Convicted financial fraudster Martin Shkreli was ordered by a New York federal judge to turn over all copies of rap group Wu-Tang Clan's exclusive album Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, also known as "the world's rarest album."
Shkreli was the co-founder and former CEO of pharmaceutical firms Retrophin and Turing Pharmaceuticals who served over six years in federal prison and was fined over 70 million dollars after being convicted of financial crimes.
He was nicknamed "Pharma Bro" following the controversy of Turing jacking the price of Daraprim to insurance companies from $13.50 to $750.00 per pill following the pharma company's acquisition of the antiparasitic drug's manufacturing license.
Shkreli was released from prison in 2022 after serving the majority of his seven-year sentence for financial crimes, which included lying to investors and defrauding them out of millions of dollars through two of his failed hedge funds.
In August 2015, Shkreli purchased the only existing hard copy of Wu-Tang Clan's seventh studio album, which was not available for downloading or streaming, for reportedly $2 million through Paddle8, an online auction house.
After Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud in March 2018, he was ordered to surrender his assets, including Once Upon A Time In Shaolin.
In July 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice sold the seized rap album to digital art company and cryptocurrency collective PleasrDAO, who endeavored to make the coveted project widely accessible.
However, when Shkreli broadcast snippets from the exclusive recording on the streaming platforms Periscope and Hitbox.tv, PleasrDAO sued Shkreli, accusing him of violating the forfeiture order by retaining the digital contents of the album and playing it publicly without permission, thereby diminishing the value of the record.
On Monday, Judge Pamela K. Chen issued an order to prevent Shkreli from possessing any and all contents of the album following her previous order to block Shkreli from streaming the album last month.
Shkreli's legal representative referred to the ongoing lawsuit in a statement that read:
“This order is merely a preliminary measure entered by the court to maintain the perceived status quo before any discovery occurs - the order has no bearing whatsoever on the final outcome of the case."
He has until the end of the week (August 30) to turn over all copies of Once Upon A Time In Shaolin to his lawyers.
Wu-Tang Clan spent six years creating just one hard copy of the 31-track Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, a project they deemed a piece of contemporary art.
The American hip-hop musical collective auctioned it off in 2015 under the condition the album would never be released publicly.
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