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Feds sell off PharmaBro Martin Shkreli's one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album for 'at least $2.2million' to pay off his debt

The federal government has sold the one-of-a-kind, unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album that was once owned by Martin Shkreli, the entrepreneur known as 'PharmaBro'.

The album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, sold Tuesday for an undisclosed sum of at least $2.2million.

Authorities said the sales contract for the album contained a confidentiality provision that protects information relating to the buyer and price. 

However, officials note the album sale was enough to fully satisfy the rest of what Shkreli owed on a $7.4million forfeiture order he faced after his 2018 sentencing for securities fraud.

The federal government has sold the one-of-a-kind, unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album that was once owned by Martin Shkreli, the entrepreneur known as 'PharmaBro' (being taken into custody in the 2015 file photo above)

The federal government has sold the one-of-a-kind, unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album that was once owned by Martin Shkreli, the entrepreneur known as 'PharmaBro' (being taken into custody in the 2015 file photo above)

The album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin (pictured), sold Tuesday for an undisclosed sum of at least $2.2million. Authorities said the sales contract for the album contained a confidentiality provision that protects information relating to the buyer and price

The album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin , sold Tuesday for an undisclosed sum of at least $2.2million. Authorities said the sales contract for the album contained a confidentiality provision that protects information relating to the buyer and price

'With today's sale of this one-of-a-kind album, his payment of the forfeiture is now complete,' Acting U.S. Attorney Jacquelyn M. Kasulis in Brooklyn said in a release. 

'Through the diligent and persistent efforts of this Office and its law enforcement partners, Shkreli has been held accountable and paid the price for lying and stealing from investors to enrich himself,' she added.  

Shkreli, 38, purchased the 31-track double album the Wu-Tang Clan spent six years creating at an auction in 2015 for $2million.

He was ordered to surrender the album, along with other assets including the Little Wayne album The Carter V, a Pablo Picasso painting and $5million he held in an E-Trade brokerage account, to satisfy the forfeiture.  

In a civil case in Manhattan federal court, lawyers wrote in an April document that Shkreli had already reduced his forfeiture debt by about $5 million.

While Attorney Benjamin Brafman, who represented Shkreli, said he couldn't comment on Tuesday's sale because of the confidentiality order, he did confirm that the entire forfeiture amount has now been paid.

Shkreli (pictured above in a 2016 file photo) purchased the 31-track double album the Wu-Tang Clan spent six years creating at an auction in 2015 for $2million

Shkreli (pictured above in a 2016 file photo) purchased the 31-track double album the Wu-Tang Clan spent six years creating at an auction in 2015 for $2million

Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and cheating them out of millions of dollars in two failed hedge funds he operated back in 2017 (file of courtroom sketch from Shkreli's trial)

Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and cheating them out of millions of dollars in two failed hedge funds he operated back in 2017 (file of courtroom sketch from Shkreli's trial)

Brafman also said in a statement provided to CNBC that he could also 'confirm the sale price was substantially more than what Mr. Shkreli paid for it'.

The lawyer declined to comment on whether or not Shkreli would receive any proceeds from the album's sale.  

Shkreli's purchase of the Wu-Tang Clan album came as group member RZA said he wanted the album - packaged in a hand-crafted silver and nickel case which includes a 174-page book wrapped in leather - to be viewed as a piece of contemporary art. 

Shkreli had the only copy of the unreleased album, giving him total control of who could listen to the album.

Once Upon a Time in Shaolin had only been played publicly once when 13 minutes of the album was unveiled at MoMA PS1 in New York City, The Guardian reports. Shkreli also allegedly played a portion of the album on a YouTube live session celebrating Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election.

Shkreli was convicted of lying to investors and cheating them out of millions of dollars in two failed hedge funds he operated back in 2017. 

Just weeks after his trial ended, Shkreli tried to sell Once Upon a Time in Shaolin in an eBay auction. Bids for the album surpassed $1million, according to CNET. It has since become clear that the eBay sale never completed.

After his trial, Shkreli had attempted to sell the Wu-Tang Club album on eBay (listing seen above)

After his trial, Shkreli had attempted to sell the Wu-Tang Club album on eBay (listing seen above)

He was prosecuted after gaining widespread fame in 2015 for hiking the price of Daraprim, a previously cheap drug used to treat toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection that can be fatal to people with the AIDS virus or other immune-system disorders, by more than 5,000-percent.

Brafman described Shkreli at sentencing as a misunderstood eccentric who used unconventional means to make his defrauded investors even wealthier. 

Shkreli is scheduled for release in October 2022 after serving a seven-year prison sentence. 

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