“Pharma Bro” Martin Shkreli has been ordered to hand in any digital copies of Once Upon a Time in Shaolin — a physical one-of-one Wu-Tang Clan album — amid a legal fight with PleasrDAO.
The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has owned the physical album since 2021, when it bought it for $4.75 million from the Justice Department, which seized the album from Shkreli after his 2018 conviction for securities fraud.
The DAO is selling partial ownership to it via non-fungible tokens (NFTs) but has alleged Shkreli kept digital copies of the album, suing him in June.
On Aug. 26, a New York federal judge ordered Shkreli must “turn over all of his copies, in any form” of the rap group’s album to his lawyers and sign an affidavit stating he no longer possesses any copies by Aug. 30.
Shkreli must also file an inventory by Sept. 30 of the album’s copies, information about the people it was shared with and any financial benefit he saw from distributing or playing the album.
The order is a win for PleasrDAO, which filed for a preliminary injunction against Shkreli on Aug. 19.
It alleged in its June lawsuit that he retained digital copies of the album that he played on multiple livestreams, which caused “significant monetary and irreparable harm” to the group.
Shkreli’s lawyer, Bochner PLLC’s Edward Paltzik, told Cointelegraph the order “is merely a preliminary measure entered by the Court to maintain the perceived status quo before any discovery occurs — the Order has no bearing whatsoever on the final outcome of the case.”
“Crucially, the Court did not find that PleasrDAO is likely to succeed on the merits or that the DAO’s allegations are true, and instead ruled that Mr. Shkreli’s forthcoming motion to dismiss should proceed without delay,” he added.
PleasrDAO shared news of the order on X alongside a meme implying that it was puppeteering Shkreli.
Source: PleasrDAOPleasrDAO’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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The Wu-Tang Clan’s album was recorded between 2007 and 2013 and had at least 31 tracks across two discs, according to a track listing released by PleasrDAO in April.
A still image taken from a PleasrDAO promo video for the album supposedly showing its track listing. Source: PleasrDAO/X
In its June lawsuit against Shkreli, the group said its purchase of the album was supposed to be the only copy of it and is seeking a judge’s order to permanently seize Shkreli’s alleged copies and ban him from being able to financially exploit the album.
Shkreli had argued the alleged copies were made under his purchase agreement when he first bought the album before it was forfeited to the government, and as such, the copies are not under the forfeiture and he still has the right to use them.
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