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Shkreli paid $2 million in 2015 for "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,"
and gave it up to partially satisfy a $7.4 million forfeiture
order after his 2017 conviction for defrauding hedge fund
investors and scheming to defraud investors in a drugmaker.
The plaintiff PleasrDAO said Shkreli has, since his May 2022
release from prison, told fans on live streams and social media
platform X that he kept and had shared the album, once saying,
"I was playing it on YouTube the other night even though
somebody paid $4 million for it."
PleasrDAO also said thousands of people tuned in on Sunday to
hear the album on a live stream that Shkreli called a "Wu tang
official listening party."
Such activity violates the forfeiture order, amounts to
misappropriation of trade secrets, and "greatly diminishes
and/or destroys the album's value," according to the complaint
filed Monday night in Brooklyn federal court.
PleasrDAO wants Shkreli to destroy his copies, turn over profits
from disseminating the music, and pay compensatory and punitive
damages.
U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen issued a temporary restraining
order on Tuesday night that blocks Skhreli from disseminating
the album, or risk contempt of court. She may issue an
injunction later this month.
Lawyers who have represented Shkreli in criminal and civil
matters declined to comment or did not immediately respond to
requests for comment.
The plaintiff is displaying "Shaolin" this month at the Museum
of Old and New Art in Hobart, Tasmania.
Shkreli, 41, became notorious and gained the nickname "Pharma
Bro" when, as chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals in 2015,
he raised the price of the life-saving antiparasitic drug
Daraprim overnight to $750 per tablet from $17.50.
He was released early from his seven-year prison sentence, but
remains on supervised release.
Shkreli was banned in January 2022 from the pharmaceutical
industry and ordered to repay $64.6 million for antitrust
violations related to Daraprim. A federal appeals court upheld
the ban and payout in January.
The case is PleasrDAO v. Shkreli, U.S. District Court, Eastern
District of New York, No. 24-04126.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting
by Mike Scarcella; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Aurora Ellis)
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