Ex-pharma CEO Shkreli offers Kanye West $10M for upcoming album
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Feb. 4, 2016: Pharmaceutical chief Martin Shkreli speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington during the House Committee on Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on his former company's decision to raise the price of a lifesaving medicine. (AP)
The former pharmaceutical executive, who generated national outage after he raised the price of a once-cheap life-saving pill to $750 and paid millions for a special release of a Wu-Tang Clan album, is looking to add to his music collection.
Martin Shkreli took to Twitter Thursday to offer rap artist Kanye West $10 million for his upcoming album “The Life of Pablo” so it doesn’t get released publicly.
Shkreli published the letter to Kanye on social media and said he was looking forward to his response.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Kanye and his label are legally required to take my offer letter to their Board of Directors. This should delay the album by a few days,” Shkreli added.
The usually controversial Kanye hasn’t publicly responded to Shkreli’s offer.
Shkreli was recently named in another lawsuit by Long Island artist Jason Koza over the use of his art in the Wu-Tang Clan album, saying he never expected portraits he posted on a fan blog two years ago would be used without his permission.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Koza said in the Manhattan federal court copyright infringement lawsuit that his portraits of members of the New York-based hip-hop group were used without authorization on an album Shkreli bought for $2 million.
Koza, of Copiague, New York, said he learned that some of his portraits were in a 174-page book included with the album titled "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" when he saw a news article after the sole copy of the album was reportedly sold to Shkreli. The lawsuit said Shkreli is prohibited from distributing further copies of the album commercially for 88 years.
He sought unspecified damages from Shkreli, a Wu-Tang leader, a music producer and the album's auctioneer.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The offer for “The Life of Pablo” and the lawsuit comes after Shkreli's recent not guilty plea in Brooklyn federal court to securities fraud charges claiming he cheated investors in companies he created.
The 32-year-old Shkreli became widely known last year after a drug company he founded, Turing Pharmaceuticals, spent $55 million for the U.S. rights to sell a life-saving medicine called Daraprim and then raised the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill.
In recent testimony before a congressional committee investigating the price of drugs, he remained silent, citing the Fifth Amendment on the advice of his attorney, Benjamin Brafman.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Associated Press contributed to this report.