‘Pharma Bro’ Ordered To Hand Over $2 Million One-Of-a-Kind Wu-Tang Clan Album

Martin Shkreli purchased the album for $2 million in 2015.

AP/Susan Walsh, file
Martin Shkreli speaks at Capitol Hill, on February 4, 2016. AP/Susan Walsh, file

A federal judge has ordered “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli to hand over all copies of Wu-Tang Clan’s unreleased album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” by Friday.

Shkreli purchased the album for $2 million in 2015. However, it was seized by the Department of Justice during his seven-year sentence after he was convicted in 2017 on charges of securities fraud. He was released from prison in 2022.

In 2021, a cryptocurrency collective named PleasrDAO bought the album for $4 million from the government. This year, PleasrDAO sued Shkreli, alleging he retained digital copies of the album and shared them on social media.

“Of course I made MP3 copies, they’re like hidden in safes all around the world . . . I’m not stupid,” Shkreli said during a livestream, as cited in court documents. “I don’t buy something for two million dollars just so I can keep one copy.”

Wu-Tang Clan, an iconic hip-hop group formed in Staten Island in the early 1990s, spent six years creating the 31-track double album.

They sold it with the stipulation that it could not be reproduced commercially for 88 years and only played for small gatherings. The album is encased in a Baroque-style bejeweled box, adding to its rarity.

Shkreli’s purchase solidified his reputation as a notorious figure, already infamous for increasing the price of a lifesaving antiparasitic drug by 5,500 percent.

The lawsuit by PleasrDAO also highlights various controversies surrounding Shkreli, including an offer of $5,000 for a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair.


The New York Sun

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