Judge bans Martin Shkreli from playing Wu-Tang Clan album | Wilnesh News

A federal judge Notorious “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli is temporarily banned from streaming or distributing a one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album that was confiscated following his 2017 criminal fraud conviction.

The company that purchased the album “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” for $4.75 million filed a lawsuit Tuesday night, a day before Judge Pamela Chen issued the order. Shkreli was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York.

The lawsuit alleges that Shkreli, who remains on supervised release in a criminal case, apparently kept a copy of the hip-hop album after it was sold and streamed it online on Sunday, violating his forfeiture order. .

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn told CNBC on Wednesday he had “no comment” when asked whether prosecutors were taking action against Shkreli in response to allegations in a civil lawsuit against Cayman Islands company PleasrDAO.

Chen wrote in Tuesday’s order that PleasrDAO “is likely to succeed based on the substance of the complaint” and “either raises very serious questions about the substance of the forfeiture order, a violation of the Protection of Trade Secrets Act” and “misappropriation of trade secrets” .

The judge also scheduled a hearing on the case for June 25, at which time she could proceed with the injunction against Shkreli and order him to provide the plaintiff with an inventory of all copies of the album that he retains.

Steven Cooper, an attorney for PleasrDAO, said Wednesday that he could not comment on whether he had been in contact with prosecutors regarding Shkreli’s alleged violation of the forfeiture order.

“Based on activity like this, I wouldn’t be surprised that a prosecutor or probation office would be interested in this,” Cooper told CNBC.

The lawyer said his client sued Shkreli because of “a dramatic deterioration in his behavior” and because PleasrDAO planned to play some songs from the album at an exhibition. Tasmanian Museum, Australia, Starting later this week.

The lawsuit alleges that on Sunday, Shkreli wrote a post on his X social media account saying, “@pleasrdao blocked me from their account so I thought I’d stream the album on Spaces now.”

Less than an hour later, Shkreli’s X account hosted a Spaces session titled “Official Wu-Tang Listening Party” and tweeted “Never heard of it before on Wu-Tang Stream,” the lawsuit says .

“During the Spaces session, Shkreli played music from the album that any participant could hear. According to X, 4,900 listeners ‘listened in,'” the lawsuit states.

“His pattern of bad behavior has been ongoing for an extended period of time, many of which were directed at my clients,” Cooper said.

“The fact that he retained a copy (of the album) violated his forfeiture provisions and could have consequences in addition to civil litigation,” Cooper said.

Shkreli’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Shkreli, 40, was convicted of securities fraud in 2017. The company’s stock.

Before his conviction, Shkreli became nationally known in 2015 when the price of the life-saving drug Daraprim, another pharmaceutical company he ran, increased by more than 4,000% overnight.

In January, a federal appeals court upheld Shkreli’s lifetime ban from working in the pharmaceutical industry and ordered him to pay more than $64 million in repatriated profits to prevent competition with Daraprim.

Shkreli was released from prison in May 2022 and is currently serving a three-year sentence.

As part of his criminal sentence, Shkreli was ordered to forfeit nearly $7.4 million to the U.S. government and turn over a range of assets to satisfy the order.

These properties include Once Upon a Time in Shaolin Lil Wayne album “Tha Carter V” A paper engraving by Pablo Picasso, and $5 million held in an E-Trade brokerage account.

Shkreli purchased the Wu-Tang Clan album for $2 million in 2015, setting a Guinness World Record for the most expensive piece of music ever produced. The 31-track, two-disc Wu-Tang Clan album is presented in a hand-engraved nickel silver case within a larger leather case.

In July 2021, while Shkreli was still in prison, the government sold the album to an undisclosed buyer for an undisclosed amount. At the time of the sale, Shkreli owed nearly $2.4 million on the forfeiture order.

In PleasrDAO’s lawsuit, the company said it purchased Once Upon a Time in Shaolin for approximately $4 million and $750,000 respectively in two separate transactions in 2021 and 2024. The second purchase was for “copyright and exclusive rights to the recording,” the lawsuit states.

PleasrDAO’s lawsuit describes the company as an “international entity that collects and publicly displays culturally significant media and materials with the intent of creating ecosystem experiences that encourage participation and interaction from the United States and other countries.”

The lawsuit states that the Wu-Tang Clan “album shall constitute the only existing copy of the recordings, music, data and documentation, and packaging.”

“It now appears, however, that Shkreli improperly retained copies of the data and documents at the time of the seizure and had and/or intended to release those copies to the public,” the lawsuit states.

“Such conduct will cause PleasrDAO to suffer substantial monetary and irreparable losses and give rise to numerous claims for relief under forfeiture orders and common law,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit states that when Shkreli purchased the album in September 2015, he and the album’s producers signed an agreement that prohibited Shkreli from “exhibiting or playing for any reason other than in a space not normally used” for 88 years. “Copy or exploit this album. As a venue for large-scale concerts.

The complaint also cites a forfeiture order issued in Shkreli’s criminal case, which prohibits him from taking any action that would reduce, damage or deplete the assets he surrendered, as well as any action that would affect the availability or value of those assets.

PleasrDAO said in the lawsuit that starting in June 2022, one month after being released from prison, Shkreli admitted that he played “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” to fans during a live broadcast on the social media platform.

“On June 22, 2022, in another live broadcast on YouTube, Shkreli was asked if he still had a copy of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin. Shkreli said, ‘That night I played it on YouTube It was committed despite being paid $4 million for it,'” the lawsuit states.

Last month, the lawsuit states, “Shkreli appeared in a video podcast posted on YouTube.”

“In the video, Shkreli states that he ‘burned the album and sent it to 50 different chicks(.)’ and then asks the interviewer, ‘You know the album attracted How many (expletive) me? “He also said, ‘Thousands of people have heard this song. I sent the mp3 to all these people. ‘”