By Canadian Press

US wants ‘Pharma Bro’ Shkreli to forfeit $2M Wu-Tang album

Dec 1, 2017 | 9:15 AM

NEW YORK — The government wants to seize Martin Shkreli’s one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album.

The recording that Shkreli has boasted he bought for $2 million is on a list of assets that prosecutors argue the jailed former pharmaceutical CEO should forfeit after his conviction earlier this year in a securities fraud scheme involving two failed hedge funds.

In a letter filed this week in Brooklyn federal court, prosecutors told a judge that Shkreli is on the hook for $7.3 million.

The 34-year-old “should be held financially responsible and forfeit this amount as it was obtained by him as a result of the fraud,” the letter says.

Along with the Wu-Tang Clan “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” album, prosecutors say Shkreli should give up $5 million in cash in a brokerage account, his interest in a pharmaceutical company and other valuables including a Picasso painting and another unreleased recording that he claims he owns, “Tha Carter V” by Lil Wayne.

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Defence attorney Ben Brafman said on Friday that Shkreli would fight the forfeiture.

“Our position is clear: None of the investors lost any money and Martin did not personally benefit from any of the counts of conviction,” Brafman said in a statement. “Accordingly, forfeiture of any assets is not an appropriate remedy.”

The boyish Shkreli is best known for jacking up the price of a life-saving drug and for his snide online “Pharma Bro” persona.

A judge revoked Shkreli’s $5 million bail and threw him behind bars in September after he offered a $5,000 bounty on Facebook for a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair. He’s due back in court for sentencing early next year, when the forfeiture demand will be decided.

Tom Hays, The Associated Press