2017's most reliable source of schadenfreude has done it again, as BuzzFeed News reports that Martin Shkreli may be forced to clean out his obnoxious rich-guy toy box as part of his sentencing for securities fraud. In a forfeiture submission filed yesterday, prosecutors asked judge Kiyo Matsumoto to seize $7.4 million in Shkreli’s ill-gotten assets, beginning with keeping the $5 million bail Shkreli posted early on in the trial.
As for the other $2.4 million, the prosecutors have a few ideas: There’s a Picasso painting that would look nice on the federal government’s wall, or maybe Shkreli’s WWII-era Enigma machine. Or how about Lil’ Wayne’s unreleased album Tha Carter V, which is apparently in Shkreli’s possession? (The album, which was originally supposed to be released in 2013, has long been delayed by a legal dispute between Lil’ Wayne and his record label.)
Ah, here’s a good one—the feds could seize Shkreli’s copy of the one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, which Shkreli bought back in 2015 for a then-undisclosed sum that turned out to be $2 million. He then sold it on eBay for $1 million from prison back in September, although the buyer was never identified. Will the disrespect to the Wu-Tang Clan never cease?