Federal judge orders pharmacy executive convicted Martin Shkreli to hand him copies of Wu-Tang Clan's Once upon a time in Shaolinrejecting his claims that he had the right to keep copies of the one-of-a-kind album even after he lost it to federal prosecutors.
After a hearing Friday in Manhattan federal court, Judge Pamela K. Chen granted a preliminary injunction to PleasrDAO — a digital art collective that bought the album in 2021 after Shkreli was forced to forfeit it as part of his criminal case.
In addition to extending previous restrictions barring him from sharing the album, the judge ruled that Shkreli must turn over “all recordings of the content of the album that the defendant owns or controls” to his own lawyers. He has until Friday to file written confirmation that he did so.
In granting the motion, Judge Chen dismissed Shkreli's arguments about the copies. In court filings last month, his lawyers argued that making private copies was legal when he owned the rare album — and that he was not required to turn over those copies to prosecutors when he turned over the famous original CD.
Pleasr sued Shkreli in June over a possible leak of the album, accusing him of violating both the purchase agreement and the federal forfeiture order. They also accused him of violating the federal Trade Secrets Act, which protects valuable proprietary information from misappropriation.
The legendary Wu-Tang album was recorded in secret and released only once, on a CD secured in an engraved nickel and silver box. Although the band intended the odd embellishments as a protest against the commercialization of music, Shaolin later became the ultimate commodity. In 2015, Shkreli — soon to become infamous as the man who deliberately raised the price of critical AIDS drugs — bought it at auction for $2 million.
When it was originally sold, Shaolin came with much-discussed terms — namely, that the one-of-a-kind album could not be released to the general public until 2103. But Shkreli's lawyers say the deal gave him the right to “copy or copy the work for private use.”
After Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud in 2017, he forfeited the album to federal prosecutors to help him pay his multimillion-dollar restitution sentence. Pleasr then bought the album from the government in 2021 for $4 million, and in 2024 acquired the copyright and other rights to the album for another $750,000.
Pleasr, which recently tried to monetize the album, sued Shkreli on the grounds that he was threatening to release the album publicly and destroy the exclusivity the label had purchased.
In a statement following Friday's ruling, Pleasr's attorney, Steven Cooper of the law firm Reed Smith, called the decision a “significant victory” for his client: “We are pleased that Judge Chen recognized that immediate relief was necessary to prevent Mr. Shrkeli's continued bad acts.”
A lawyer for Shkreli did not immediately return a request for comment.
After Friday's decision, the injunction against Shkreli will be in place until a final decision is made at the end of the case. With settlement ruled out, the lawsuit will now proceed to full litigation – including discovery, dueling motions from each side and a potential jury trial.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/pro/martin-shkreli-turn-over-wu-tang-album-once-upon-time-shaolin/