USA TODAY International Edition
Shkreli selling $2M Wu-Tang Clan album
For embattled ex-pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli,the song It’s Yourz seems to fit. That’s because he’s having to part with a prized possession.
Shkreli can keep playing that particular Wu-Tang Clan tune all day long, but soon he’ll have to relinquish the band’s exclusive album he famously bought for $2 million before his recent conviction on securities fraud charges.
Shkreli, who stirred angst when he raised the price of a lifesaving drug by 5,000%, has listed the Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin on eBay.
The listing, which he also promoted on his Facebook page, had attracted 213 bids with a price of $201,300 as of Wednesday evening. “This is the one and only Wu-Tang album,” Shkreli said on eBay.
Former pharma CEO posts it on eBay, vows to donate half of proceeds to medical research
“I decided to purchase this album as a gift to the Wu-Tang Clan for their tremendous musical output. Instead I received scorn from at least one of their (leastintelligent) members, and the world at large failed to see my purpose of putting a serious value behind music. I will be curious to see if the world values music nearly as much as I have.”
He pledged to donate half of the proceeds to “medical research” and denied that he’s selling the album to raise money despite the ongoing legal crisis he’s facing, including his criminal appeal and civil charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Shkreli was convicted in August of three criminal charges that he scammed investors. He remains free on bail pending sentencing.
Known for defending steep drug price increases, blowing off Congress and blasting his federal trial as “a witch hunt of epic proportions,” Shkreli has become a lightning rod for scorn. But he also has his defenders.
“I am not selling to raise cash — my companies and I have record amounts of cash on hand. I hope someone with a bigger heart for music can be found for this one-of-a-kind piece and makes it available for the world to hear,” he wrote.
Shkreli vowed to legally certify that he had destroyed all copies of the music in his possession after the sale of the album, which he said he had “not carefully listened to.”