Price-Gouging Pharma Exec Owns Sole Copy of New Wu-Tang Clan Album

Martin Shkreli, the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, became the subject of widespread ire back in September when it was reported that his company raised the cost of Daraprim, a drug used by many AIDS patients, from $13.50 to $750 per pill practically overnight. (Following a swift backlash, which included the BBC suggesting he was the “Most Hated Man in America,” Shkreli vowed to reduce the price.)

Now, Bloomberg Businessweek reports that the 32-year-old is the owner of the sole copy of the Wu-Tang Clan’s album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which was auctioned off by the rap group to the highest bidder. Shaolin is a 31-track album that comes with a hand-carved box and a companion book of 174 pages of liner notes. All surviving members of the group worked on the record, which was stored in a Moroccan hotel vault, but only a few people have actually heard it in its entirety.

Shkreli, who reportedly paid around $2 million for it, isn’t one of them. “I could be convinced to listen to it earlier if Taylor Swift wants to hear it or something like that,” he told the magazine, declining to say how much he paid for it. “But for now, I think I’m going to kind of save it for a rainy day.”

The Wu-Tang Clan did not seem excited about the buyer’s identity. “The sale of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was agreed upon in May, well before Martin Skhreli’s [sic] business practices came to light,” they told Bloomberg in a statement. “We decided to give a significant portion of the proceeds to charity.”

[Bloomberg]