Wu Tang Clan Donates Sale Of $2 Million Album To Charity After Discovirng Buyer Is Martin Shkreli
Source: Seattle PI
The Wu-Tang Clan are donating proceeds from the sale of their one-off album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin to charity after the buyer was unveiled as a controversial tycoon Martin Shkreli.
Last month it emerged the hip-hop stars had agreed a deal to sell off the only copy of the record for an undisclosed figure in the millions.
The identity of the buyer was kept private at the time of the sale, which was agreed earlier in the year, but he has now been identified as Shkreli, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur who was widely condemned for raising the price of AIDS medication from $13.50 to $750 per pill.
Wu-Tang Clan member RZA has now confirmed the rappers agreed to donate a portion of the sale to a good cause after the revelations about the buyer came to light.
The sale of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was agreed upon in May, well before Martin Skhrelis business practices came to light, RZA writes in an email to Bloomberg Businessweek magazine. We decided to give a significant portion of the proceeds to charity.
Shkreli, who revealed himself as the buyer to the publication, feared the band would have axed the deal if it hadnt been finalized by the time his story hit headlines.
Read more: http://blog.seattlepi.com/people/2015/12/09/wu-tang-clan-donate-album-sale-money-to-charity-after-discovering-buyers-identity/
This is awesome. Fuck you, Shkreli.
frylock
(34,825 posts)Moostache
(9,897 posts)I truly hope that he lives to see suffering and pain on a scale that would make Job say "daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuumn, dude....you got it rough."
Initech
(100,102 posts)Fuck that guy.
exhausted
(8 posts)Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)Initech
(100,102 posts)First we learned that the single copy of the Wu-Tang Clan album was bought by a pharmaceuticals CEO once described as the most hated man in America (reportedly for $2 million), then the buyer - Martin Shkreli - started a YouTube live stream, teasing that he might play the album for viewers, and now we learn of an amazing stipulation in the albums contract.
According to Twitter user Rob Wesley, who might have invented the clause, though a lot of people on Twitter are taking it to be real, it states:
The buying party also agrees that at any time during the stipulated 88 year period, the seller may legally plan and attempt to execute one (1) heist or caper to steal back Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, which, if successful, would return all ownership rights to the seller.
Then comes the best bit:
Said heist or caper can only be undertaken by currently active members of the Wu-Tang Clan and/or actor Bill Murray, with no legal repercussions.
This is the greatest thing I've ever heard of!!!
Iggo
(47,565 posts)ohpleaseohpleaseohplease....
Initech
(100,102 posts)And knowing Wu Tang, they would have the balls to pull something like this.
Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)PersonNumber503602
(1,134 posts)Dig the humor, real or not.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)Well done! Well done, indeed!
R&K
Coventina
(27,172 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,608 posts)OnlinePoker
(5,725 posts)Jeroen
(1,061 posts)GOLGO 13
(1,681 posts)That's how you fuck a POS like Shkreli over.
malthaussen
(17,216 posts)I fully endorse it.
-- Mal
Initech
(100,102 posts)Thespian2
(2,741 posts)This POS is a psychopath...steaming in a pile of manure along side most of the Repukkkian party...
PatrickforO
(14,587 posts)rocktivity
(44,577 posts)Last edited Fri Dec 11, 2015, 02:40 PM - Edit history (1)
What a shame, Wu-Tang -- six years of work down the drain! You HAD to unload that money because thanks to your taste in buyers, you come out of this looking as cruel, greedy, unreasonable and unstable as Shkreli actually IS. You didn't factor that into your master plan, did ya? Well, don't forget to wave bye-bye to your artistic integrity AND your hiphop street cred on your way out -- and DO let the door hit you on your asses!
rocktivity
HomerRamone
(1,112 posts)What portion?
rocktivity
(44,577 posts)rocktivity
Initech
(100,102 posts)Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Initech
(100,102 posts)PatrickforO
(14,587 posts)The slime-bag hasn't yet lowered the price on those pills. Not a dime. In fact, it was around $900 per pill in October this year, and Shkreli is now saying that it is actually good he's bumped the price so much because it is an 'ancient' drug and no one has heretofore had any incentive to develop any new drug.
You know what I think? The guy should be put on trial under the RICO Act for racketeering, which is defined as, "the act of offering of a dishonest service (a "racket" to solve a problem that wouldn't otherwise exist without the enterprise offering the service," which is EXACTLY what this repulsive excuse for a human being is doing. Maybe six or seven consecutive life sentences...
Seriously, this is what is wrong with us. Our capitalist overlords and the chest-pounding GOP nationalists actually think it is OK to do this kind of shit.
We need single payer ASAP.
Initech
(100,102 posts)He's still a douchebag, but that's an interesting spin on this is that in the long run it could force pharmaceutical companies to take a much closer look at their pricing structures, which in turn could mean that it could work out in our favor.
PatrickforO
(14,587 posts)Especially the part where the author says, 'When Shkreli speaks bluntly about the needs of shareholders, without the buzzwords and public relations scripts, he makes big pharma very uncomfortable. Because he's telling the truth. "Its a business; were supposed to make as much money as possible," Shkreli said at the Forbes Healthcare Summit last week, where his attendance was the buzz of the conference. If anything, he said, he would've raised the price of Daraprim higher.'
To me, Initech, this represents a moral issue; specifically it represents a HUGE, gross, bloated, swollen conflict of interest that victimizes ALL but very rich Americans.
The only thing that I actually agree with the article on is where it says that England sells the drug for $20, and the difference between that and the USA is that our government can't negotiate drug prices because a) the people we have elected to uphold our interests in Washington DC are corrupt liars who are on the payroll of big pharma, and b) we don't have single payer healthcare like EVERYONE ELSE IN THE CIVILIZED WORLD because of a) above.
The moral issues, Initech, is this: the mandate to maximize return for shareholders is in direct conflict with the mission of the healthcare system to prevent and cure illness. There just isn't any way around it. If you're a CEO you a) gouge patients to maximize profits wherever you can, and b) work very hard to avoid paying for care patients need so costs can be cut.
That is just.................wrong. I mean, between my employer and I, we pay 18.5% of my gross so my wife and I can 'enjoy' shitty, rationed healthcare from an HMO that cares far more about keeping costs down than actually giving us treatments we need. My wife has suffered for years with doctors that don't want to do more expensive treatments or more extensive tests because they are pressured by the HMO to keep costs down, and we can't afford the huge copay for surgery ($3 grand right there. Each. So if we both have to have surgery, it is $6 grand out of pocket. Each year. We just cannot afford that, so the woman I love continues to suffer, which makes me feel like shit, but I myself am physically incapable of working harder by getting a second job - I just can't do it any more.)
The other thing here is that this shitty HMO we have has raised prices double digits each year for the last DECADE. Every year, HR summons us into a room and they tell us how we are going to be paying higher premiums and higher copays for less service because it's the best our HR people can negotiate because my employer is relatively small with fewer than 4,000 employees.
There's NOTHING that can convince me that single payer wouldn't be a whole world of improvement over the sucky excessively expensive system we have now, and anyway, they are OUR tax dollars. It pisses me off that we have to do bullshit things with OUR tax money like funding wasteful immoral wars when we SHOULD be taking care of the needs of our people. That in itself is a scathing indictment of the corruption in our whole system. The corruption of neoliberal 'free market' capitalism, which eats at all of us like a cancer.
As to Shkreli - try that son of a bitch and execute him. HANG HIM HIGH.
William Seger
(10,779 posts)rocktivity
(44,577 posts)Last edited Thu Dec 17, 2015, 04:00 PM - Edit history (1)
Bloomberg:Martin Shkreli, the boyish drug company entrepreneur who rocketed to infamy by jacking up the price of a life-saving pill from $13.50 to $750, was arrested by federal agents at his Manhattan home early Thursday morning on securities fraud related to a firm he founded.
Prosecutors in Brooklyn charged him with illegally taking stock from Retrophin Inc., a biotechnology firm he started in 2011, and using it to pay off debts from unrelated business dealings. He was later ousted from the company, where hed been chief executive officer, and sued by its board.
In the case that closely tracks that suit, federal prosecutors accused Shkreli of engaging in a complicated shell game after his defunct hedge fund, MSMB Capital Management, lost millions. He is alleged to have made secret payoffs and set up sham consulting arrangements...
I love the smell of vindication in the morning -- I hope Wu Tang's check cleared.
rocktivity
kentauros
(29,414 posts)An alternative was announced not long after his price hike, and Imprimis Pharmaceuticals has stated they can make it for about $1 per pill.
In India, over a dozen pharmaceutical companies manufacture and sell pyrimethamine tablets in India, and, multiple combinations of generic pyrimethamine are available for a price ranging from US$0.04$0.10 each (37 rupees).
In the UK, the same drug is available from GSK at a cost of US$20 (£13) for 30 tablets (approximately $0.66 each).
As of September 2015, Daraprim imported directly from GSK UK is available for less than US$7 per tablet.
In Brazil, the drug is available for R$0.07 a pill, or about US$0.02.
In Canada, the drug was reportedly discontinued in 2013 but hospitals may make the drug in-house when it is needed.
On October 22, 2015, Imprimis Pharmaceuticals announced it has made available a formulation of Pyrimethamine and Leucovorin in oral capsules starting as low as $99.00 for a 100 count bottle.
So, it looks like he's going to get reamed by the rest of the market for the same drug. Not to mention that Canadian hospitals can just make their own!