The worth tag behind the federal government’s sale of Wu-Tang Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album has been revealed. In accordance with Bloomberg, the Division of Justice offered the one-of-one Wu-Tang artifact for $2.23 million to WTC Endeavours Restricted, a Hong Kong-based firm, in 2018.
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For many who don’t recall the knotty historical past of As soon as Upon a Time, “Pharmabro” Martin Shkreli bought the one copy of the 31-track album in a 2015 public sale from Wu-Tang Clan for about $2 million. Later within the yr, Shkreli was charged with securities fraud and convicted in 2017. Along with his seven-year jail sentence, Shkreli additionally needed to forfeit $7.4 million in property.
The U.S. Lawyer’s workplace in New York introduced in 2021 that the federal authorities had offered the album to “fulfill the excellent steadiness” owed by Shkreli, however the price ticket was stored a secret till earlier in July.
PleasrDAO, a crypto collective, is the present proprietor of As soon as Upon a Time in Shaolin after buying the album by means of an middleman. The New York Times reported in 2021 that PleasrDAO paid an “equal of $4 million in a cryptocurrency tied to the greenback” for rights to the elusive challenge.
Final yr, PleasrDAO turned the album into an NFT, which permits the general public to donate $1 and listen to 5 minutes from As soon as Upon a Time in Shaolin. Whereas the album can’t go to public consumption till 2103 (personal listening events are okay), every $1 buy takes 88 seconds off the countdown.
Billboard has reached out to the Division of Justice for remark.