Martin Shkreli has filed a lawsuit against RZA, alleging that the Wu-Tang Clan rapper double-sold the rights to the famous album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.
Shkreli’s move adds RZA into the lawsuit that Shkreli had filed against him by digital art collective PleasrDAO, who paid $4 million to purchase the album from prosecutors after Shkreli forfeited it after being convicted for securities fraud.
In his countersuit filed on Feb. 2 and reviewed by Complex, Shkreli claimed that RZA, along with Wu-Tang producer Cilvaringz, improperly sold pieces of the copyrights for the album to PleasrDAO — even though he says the same rights were already promised to him, contractually.
According to Shkreli’s new claims, he says that his deal to purchase the album from RZA and Cilvaringz in 2005 provided him with 50 percent of the copyright to the album right then and there, with the other 50 percent promised 88 years later. Instead, Shkreli claims that “a total of 150%” of the rights to the album were sold.
“On a date 88 years after its execution, the Wu-Tang Defendants are obligated to transfer the remaining 50% of the copyrights to Shkreli,” wrote Shkreli’s lawyers. “Now, PleasrDAO has alleged that it purchased this same interest from the Wu-Tang defendants.”
PleasrDAO’s attorney, Steven Cooper, spoke about Shkreli’s filing in a statement, saying, “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.”
The art collective bought Shaolin from the United States government in 2021 for $4 million and acquired copyrights and other rights for an additional $750,000. PleasrDAO claims that it’s been trying to monetize the album ever since, doing things such as playing it at private events and selling limited access to it on the blockchain.
