The Two Mysteries of Martin Shkreli's Last Livestream
Before he was hauled away by FBI agents for allegedly using various investors as pawns in what essentially amounted to a long Ponzi scheme, pharmaceutical dillweed Martin Shkreli did what he does frequently: sit in front of his computer and livestream on YouTube nonsensically. As people have gone back and reviewed his last hours of freedom, two puzzling mysteries have emerged from the otherwise banal footage.
Did Shkreli flash the elusive Wu-Tang album?
After his arrest, many people wanted to know the fate of the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album that Shkreli had reportedly purchased for $2 million. As we reported earlier this morning, the feds did not seize the album, a fact the FBI confirmed in the afternoon. It’s unclear if the feds could take possession of the album even if they wanted to, but this all brings up a much more fundamental question: Does Shkreli even have the record in the first place?
We do know that he bought the record, as a press release from auction firm Paddle8 indicates. But the album was being stored in a vault in a hotel in Monoco, and it’s plausible that it had not yet actually been transferred into his possession. At the very end of last night’s livestream, though, it certainly looks like Shkreli could be holding in his hands, a question first asked by BroBible in their post “Is This Martin Shrekli Flashing His $2 Million Wu-Tang Album Right Before He Gets Arrested?”
Given the lengths to which Shkreli will go to make a scene—for instance, purchasing a $2 million Wu-Tang Clan album—it’s not out of the question that he would have had some sort of prop on hand to make people think he’s showing off the album when he really wasn’t. Known photos of the record show a “silver-and-nickel box” with engraving covering its face, save for a bare patch in the shape of Wu-Tang’s famous curling “W” logo. What Shkreli shows is the opposite: a clean face with an engraved logo. That said, it’s quite possible that what Shkreli holds up to the camera could be the final, inmost case in series of cases like Russian nesting dolls containing the album.
Regardless, whatever he displays has his grubby fingerprints all over it, which at the very least, makes it less gleaming.
Did Shkreli get a call from a “special agent?”
More dramatically, 90 minutes into the livestream, Shkreli appears to get a phone call. When he picks it up we hear a voice say, “Yes hello, this is special agent—” before Shkreli cuts the call off. “Watch: Martin Shkreli Gets Call From ‘Special Agent’ During Live Stream,” writes Patch in a headline, above a story that openly undermines its own premise. It’s hard to imagine an actual FBI agent would have called up Martin Shkreli, using some robotic Moviefone voice, the night before his arrest. Still it would have been very funny if the FBI had done that, specifically to Martin Shkreli.
