U.S. sells one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album forfeited by 'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli
- A one-of-a-kind album by the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan — which was forfeited by "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli as part of his criminal conviction — has been sold by the U.S. government.
- The buyer and the sale price of the album, "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin," were not revealed by prosecutors because of a confidentiality provision in the contract.
- Shkreli is serving a seven-year prison sentence for securities fraud. He had been ordered to surrender the unique album as part of a forfeiture judgment of about $7.4 million.
A one-of-a-kind album by the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan that was once owned by notorious "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli finally has been sold by the U.S. government, three years after Shkreli forfeited the record as part of his conviction for securities fraud.
The buyer and the sale price of the album, "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin," were not revealed Tuesday by prosecutors, who cited a confidentiality provision in the contract.
But the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Office in a press release noted, "Proceeds from the sale of the Album will be applied to satisfy the outstanding balance owed on the Forfeiture Money Judgment."
Shkreli, who is serving a seven-year prison sentence for his August 2017 criminal conviction in Brooklyn federal court, had been ordered to surrender the unique album to satisfy at least a fraction of aforfeiture judgment of about $7.4 million.
Shkreli, 38, bought the Wu-Tang Clan album at auction for a reported $2 million in 2015 —giving him the only copy of the record, and allowing the New York City resident total control of whether anyone else could listen to the music on it.
The publicity stunt purchase came in the same year that he gained widespread infamy by his pharmaceuticals company hiking the price of the anti-parasite medication Daraprim, which is used to treat HIV patients and newborns, by more than 5,000%.
Two years later, in the weeks after his trial ended, Shkreli had tried to sell Once Upon a Time in Shaolin in an online auction.
The acting U.S. Attorney for Brooklyn, Jacquelyn Kasulis, lead the team of prosecutors at Shkreli's trial in 2017.
"Through the diligent and persistent efforts of this Office and its law enforcement partners, Shkreli has been held accountable and paid the price for lying and stealing from investors to enrich himself. With today's sale of this one-of-a-kind album, his payment of the forfeiture is now complete," Kasulis said Tuesday.
Shkreli's trial had nothing to do with the price hike of Daraprim, which occurred when he was running a drug company then-known as Turing Pharmaceuticals.
Instead, the criminal case revolved around allegations that he had swindled investors at two hedge funds that he earlier ran, and used their money to start his first pharmaceuticals company, Retrophin.
Shkreli was later ousted from the publicly traded Retrophin, and was convicted of several criminal counts at trial. He currently is in a low-security prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, and is due to be released on Oct. 11, 2022.
Retrophin last year changed its name to Travere Therapeutics.
Earlier this month, Shkreli, while locked up in prison, beat back an effort by investors to take over control of Phoenixus, the parent company of Vyera, formerly known as Turing Pharmaceuticals.
The investors trying to seize control of Phoenixus from purported allies of Shkreli include Kevin Mulleady, a former close friend of Shkreli.
Mulleady, who was identified by the Federal Trade Commission in a 2020 lawsuit as having been an unindicted co-conspirator of Shrekli in the criminal case, is a former chairman of the Phoenixus board and former CEO of Vyera.
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