US sells unique Wu-Tang Clan album seized from Pharma Bro
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27/07/2021 - 22:34 Pharmaceutical executive and hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli was sentenced to seven years prison for defrauding investors Drew Angerer GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File 2 min
New York (AFP)
The sole edition of Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was sold by the US government Tuesday three years after prosecutors seized it from a disgraced former pharmaceutical executive.
The Justice Department s office in New York announced the sale in a statement but said it could not disclose the price or the buyer, citing a confidentiality clause.
Those assets had included the Lil Wayne album Tha Carter V, an engraving on paper by Pablo Picasso and $5 million held in an E-Trade brokerage account.
Shkreli s trial lawyer Benjamin Brafman in an email to CNBC confirmed that the balance of Shkreli s forfeiture was satisfied by the sale.
Brafman also wrote, I can also confirm that the sale price was substantially more than what Mr. Shkreli paid for it.
Brafman declined to answer whether Shkreli would receive any of the proceeds of the sale after the amount taken to satisfy the forfeiture.
Shkreli bought the Wu-Tang Clan album at auction for a reported $2 million in 2015 giving him the only copy of the record, and allowing the New York City resident total control of whether anyone else could listen to the music on it.
Martin Shkreli: One of a kind Wu-Tang Clan album sold by US government kingdomfm.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kingdomfm.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Those assets had included the Lil Wayne album Tha Carter V, an engraving on paper by Pablo Picasso and $5 million held in an E-Trade brokerage account.
Shkreli s trial lawyer Benjamin Brafman in an email to CNBC confirmed that the balance of Shkreli s forfeiture was satisfied by the sale.
Brafman also wrote, I can also confirm that the sale price was substantially more than what Mr. Shkreli paid for it.
Brafman declined to answer whether Shkreli would receive any of the proceeds of the sale after the amount taken to satisfy the forfeiture.
Shkreli bought the Wu-Tang Clan album at auction for a reported $2 million in 2015 giving him the only copy of the record, and allowing the New York City resident total control of whether anyone else could listen to the music on it.
An unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album forfeited by Martin Shkreli after his securities fraud conviction was sold today for an undisclosed sum, though prosecutors say it was enough to fully satisfy the rest of what he owed on a $10 million forfeiture order he faced after his 2018 sentencing.
The entrepreneur known as âPharma Broâ once boasted that he paid $2.7 million in 2015 at auction for âOnce Upon a Time in Shaolin,â the 31-track double album the Wu-Tang Clan spent six years creating. With todayâs sale of this one-of-a-kind album, his payment of the forfeiture is now complete,â Acting US Attorney Jacquelyn M. Kasulis in Brooklyn said in a release.