Pharma Bro Martin Shkreli Ordered By Feds To Hand Over $2M Wu-Tang Clan Album
Martin Shkreli, who was convicted of securities fraud in August, has been ordered to surrender $7.36 million worth of assets to the federal government.
Shkreli Ordered To Fork Over Wu-Tang Clan Album
Days before his sentencing for the securities fraud conviction, U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto ordered the ex-pharmaceutical exec to hand over his "substitute" assets to the feds if he was broke and unable to cough up the cash, as his lawyers claimed last year.
These assets include $5 million in cash in a personal trading account, Shkreli's stake in the company Vyera Pharmaceuticals, a Pablo Picasso painting, the Lil' Wayne album The Carter V, as well as the one-and-only copy of the Wu Tang Clan album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, which he acquired for $2 million at an auction in 2015. The order comes three months after federal prosecutors asked the judge for permission to seize his assets.
Securities Fraud Case
In August, the former hedge fund manager was convicted of two counts of securities fraud and a conspiracy charge after defrauding investors of his two hedge funds: MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare.
Shkreli was accused of lying to investors about the financial performance of their investment in the funds. He was also found guilty of manipulating stock shares of a separate biotech company founded by him, Retrophin.
His sentencing has been scheduled for Friday, March 9, and Shrkreli, who has been in jail since September, could be facing a maximum penalty of up to two decades in prison.
However, Shkreli's lawyers asked the judge for a reduced sentence between 12 and 18 months in prison. His counsel argued in a court filing that Shkreli should be given a lenient sentence because his investors eventually made a profit after he paid them in stock and cash from Retrophin.
Most Hated Man In America
Before being convicted of securities fraud, the "Pharma Bro" received widespread criticism in 2015 while he was CEO of another company called Turing Pharmaceuticals.
Shkreli's company purchased the manufacturing rights of a critical drug known as Daraprim, which is often used to treat a deadly parasitic infection in people suffering from HIV or AIDS. He then raised the price of the drug by 5,000 percent from $13.50 per pill to $750 per pill. The 34-year-old came under a lot of fire over the move and earned the nickname of the "most-hated man in America."
