Martin Shkreli’s Wu-Tang Clan album likely sold for just $2.2M: Sources
The Wu Tang Clan has helped “Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli pay off his debts to Uncle Sam — but just barely.
In announcing the sale of Shkreli’s one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album, “Once Upon A Time In Shaolin,” federal prosecutors said the “Pharma Bro” officially paid off the $7.4 million he was ordered to fork over after he was convicted for fraud in 2017.
Sources now tell The Post that court filings tied to the sale indicate that the album sold for exactly what Shkreli still owed the feds — or just $2.238 million.
Shkreli bought the collectors item — referred to by prosecutors simply as the “Album” — for $2 million in 2015. For a profit of just $238,000, the still-jailed ex-pharmaceutical exec might have been better off investing in the S&P 500.
“If it had sold for any more than $2.2 million, the government would disclose there was money leftover,” a lawyer close to the case explained.
Indeed, legal filings in Shkreli’s criminal case show prosecutors calling it “case closed” on Shkreli’s $7.4 million forfeiture order.
Any remaining assets they have seized — including shares of Turing Pharmaceuticals and an engraving on paper by Picasso — can now be handed over to pay off Shkreli’s civil debts, the feds said.
If the stock is enough to pay those debts — including a $2.6 million judgement for consulting services provided to one of Shkreli’s pharma companies — the Picasso may even be returned to Shkreli, the feds said.
No mention was made of any other assets, including cash left over from the sale of “Once Upon a Time In Shaolin.”
The feds declined to comment.
Despite losing the coveted record to pay off his debts, Shkreli is in good spirits, his lawyer, Brianne Murphy, told The Post.
From prison, Shkreli told Murphy that he was “pleased with the sale price and RIP ODB,” an apparent reference to Russell Tyrone Jones, a late cofounder of the group who went by the stage name Ol’ Dirty Bastard.
The buyer of the album was kept under wraps, but Wu-Tang Clan fans are hoping a member of the group behind songs like “C.R.E.A.M.” and “Bring Da Ruckus” snatched it up.
One of the group’s members, RZA, has previously expressed interest in buying the coveted album back from Shkreli. In one interview, he even likened the album to the Mona Lisa, saying “it’s got its own folklore.”
“I can’t comment on Wu-Tang or the buyer,” said Peter Scoolidge, lawyer for the anonymous buyer. But the secret may be out soon, he suggested. “You’ll be hearing from the buyer and interested parties in the next 30 to 60 days,” he said.
The album is coveted because just one copy was made. But more people got a chance to listen to it for the first time tied to the sale, Scoolidge said.
“We listened to all the tracks just to make sure there was no degradation,” Scoolidge said of the experience, which took place in a secret government warehouse.
“It was kind of awkward. We were in a room with a bunch of US Marshals . . . they’re not trap fans,” he said referring to a subgenre of hip hop that originated in the early 1990s.
