Artist ends lawsuit over Shkreli’s one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang album

NEW YORK (Reuters) – An artist from Long Island, New York has ended his lawsuit blaming indicted drug executive Martin Shkreli and Wu-Tang Clan leader Robert “RZA” Diggs for stealing his illustrations for a one-of-a-kind album that Shkreli bought for $2 million.

Jason Koza, of Copiague, New York, on Tuesday dismissed his copyright infringement case against Diggs, Wu Tang producer Tarik “Cilvaringz” Azzougarh and Paddle8 NY LLC, which auctioned the “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” album to Shkreli in November.

“The dispute has been resolved,” Koza’s lawyer Peter Scoolidge said in an email on Wednesday. He declined to elaborate.

Stephen Rothschild, a lawyer for Diggs, was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday.

Shkreli had been dropped from the case on April 18. The former chief of Turing Pharmaceuticals is known for having sparked outrage last year when he raised the price of the anti-parasitic infection drug Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent.

Koza, a Fashion Institute of Technology graduate, sued Diggs after finding his art had been used in the packaging of “Shaolin,” and Shkreli for letting three works depicting other Wu-Tang members accompany a Jan. 29 article at Vice.com.

Shkreli has bragged that he had no plans to listen to the hip-hop group’s album, but bought it to “keep it from the people.”

He has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges announced in December, which are unrelated to Daraprim.

The case is Koza v Diggs et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-00956.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by James Dalgleish)