Convicted pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli was hit with a lawsuit over his own claims that he copied and distributed the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin . The suit was filed by PleasrDAO, a digital art collective that purchased the album from Shkreli in 2021 after Shkreli was ordered to fork it over to cover a $7.4 million forfeiture tied to his 2017 fraud conviction.
(Shkreli purchased the album for $2 million ; PleasrDAO paid double that.) According to the lawsuit, Shkreli violated the terms of both the original purchase agreement and the forfeiture order by allegedly making and retaining a digital copy of the album, playing it during his live streams, and sending it to others. Shkreli was released from prison on May 18, 2022, and within a month, according to the lawsuit, he admitted during a livestream that he was playing Once Upon a Time in Shaolin for his followers.
“Yeah, that’s the Wu-Tang album for all you crazy streamer people,” Shkreli allegedly said. A few days later, on June 22, 2022, Shkreli allegedly admitted to still having a copy of the album, adding, “I was playing it on YouTube the other night even though somebody paid $4 million for it.” Then, on a June 30, 2022 stream, Shkreli allegedly played portions of the album again and said, “Of course I made MP3 copies, they’re like hidden in safes all around the world.
.. I’m not stupid.
I don’t buy something for two million dollars just so I can keep one copy.�.
