The U.S. Department of Justice announced the sale of a one-of-a-kind album from hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan. The exclusive copy of the “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” album belonged to convicted hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli and was forfeited when he was sentenced in 2018.
Proceeds from the sale of the album will be used to pay what Shkreli still owes toward the $7.4 million financial judgment from his sentencing, the department said.
The DOJ says there is a confidentiality provision in the sale that protects the information of the buyer and the price of the sale.
“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,” Jacquelyn Kasulis, the acting U.S. Attorney for Brooklyn said in a press release.
Shkreli was the founder and managing member of two hedge funds and the former CEO of Retrophin Inc., a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company. He earned the nickname “Pharma Bro” after posting a photo of himself mimicking a rapper.
He was convicted of securities fraud for defrauding investors in the hedge funds and manipulating the price of Retrophin’s stock, prosecutors say.
In the weeks after his conviction but before the sentencing and court-imposed forfeiture, Shkreli tried to sell the album online, according to the DOJ.
Shkreli bought the Wu-Tang Clan album in an auction in 2015 for about $2 million. At the time, it was marketed as “both a work of art and an audio artifact.” It included a hand-carved nickel-silver box and a leather-bound manuscript containing lyrics and a certificate of authenticity.
