174-page book that accompanies the album is now seeking compensation from Shkreli, producers Robert “RZA” Diggs and Tarik “Cilvaringz” Azzougarh, and Paddle8, the auction company that sold the record to Shkreli for $2m.
Koza says that he became aware that his drawings were being used without permission after seeing them in an article on vice.com. He claims that Shkreli infringed his rights by allowing the three portraits to be publicly displayed.
Shkreli has other problems on his plate at the moment too. He became infamous last year after raising the price of a rare drug by over 5,000%, and seems to court the negative attention, recently telling fans that he has no intention of actually listening to the Wu-Tang Clan record and simply wanted to “keep it from the people.” Last week Shkreli declined to answer questions in a drug-prices hearing, invoking his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. He then went on to post a tweet calling the committee members “imbeciles”.
