Martin Shkreli has launched a new legal fight over Wu-Tang Clan's rare album Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, claiming he still owns part of its copyrights despite the album being seized and sold by the US government years ago.
In a counter lawsuit filed in federal court this week, Shkreli says he is the rightful owner of 50 percent of the album's copyrights and is owed the remaining half decades from now.
His claims come even though the album was taken from him after his criminal conviction and later sold in 2021 to digital art collective PleasrDAO for $4 million, Complex reported.
The case adds a fresh chapter to the long-running dispute over one of the most unusual albums in music history.
Shkreli's filing argues that Wu-Tang Clan member RZA and producer Cilvaringz improperly reclaimed and resold rights that were already promised to him.
He is asking the court to confirm his claimed copyright stake and to rule that the album is not a protected trade secret.
According to Shkreli, the copyrights were "double-sold," first to him and later to PleasrDAO, creating what he describes as an impossible ownership split.
Martin Shkreli Sues RZA, Escalating Lawsuit Over Rare Wu-Tang Albumhttps://t.co/OYpUEInL9x
— billboard (@billboard) February 3, 2026
Martin Shkreli Details $1.5M Deal for Wu-Tang
According to RollingStone, the former pharmaceutical executive says he bought the album in 2015 for $1.5 million under a complex deal that separated physical items from intellectual rights.
He claims the physical portion included a two-disc album inside a silver box, a certificate of authenticity, and a detailed manuscript.
The non-physical portion, he says, gave him immediate ownership of half the copyrights, with the rest promised 88 years later.
Shkreli raised these arguments after PleasrDAO sued him in June 2024. The group accused him of keeping copies of the album even after a court ordered him to forfeit everything connected to it.
PleasrDAO said it feared Shkreli might release the music to the public. A federal judge later allowed that case to move forward, finding the album could qualify as a trade secret.
PleasrDAO's lead attorney, Steven Cooper, sharply criticized Shkreli's latest move. He said the counterclaims were another attempt to delay the case and noted that Shkreli was under a court order to give up all rights tied to the album after his securities fraud conviction.
Shkreli became widely known after being convicted in 2017 for lying to investors while running a drug company that raised the price of a life-saving medicine overnight.
He was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to forfeit assets, including the Wu-Tang album.
© 2026 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
