Fresh legal battle erupts over Wu Tang Clan’s rare 'Once Upon a Time in Shaolin'

What happens when you think you can retain and share recordings from a one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album? Ask Martin Shkreli , he’d know all about it.

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According to reports, American investor Martin Shkreli is being accused of and is currently facing a new lawsuit for copying and sharing a one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album that he was forced to sell following his 2017 conviction on securities fraud charges.

Brought about by cryptocurrency collective, PleasrDAO, which purchased the only known copy of the album from Shkreli for $4.75 million, and filed in Brooklyn, New York, federal court, the lawsuit accuses Shkreli of retaining digital copies of the album in violation of their deal and disseminating them widely among his social media followers.

Used as evidentiary support are Shkreli’s recent comments on social media, boasting of sharing the digital recordings with “thousands of people,” which are further supported by his actions over the weekend, when he allegedly played portions of the album during a livestream he hosted on X, called a “Wu tang official listening party,” according to the lawsuit.

The album in question, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin , was created in protest of music devaluation in the streaming era, and has never been released to the public, functioning as a rare contemporary art piece since being auctioned by the group in 2015.

After purchasing the album, Shkreli, a man who is reportedly “known for jacking up the price of a life-saving drug and his ‘Pharma Bro’ persona,” was later forced to sell the album following his conviction of security fraud charges.

According to reports, PleasrDAO purchased the physical copy of the album as well as its digital rights over two transactions, first in 2021 and then 2024. Noting that to their understanding Shkreli had destroyed any trace of the album's files. “Any dissemination of the Album’s music to the general public greatly diminishes and/or destroys the Album’s value, and significantly damages PleasrDAO’s reputation and ability to commercially exploit the Album,” the lawsuit states.

While Shkreli’s Wu-Tang woes continue on, as of last month the album itself was reported to be heading to Australia’s Museum of Old and New Art , for planned private listening sessions featuring select tracks.