Wu-Tang Clan album bid almost cost Martin Shkreli his life
"Pharma bro" Martin Shkreli's current legal woes aren't his only source of trouble, apparently.
Shkreli made headlines in 2015 when he was revealed as the buyer of Wu-Tang Clan's "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin." The former pharmaceutical company CEO paid a reported $2 million for the only existing copy of the double album.
The revelation that Shkreli was the buyer came shortly before his arrest in December 2015 for securities fraud -- an arrest that came just in the nick of time, according to author Cyrus Bozorgmehr, who is writing a book chronicling the production and auction of the album.
Bozorgmehr explained that Shkreli's penchant in interviews for trash-talking the group -- particularly its leader, RZA -- had put him on the radar of some disreputable characters.
"There had to be retaliation for this," Bozorgmehr wrote, according to BET. "Maybe even bullets from a Staten Island crew who wouldn't let the Clan get dissed by this f**k."
"No one has ever dissed RZA or the Clan like that. Ever," Bozorgmehr continued. "He had moved us into something bloodcurdlingly sinister whether any of us liked it or not."