Feds Want To Seize Martin Shkreli's Rare Wu-Tang Clan Album Along With $7.4 Million In Assets
While Martin Shkreli awaits sentencing for securities fraud, federal prosecutors have asked the court for permission to seize his assets in excess of $7 million.
Request To Seize Shkreli's Prized Possessions
The prosecutors asked a Brooklyn federal court judge on Thursday, Nov. 30, to seize more than $7 million worth of assets belonging to the former pharmaceutical executive, who is currently serving time in jail for cheating investors.
The feds want Shkreli to turn over his rare copy of Wu Tang Clan's Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which he famously purchased for a $2 million in 2015. Prosecutors also asked to seize his copy of the Lil Wayne album, The Carter IV, in addition to $5 million in cash, a valuable Picasso painting, and a World War II-era Enigma code-breaking machine used against Nazi Germany.
"We will vigorously oppose the government motion," Shkreli's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, told Bloomberg. "Our position is clear. None of the investors lost any money and Martin did not personally benefit from any of the counts of conviction. Accordingly, forfeiture of any assets is not an appropriate remedy."
Securities Fraud Conviction
Shkreli is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, after he was found guilty of three charges related to securities fraud in August this year.
The fraud charges were brought on after he misled investors to put money into two of his hedge funds, MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare, and then cheated them of millions of dollars by misappropriating funds. Shkreli repaid them later but with stock and cash that he looted from a biotech company he created, Retrophin.
The 32-year-old "pharma bro" is facing a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for securities fraud. However, it is quite rare for defendants to receive the maximum sentence in such cases.
Most Hated Man In America
Before being convicted of securities fraud, Shkreli grabbed headlines in 2015 while he was CEO of another pharmaceutical company called Turing Pharmaceuticals.
Shkreli's company acquired a critical drug known as Daraprim, which is often used to treat a parasitic infection that can prove to be deadly for people with HIV or cancer. He then jacked up the price of the drug by 5000 percent from $13.50 per tablet to $750, raising the average treatment costs from approximately $1,130 to $63,000.
The former hedge fund manager faced a lot of backlash for this move and has since been billed as the "most-hated man in America."
