{"id":232588,"date":"2026-02-12T12:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2026\/02\/12\/martin-shkreli-tried-to-sue-rza-but-a-judge-says-he-screwed-it-up\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T12:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T17:21:09","slug":"martin-shkreli-tried-to-sue-rza-but-a-judge-says-he-screwed-it-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2026\/02\/12\/martin-shkreli-tried-to-sue-rza-but-a-judge-says-he-screwed-it-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Shkreli Tried to Sue RZA, But a Judge Says He Screwed It\u00a0Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tA federal judge has rejected Martin Shkreli<\/strong>\u2019s attempt to sue the Wu-Tang Clan\u2019s RZA over the group\u2019s one-of-a-kind album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin<\/em>, ruling that the maneuver violated basic court rules.<\/p>\n

\n\tShkreli filed court papers last week<\/a> aimed at pulling RZA<\/a> (Robert Diggs<\/strong>) and Wu-Tang producer Cilvaringz (Tarik Azzougarh<\/strong>) into his long-running battle with PleasrDAO, an art collective that paid $4 million to buy the album after Shkreli forfeited it to prosecutors.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tMartin Shkreli Sues RZA, Escalating Lawsuit Over Rare Wu-Tang\u00a0Album\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tBut in a pair of short response rulings, the judge overseeing the case now says Shkreli wasn\u2019t actually allowed to sue RZA in the case \u2013 at least not via the specific legal procedures his lawyers employed.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShkreli raises purported \u2018counterclaims\u2019 against Robert \u2018RZA\u2019 Diggs and Tarik \u2018Cilvaringz\u2019 Azzougarh,\u201d Judge Pamela K. Chen<\/strong> writes in a Feb. 6 order. \u201cHowever, counterclaims can only be asserted against an opposing party \u2014 here, the only one is PleasrDao. Furthermore, to the extent Shkreli intended to assert cross-claims, those can only made as to co-defendants, of which there are none here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShkreli wants to pull RZA into the litigation because he says the Wu-Tang leader improperly sold part of the rights to the famed album to PleasrDao despite the fact that they were already contractually promised to him \u2013 what his lawyers call a \u201cduplicate sale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter this week\u2019s rejection, it\u2019s unclear if Shkreli\u2019s legal team will still attempt to pursue those claims. He could potentially file a so-called \u201cthird party complaint,\u201d a legal vehicle sometimes used to add new parties to an existing lawsuit. Or he could simply file a separate case against RZA over the double-sale controversy. But either option would face its own procedural hurdles. His attorney did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tMartin Shkreli Hit With Judge\u2019s Restraining Order In Lawsuit Over One-of-a-Kind Wu-Tang\u00a0Album\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tShaolin<\/em> was published just once, on a CD secured in an engraved nickel and silver box. The legendary album came with bizarre legal stipulations, most notably that it couldn\u2019t be released to the general public until 2103 \u2013 making it one of hip hop\u2019s enduring mysteries.<\/p>\n

\n\tShkreli purchased the album at auction in 2015, shortly before he became the infamous \u201cPharma Bro\u201d who spiked the price of AIDS drugs. But after he was convicted of securities fraud in 2017, he forfeited it to prosecutors to help pay a huge restitution sentence. Pleasr then bought Shaolin<\/em> from the government in 2021 \u2013 and has spent the last few years trying to monetize it with blockchain offerings and private listening parties.<\/p>\n

\n\tPleasr launched the legal battle with Shkreli in 2024, after he made threats to release the album on the internet. And last year, a federal judge said Pleasr\u2019s case could move ahead toward trial<\/a>, ruling that Shaolin<\/em> might qualify as a \u201ctrade secret\u201d that Shkreli had essentially stolen.<\/p>\n

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\n\tShkreli has been trying to pull RZA and Cilvaringz into the case for months. In October, he asked Judge Chen to force them to join the case<\/a>, calling them \u201cindispensable parties\u201d to the dispute. But the judge denied that request<\/a> last month, ruling that it was \u201castonishingly devoid of support.\u201d So last week, he went a step further and simply sued them, doing so by filing a countersuit against Pleasr that named the two artists as co-defendants.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn it, he claimed his original deal with RZA and Cilvaringz to purchase of Shaolin<\/em> gave him 50 percent of the copyright to the album immediately and promised him the other 50 percent in 2103. Instead, he said Wu-Tang had turned around and sold that share to Pleasr.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOn a date 88 years after its execution, the Wu-Tang Defendants are obligated to transfer the remaining 50% of the copyrights to Shkreli,\u201d his lawyers write. \u201cNow, PleasrDAO has alleged that it purchased this same interest from the Wu-Tang defendants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in a ruling on Wednesday, citing her earlier decision that Shkreli\u2019s lawyers \u201cimproperly asserted\u201d those claims, Judge Chen closed the door on them: \u201cthe clerk of the court is respectfully directed to remove Diggs and Azzougarh as counter-defendants from the docket.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A federal judge has rejected Martin Shkreli\u2019s attempt to sue the Wu-Tang Clan\u2019s RZA over the group\u2019s one-of-a-kind album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, ruling that the maneuver violated basic court rules. Shkreli filed court papers last week aimed at pulling RZA (Robert Diggs) and Wu-Tang producer Cilvaringz (Tarik Azzougarh) into his long-running battle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232588"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232588\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}