LOL, 'Pharma Bro' Troll Martin Shkreli Has to Hand Over His Prized Wu-Tang Album to the Feds
LatestA judge ruled that pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli has to fork over nearly $7.4 million to Uncle Sam, including his stake in his prized Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.
Hip hop legends Wu-Tang sold the album—the only copy of the 31-track double album in existence—to the highest bidder back in 2015; Shkreli paid $2 million for it. It may soon belong to the feds, and I’m going to go way off brand for a second and say that might actually be an improvement.
Shkreli is known (and reviled) for buying Daraprim—an anti-parasite medication used by pregnant women, children, and those with HIV—back in 2015 and increasing the price by 5000 percent, from $13.50 to $750 a tablet. He was convicted of securities fraud in 2017 after scamming hedge-fund investors, and could face several years in jail.
Along with his rare piece of music history, Shkreli has to forfeit $5 million of cash from his E-trade account, a Picasso painting, unreleased Lil Wayne album The Carter V, and the shares from his pharmaceutical company, Vyera Pharmaceuticals.
Maybe Wu-Tang should use this opportunity to officially release Once Upon A Time in Shaolin to the public as a fuck-you—because Ghostface Killah calling Shkreli the “Michael Jackson nose kid” one time in 2016 was not enough.