Unfamiliar with Martin Shkreli? Lucky. The pharma bro and convicted felon has had odd, occasionally amusing run-ins with the music world but he's infamous for price-gouging the anti-malaria drug Daraprim from $13 to $750 for one dose overnight. A real man of the people.

Shkreli's most notorious music venture was purchasing the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album called Once Upon a Time in Shaolin from an auction in 2015 for $2M after Wu mastermind RZA announced its existence the year before. One of the stipulations of the sale was that the buyer could not play the album for the public or produce any copies, which would dilute its value.

After Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud crimes and sentenced to seven years of federal prison in 2018, the album was forfeited by the U.S. government along with $7M in assets. The album was then auctioned off by the government to crypto collective PleasrDAO for $4.75M in 2021.

There was talk of working out a deal to showcase the album in museums on some kind of world tour. Then Shkreli was released early from prison the following year, and in 2024, PleasrDAO sued him for violating his purchase agreement and making copies of the album. Shkreli had a motion struck down last September for the court to halt that lawsuit, with the court arguing that the value of Shaolin came from PleasrDAO's "ability to exploit its exclusivity to create an 'experience' that its competitors cannot." It's not supposed to see public release until 2103. RZA's original vision for this thing probably didn't include its ownership being split up into NFTs that would each "accelerate the release by 88 seconds" but here we are.

Caught up? That brings us to today: Shkreli is countersuing not just PleasrDAO but also RZA and Shaolin co-producer Cilvaringz. According to Reuters' report, Shkreli claims his original purchase of the album specified that 50% of the copyright would be transferred to him in 2103, when he would be 120 years old. Because PleasrDAO paid RZA and Cilvaringz $750,000 for that stake, Shkreli alleges that to be a "duplicate sale," and that RZA and Cilvaringz were "selling a total of 150% of the copyrights."

In an email to Reuters, PleasrDAO's lawyer Steven Cooper stated: "Mr. Shkreli's approach throughout has been to distract and delay with actions that the court has consistently and strenuously rejected. These counterclaims will meet the same fate."

It's too bad the crypto bros didn't write a tenth anniversary lookback on Once Upon a Time in Shaolin; would totally read.