Judge rejects Martin Shkreli’s lawsuit against RZA
Martin Shkreli attempted to sue RZA earlier this month. However, the judge has since shut down his lawsuit.
Judge Pamela K Chen ruled that Shkreli violated basic court rules in his claims over Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album.
The former pharmaceutical executive recently brought RZA and producer Cilvaringz into his battle with PleasrDAO.
The art collective bought Once Upon a Time in Shaolin for $4 million after Shkreli forfeited the album to the government over his securities fraud conviction.
Judge Chen revealed that Shkreli wasn’t actually allowed to sue RZA through the legal procedures he used.
In a February 6th order obtained by Billboard, he wrote, “Shkreli raises purported ‘counterclaims’ against Robert ‘RZA’ Diggs and Tarik ‘Cilvaringz’ Azzougarh. However, counterclaims can only be asserted against an opposing party – here, the only one is PleasrDao.”
He added, “Furthermore, to the extent Shkreli intended to assert cross-claims, those can only made as to co-defendants, of which there are none here.”
Shkreli alleged a duplicate sale took place, accusing RZA of improperly selling part of the rights to the album to PleasrDao.
The 42-year-old purchased the only copy of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin for millions of dollars in 2015, making it the most expensive album ever sold.
He once revealed that he bought the album to show off to friends and rivals in his business industry. “There’s a lot of things rich guys do to show off,” he said. “The press thing is a part of it, but it’s also to show your friends, or your last company, like, ‘Hey, fuck you, look at me, I got this $2 million album.’ Guys do that all the time.”