Someone else now owns Martin Shkreli's one-of-a-kind Wu Tang Clan album—thanks to the U.S. government
The DOJ announced that the record was sold to an undisclosed buyer
We know it’s likely that you had forgotten who Martin Shkreli is. It’s been nearly a year since he last made headlines when journalist Christie Smythe came forward about their relationship; she explained how she fell in love with him after wrote extensively about the rich troll. Unfortunately, we’re now talking about Shkreli again—but, thankfully, this time it’s because of some form of justice.
Back in 2018, the government made Shkreli hand over his one-of-a-kind Wu Tang Clan album Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, even though Shkreli said he had sold it on Ebay for $1 million after being incarcerated. But even if it was actually sold by him, it looks like the album was retrieved. Now, it’s been sold by the government.
Today, Jacquelyn M. Kasulis, the acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced that the copy of Once Upon A Time In Shaolin was bought by a secret buyer for an undisclosed price. “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,” she says in a press statement.
What makes this record that Shkreli purchased in 2015 so rare is that it also comes in a hand-carved box with a leather-bound manuscript containing the lyrics to the album. Wu Tang didn’t make other copies of the record, so whoever has the physical copy would be the only person who gets access to the iconic group’s LP. We just hope that whoever owns it now isn’t an asshole (even our former president was horrified by Shkreli’s past moves from the asshole playbook).
Shkreli was convicted of fraud in 2017 after mishandling two hedge funds he ran—MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare—and additionally for conspiring to commit securities fraud. He’s currently in the middle of serving a 7-year prison sentence. He became known as “Pharma Bro” for hiking up the prices of essential medicines.