Wu-Tang is for the children, but not for Martin Shkreli, judge rules

Back in 2015, “Pharma-Bro” Martin Shkreli bought the one and only copy of Wu-Tang Clan‘s album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin for $2 million. In 2018, the album was one of the assets that was seized by a federal court after Shkreli was convicted for fraud. Now a judge has ruled that Shkreli has to turn over any copies he may have made of the album to its new owners.

A digital art company called PleasrDAO bought the album for $4 million in 2021. When Shkreli played music from it on social platform X in June, it sued, accusing the disgraced pharmaceutical executive of violating their purchase agreement, not to mention the federal trade secrets law. Essentially, if Shkreli kept playing the album, the company argued, it would suffer “immediate and irreparable injury.”

According to court documents obtained by ABC News, on Aug. 23 Judge Pamela K. Chen granted the company a preliminary injunction that keeps Shkreli from “possessing, using, disseminating, or selling any interests in the Album, including its data and files.” What’s more, Shkreli has to turn over “all recordings of the Album’s contents” that he “possesses or controls.”

When Shkreli bought the album, it came with the stipulation that it couldn’t be used for commercial purposes until 2103. However, PleasrDAO did exhibit it in a museum in Tasmania, and the exhibit allowed patrons to hear about 30 minutes of it.