When last we checked in on the “most hated man in America”, Martin Shkreli had just taken a $40 million hit on his E*Trade account.
That’s a problem for two reasons. For one thing, the account only had $45 million in it in the first place. For another, it was used to secure a $5 million bail bond after federal agents arrested everyone’s favorite pharma “bro” in December.
As it turns out, most of the account was apparently dedicated to shares of KaloBios, the tiny biotech Shkreli saved from bankruptcy in November when he acquired something like 70% of the float and promptly pulled the borrow, driving the price into the stratosphere.
His arrest drove the shares back into the dirt and the company filed Chapter 11 just over a month after Shkreli got involved. With KBIO now delisted and trading at at ~$2.20 a share, Shkreli’s account balance has plummeted.
He now faces the prospect of having to post new assets to secure his bond.
“Assets” like $2 million Wu-Tang Clan albums including “Once Upon A Time In Shaolin,” a one-of-a-kind double disk the only copy of which resides with Shkreli.
Now, even the Wu-Tang Clan has become a liability for Shkreli. “In a complaint filed on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, Jason Koza said he never allowed his fan art depicting Wu-Tang members to be used in packaging for the hip-hop group’s ‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,’ the sole copy of which Shkreli bought,” Reuters reports. “Koza, 34, of Copiague, New York, said he thought his nine works would appear only on the website WuDisciples.blogspot.com.”
But they didn’t appear “only” on WuDisciples.blogspot.com, they turned up in the artwork for “Once Upon A Time In Shaolin” and Shkreli allowed drawings of Inspectah Deck, Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Raekwon to appear in an article on Vice.com.
Now, Koza wants some money.
“Mr. Koza was happy when his work appeared on the website,” a complaint filed in New York says. “Mr. Koza never granted a license for his works to be copied or displayed anywhere (else).”
“The Fashion Institute of Technology graduate now blames Wu-Tang leader Robert ‘RZA’ Diggs for including them in the ‘Shaolin’ album, and Shkreli for allowing three works to accompany a Jan. 29 article at Vice.com,” Reuters reports. Koza is seeking unspecified damages plus profits stemming from copyright infringement.
“He didn’t need to know the drawings were protected to be liable,” Koza’s lawyer told Reuters, referring to Shkreli.
Right.
Kind of like how he “didn’t need to know” that hiking the price of an AIDS drug by 5,000% would lead the public to brand him an “Ol’ Dirty Bastard” to understand he was making a morally objectionable decision.
via Zero Hedge http://ift.tt/20UoFo3 Tyler Durden