Wu-Tang Clan’s unreleased Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album, which was previously owned by imprisoned former pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli before it was seized by the government, now has a new owner.
On Tuesday (July 27), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York announced that the album had been sold by the U.S. itself. Shkreli had to forfeit ownership of the LP when he was convicted on securities fraud charges over three years ago.
“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,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Kasulis.
Shkreli, who gained a level of infamy after he raised the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 percent, originally bought the Wu-Tang Clan album for what was reportedly millions of dollars in 2015. One of the conditions of the purchase was that Shkreli or who ever owned the album wasn’t allowed to release it for nearly 100 years. Needless to say, everything about the sale of the album was pretty extreme. The identity of the new owner hasn’t been disclosed.
In August 2017, Shkreli, was convicted on two counts of securities fraud and one count of securities fraud conspiracy. In March 2018, he was sentenced to seven years in prison.
A couple of years before he was sentenced, Shkreli trolled Ghostface Killah, using an appearance on The Breakfast Club to threaten to smack the rap legend. Naturally, when Shkreli was sentenced for his crimes, Ghostface didn’t have any words of encouragement.
“Fuck that nigga,” Ghostface told REVOLT in 2018. “You disrespected me, going up on the radio and doing all this shit. My kids gotta see that.”