U.S. sells ‘Pharma Bro’ Martin Shkreli’s unique Wu-tang Clan album
Proceeds from the sale will go toward a Us$7.4-million forfeiture judgment that Shkreli, who paid US$2M for the album, faces after being convicted of securities fraud.
NEW YORK • The U.S. government said it sold imprisoned drug company executive Martin Shkreli’s one-of-akind album by Wu-tang Clan to pay off the US$7.36 million he was ordered to forfeit after being convicted of fraud.
In a letter to U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, who oversaw Shkreli’s 2017 trial in Brooklyn, prosecutors said the forfeiture amount has been fully satisfied following the sale of the album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” and other asset sales.
The sale price and buyer were not disclosed because of a confidentiality provision in the contract, prosecutors said.
Shkreli, 38, paid US$2 million for Wu-tang Clan’s only copy of “Shaolin” at an auction by the hip-hop group.
He later bragged he did not plan to listen to the album, and purchased it to “keep it from the people.”
Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer for Shkreli, in an email said he was pleased the forfeiture obligation was satisfied, and that the album’s sale price was “substantially more” than what Shkreli paid.
Nicknamed “Pharma Bro,” Shkreli remains widely vilified for hiking the price of Daraprim, which treated a potentially fatal infection, by more than 4,000 per cent overnight when he led Turing Pharmaceuticals, now known as Phoenixus AG.
He has served more than half of a seven-year prison sentence for cheating investors in two hedge funds and trying to prop up the stock price of another drug company he led, Retrophin Inc. His release date is Oct. 11, 2022, prison records show.
Prosecutors said they still possess two other Shkreli assets, a Phoenixus stake and a Pablo Picasso engraving, that could be applied toward a $Us2.6-million judgment against him in a separate Manhattan civil case.
Brianne Murphy, a lawyer for Shkreli in the Manhattan case, declined to comment.
In January, Matsumoto rejected Shkreli’s request to be freed from prison, rejecting his claim that his deteriorating mental health justified “compassionate” release.
Shkreli, who has asthma, also claimed that tighter confinement conditions to combat COVID-19, including limited contact with others and a diet heavy on peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches, has weakened his immune system and increased his risk of contracting the disease.
Shkreli also said he has been unable to effectively defend against the civil lawsuit.
But the judge said mental health disorders are not a risk factor for COVID-19, and a mental health expert found Shkreli “stable.”
Matsumoto also said that “although litigating from prison may be more difficult, it is far from impossible.”
Shkreli is eligible for release in September 2023.