$2 Million Wu-Tang Album Owner Martin Shkreli Arrested, Internet Collectively Applauds
“Karma” is the word of the day as controversial pharmaceutical CEO and deep-pocketed hip-hop collector Martin Shkreli was arrested Thursday morning on charges of fraud.
Depending on your news consumption, you may remember Shkreli as either the guy who jacked up the price of a live-saving drug by 5000% or the guy who jacked the latest Wu-Tang Clan album. In November, Shkreli bought the sole copy of Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, reportedly for $2 million.
That alone was seen as criminal by many music fans, but in the eyes of the federal authorities, Shkreli’s alleged wrongdoing relates to his time running a hedge fund and a prior pharmaceutical company. His price-gouging tactics are not under suspicion.
Several Twitter users posted their thoughts, one tweeted: “#MartinShkreli says he’s been saving the $2m WuTang album he bought to listen to on a rainy day. Well, dude, it’s f***ing pouring right now.”
Another, strangely enough the former mayor of Champaign, Illinois, speculated that Shkreli’s fraud charge extends to his recent Wu-Tang album purchase, tweeting that he was selling bootlegged copies out the back of his car.
And then, one user is hoping that the arrest will have a hidden benefit, tweeting: “I hope the government seizes Once Upon A Time In Shaolin from Martin Shkreli and releases it to the public.”
One condition of the Wu-Tang sale was that the album could not be released commercially for 88 years.
Surprisingly, or perhaps to some unsurprisingly, Shkreli is also a wannabe rapper. And considering his arrest is tangentially related to selling drugs, some time behind bars might do wonders for his street cred. We can only hope:
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