RZA Wu-Tang Clan wants album bought by pharma Martin Shkreli

RZA, a member of the Wu-Tang clan, said Friday that he "would like" to recover the album "One Upon a Time in Shaolin" from the hip-hop group, which was confiscated by the "pharma bro ". the fraudster Martin Shkreli as part of his criminal sentence.

But that could take some time, considering Shkreli's pending appeal against his conviction for three criminal charges.

"You know, I would love to come back," RZA said in an interview with CNBC's "Closing Bell." Shkreli bought the auction album for a reported amount of $ 2 million in 2015.

"This album looked like one of my children," said RZA.

RZA also stated that the album – of which there is only one copy – is somewhere in a government office.

However, this is not the case, at least not for the moment.

When Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2018 by the Brooklyn Federal Court, a judge ordered him to confiscate $ 7.36 million of badets, including "Once upon a time Shaolin", his participation in the pharmaceutical company Phoenixus AG, the Lil & # 39; Wayne album "The Carter V" and a painting by Pablo Picbado.

Judge Kiyo Matsumoto however suspended the execution of this confiscation order and seizure of badets to settle the amount pending appeal of his conviction by Shkreli.

And even if the Department of Justice ends up grabbing the album if Shkreli loses on appeal, it's unclear that the record will be worth close to the $ 2 million that it's worth. he paid for it.

RZA told Rolling Stone in 2018 that he had "actually tried to recover" the album when Shkreli had previously put it on sale on eBay.

"But the paperwork and the contract prevent me from recovering it. [Shkreli] Put on eBay, the first thing I did was call my lawyer, and I thought, "Yo, let's go". And they said: "Very good, check your contract." And it's no, you can not do it, "said RZA in the Rolling Stone interview.

The contract of sale of the album would have prohibited Shkreli to market it for 88 years. Shkreli, although released before the date of his trial, had read excerpts from the album while posting a video of himself online.

CNZ asked Friday if the public would hear the full album someday. RZA said, "You know, I guess time will tell."

CNBC revealed earlier this week that Shkreli had been transferred from the federal prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey, to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, after a Wall Street Journal article reported that he was running his drug company while he was locked up with the help of a contraband cell phone.

Benjamin Brafman, Shkreli's attorney, said he was currently being held in this federal prison pending his transfer to another federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania. Brafman did not immediately respond to a request on Friday about RZA's comments.

Shkreli, 36, gained notoriety in 2015 when her company raised the price of the drug Daraprim – used to treat a parasitic infection that is sometimes found in pregnant women, infants and HIV-positive people – at more 5,000%.

In 2016, he was convicted of defrauding investors in two hedge funds that he was directing and conspiring to fraudulently manipulate the actions of Retrophin, the pharmaceutical company he had founded after the collapse of its hedge funds.

Shkreli has been in jail since September 2017, a month after his criminal conviction, when Matsumoto revoked his $ 5 million bond because of his offer to pay $ 5,000 to his Facebook subscribers for each strand of hair pulled from his head. Hillary Clinton.