The US Government Just Sold the One-of-a-Kind Wu-Tang Clan Album ‘Once Upon A Time In Shaolin’
The US Government has sold the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon A Time In Shaolin. Information about the buyer and sale price have not been released.
The saga of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin continues.
Back in 2018, infamous “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli forfeited the album he paid $2 million for to the US government after being sentenced to seven years in prison for fraud. (He also forfeited $5 million he had in cash in an E-Trade brokerage account; a stake in his drug company Vyera Pharmaceuticals; a Picasso painting; and an early version of Lil’ Wayne’s The Carter V album.) Now, after three years, the US Government has sold off that asset.
The Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office announced in a press release that they sold the album. The buyer and how much that person (or company) paid for the album have not been revealed. (The prosecutors said there was a confidentiality provision in the contract.)
The Brooklyn US Attorney’s Office said that “proceeds from the sale of the album will be applied to satisfy the outstanding balance owed on the Forfeiture Money Judgment.”
In an email exchange with Shkreli’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman, the attorney told CNBC that “the sale price was substantially more than what Mr. Shkreli paid for it.” He also added that the balance of Shkreli’s forfeiture was satisfied due to the sale
We need the Once Upon A Time In Shaolin movie ASAP. The one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan LP that was recorded over a six year stretch, and hidden away in a secret Moroccan vault, was sold to Martin Shkreli in 2015. A wealthy pharmaceutical businessman, Shkreli became infamous after the company he owned purchased the anti-parasitic drug Daraprim (which is often used to treat malaria and prolong the lives of HIV-positive patients) and raised its price from $13.50 per pill to $750.
Shkreli had the option to release the album for the world to hear whenever he chooses, but if he wanted to do it commercially, he would have to wait 88 years. (Shout out to the Wu-Tang Clan’s strict copyright arrangement.) The album allegedly features appearances from the entire Wu-Tang Clan, Redman, and Cher with production from Cilvaringz.. The album, which is on a CD, is held in a silver jewel-encrusted box with a wax Wu-Tang Clan seal and leather-bound liner notes.
Will the world ever get to hear this album? Only time will tell.