July 24, 2025
The album was sold to WTC Endeavors Limited, a Hong Kong-based company, for $2.23 million
The Staten Island collective Wu-Tang Clan recorded an album, which produced one copy, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,“ quickly becoming a collector’s item, and the Department of Justice just revealed that it sold the album to WTC Endeavors Limited, a Hong Kong-based company, for a reported $2.23 million.
According to Bloomberg, the DOJ, after a request by the media outlet, revealed the price that the Wu-Tang Clan album sold for and to whom. The purchase of the album was done after the government arrested pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli and seized his assets, which included “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.” Shkreli bought the album in 2015 at an auction for about $2 million.
When the government charged and convicted him of securities fraud, he was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $75,000, and he also had to forfeit $7.4 million in assets. The Feds seized the album in 2018 to help satisfy the money Shkreli owed. In doing so, the Department of Justice sold the album but never released the price that was paid, until now.
After several years of trying to obtain the paperwork, the U.S. Marshals Service finally gave a copy of the bill of sale and the purchase agreement. The document showed that WTC Endeavors Limited bought “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” for $2,238,482.30, which went to the U.S. Government.
The album is now owned by PleasrDAO, which purchased the project in 2021 from the government for $4 million.
In June 2024, the company sued Shkreli, alleging that he had streamed the music during a “Wu-Tang Official Listening Party” after his release from prison in May 2022. He informed his followers that he had made copies of the album, which were “hidden in safes all around the world.” ArtNet reported that Judge Pamela Chen in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled that Shkreli must turn over all copies of the rare album in his possession, and he was also forbidden from streaming or disseminating copies of “Once Upon A Time in Shaolin.”
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