Billboard.com
The saga of Martin Shkreli and the elusive Wu-Tang Clan album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” has amped up again. The former pharmaceutical executive, who became notorious for inflating drug prices, is now claiming partial ownership of the album decades after it was seized by the federal government.
Shkreli originally purchased the album in the mid 2010s for reportedly $2 million under a highly unusual agreement that separated physical ownership from copyright. The deal granted him immediate control of half the copyrights, with the remainder scheduled to transfer to him in 2103, when he would be 120 years old. The album itself, a two-disc set with a certificate of authenticity, was to remain a single, private copy.
After Shkreli’s 2017 fraud conviction, the federal government seized the album. In 2021, it was sold to the digital art collective PleasrDAO for over $4 million. The collective later sued Shkreli, alleging he had made unauthorized copies in violation of the agreement. Now, Shkreli is fighting back, filing a countersuit that names Wu-Tang Clan member RZA and producer Cilvaringz. He remarks that the pair improperly resold rights that were originally promised to him, effectively “double-selling” the copyrights.
Shkreli’s legal filing asks the court to affirm his claimed 50% stake and to clarify that the album should not be treated as a protected trade secret. According to him, the way the rights were reassigned has created a confusing and potentially invalid ownership structure.
PleasrDAO’s legal team, however, views this as another stalling tactic. Steven Cooper, the collective’s lawyer, told reporters that Shkreli’s counterclaims are unlikely to succeed, citing prior court rulings that rejected similar attempts to block the lawsuit.
From its creation in 2014 by RZA as a single-copy masterpiece to Shkreli’s controversial purchase and the ongoing legal battles, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” remains one of the most coveted releases in music history. And with Shkreli now seeking to reclaim his long-delayed copyright stake, the story shows no signs of slowing down.
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