Martin Shkreli faces up to 10 years in federal prison as part of his conviction for securities fraud. (Or perhaps it’s cosmic justice for infamously raising the price of Daraprim in 2015. You see, that’s the thing about karma…)
As part of his conviction, Shkreli was ordered to forfeit $7.36 million in assets, including the Wu-Tang Clan album he paid $2 million for through a private broker. The album entitled Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is the only copy in existence. Recorded at the group’s Staten Island home and originally sold via auction, Shaolin was never intended to be heard in this lifetime. The owner will only have rights to release the record after more than eight decades have passed—88 years to be exact. (“We felt that retail commercialization and mass replication would dilute the status of the album as a one-off work of art and compromise the integrity of our statement,” producer Cilvaringz explained on the auction site.)
Shkreli’s ownership of the album left a bad taste in many fans’ mouths, but as a result of the conviction, the album was sold on eBay for $1,025,100. Shkreli is currently in jail awaiting sentencing. Because federal courts ain’t nuttin to fuck wit.