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In a letter to U.S. District Judge Kiyo
Matsumoto, who oversaw Shkreli's 2017 trial in Brooklyn,
prosecutors said the forfeiture amount has been fully satisfied
following the sale of the album, "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,"
and other asset sales.
The sale price and buyer were not disclosed because of a
confidentiality provision in the contract, prosecutors said.
Shkreli, 38, paid $2 million for Wu-Tang Clan's only copy of "Shaolin"
at an auction by the hip-hop group. He later bragged that he did
not plan to listen to the album and purchased it to "keep it
from the people."
Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer for Shkreli, in an email said he was
pleased the forfeiture obligation was satisfied, and said the
album's sale price was "substantially more" than what Shkreli
paid.
Nicknamed "Pharma Bro," Shkreli remains widely vilified for
hiking the price of Daraprim, which treated a potentially fatal
infection, by more than 4,000% overnight when he led Turing
Pharmaceuticals, now known as Phoenixus AG.
He has served more than half of a seven-year prison sentence for
cheating investors in two hedge funds and trying to prop up the
stock price of another drug company he led, Retrophin Inc. His
release date is Oct. 11, 2022, prison records show.
Prosecutors said they still possess two other Shkreli assets, a
Phoenixus stake and a Pablo Picasso engraving, that could be
applied toward a $2.6 million judgment against him in a separate
Manhattan civil case.
Brianne Murphy, a lawyer for Shkreli in the Manhattan case, in
an email said Shkreli told her he was "pleased with the sale
price and RIP ODB," an apparent reference to late Wu-Tang Clan
co-founder Ol' Dirty Bastard.
In January, Matsumoto rejected Shkreli's request to be freed
from prison, rejecting his claim that his deteriorating mental
health justified "compassionate" release.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David
Gregorio and Leslie Adler)
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