Welcome back to FOIA Files! This week, I’m feeling sparks of energy. The government finally disclosed to me the auction price for Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, the seventh studio album by renowned hip-hop group, Wu-Tang Clan. The Justice Department seized the album in 2018 from Martin Shkreli, the notorious pharmaceutical executive and hedge fund manager who was convicted of securities fraud. The government later sold the album but kept the sale price secret. After spending more than four years trying to pry loose that detail, I just got it! Take a trip with me down the Wu-Tang rabbit hole for the whole backstory. If you’re not already getting FOIA Files in your inbox, sign up here.
A one-of-a-kind album
I assume most people know the story by now. Wu-Tang Clan sold the only copy of their 31-track album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, at auction in 2015 to Shkreli for about $2 million. The album, conceived as a work of art, was pressed onto two compact discs and stored in a vault in Casablanca before it was sold. The buyer had to agree that they would not duplicate it or play it commercially for 88 years—until 2103.
Later in 2015, Shkreli, who earned the nickname “Pharma Bro” in response to his controversial decision to jack up the price of a lifesaving drug by 5,000%, was charged with securities fraud. In 2017, he was convicted and later sentenced to seven years in prison. He was also ordered to pay a $75,000 fine and forfeit $7.4 million in assets. The following year, the government seized the album.
Fast forward to July 2021. The US Attorney’s office in New York that oversaw Shkreli’s prosecution announced that the federal government sold the album to “satisfy the outstanding balance” on his forfeiture judgment. There was one caveat: “The contract of sale contains a confidentiality provision that protects information relating to the buyer and price.”
FOIA time
I couldn’t resist. A week after Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was sold I filed a FOIA request for a copy of the bill of sale and terms of the sale, photographs of the album, as well as any emails referencing Wu-Tang Clan and the sale of the album.
In October 2021, The New York Times revealed that the new owners of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, a digital art and crypto collective known as PleasrDAO, had paid “the equivalent of $4 million in a cryptocurrency tied to the dollar” for the album. The collective obtained it through an intermediary.
That same month I sued the Department of Justice to compel the agency to release the records. In January 2022, the US Marshals Service, which handled the sale of the album, sent me 67 pages of documents that included dozens of stunning photographs of the album that had never seen the light of day.
The photos showed that Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was kept in a nickel-silver box that was stored in a cedarwood box and covered in black cow leather with light beige velvet lining. It also showed the album was accompanied by a 175-page leather-bound lyric book and a gold-leafed certificate of authenticity.
More at link
A one-of-a-kind album
I assume most people know the story by now. Wu-Tang Clan sold the only copy of their 31-track album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, at auction in 2015 to Shkreli for about $2 million. The album, conceived as a work of art, was pressed onto two compact discs and stored in a vault in Casablanca before it was sold. The buyer had to agree that they would not duplicate it or play it commercially for 88 years—until 2103.
Later in 2015, Shkreli, who earned the nickname “Pharma Bro” in response to his controversial decision to jack up the price of a lifesaving drug by 5,000%, was charged with securities fraud. In 2017, he was convicted and later sentenced to seven years in prison. He was also ordered to pay a $75,000 fine and forfeit $7.4 million in assets. The following year, the government seized the album.
Fast forward to July 2021. The US Attorney’s office in New York that oversaw Shkreli’s prosecution announced that the federal government sold the album to “satisfy the outstanding balance” on his forfeiture judgment. There was one caveat: “The contract of sale contains a confidentiality provision that protects information relating to the buyer and price.”
FOIA time
I couldn’t resist. A week after Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was sold I filed a FOIA request for a copy of the bill of sale and terms of the sale, photographs of the album, as well as any emails referencing Wu-Tang Clan and the sale of the album.
In October 2021, The New York Times revealed that the new owners of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, a digital art and crypto collective known as PleasrDAO, had paid “the equivalent of $4 million in a cryptocurrency tied to the dollar” for the album. The collective obtained it through an intermediary.
That same month I sued the Department of Justice to compel the agency to release the records. In January 2022, the US Marshals Service, which handled the sale of the album, sent me 67 pages of documents that included dozens of stunning photographs of the album that had never seen the light of day.
The photos showed that Once Upon a Time in Shaolin was kept in a nickel-silver box that was stored in a cedarwood box and covered in black cow leather with light beige velvet lining. It also showed the album was accompanied by a 175-page leather-bound lyric book and a gold-leafed certificate of authenticity.
More at link
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