Speaker 1: I gotta be honest. I never thought I'd be doing
Speaker 1: a lawsuit about a single copy of a Wu Tang record.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I love this story and how the album ends
Speaker 2: up in the hands of the US marshals and it
Speaker 2: just sits there in a vault for like two years.
Speaker 2: Cue the music. I'm investigative journalist Jason Leopold. I spend
Speaker 2: most of my days getting documents from the government.
Speaker 1: I'm attorney Matt Tapik, and I fight them in court
Speaker 1: to open their files when they don't want to.
Speaker 2: From Bloomberg and no smiling. This is Disclosure, a podcast
Speaker 2: about buying loose government secrets, the Freedom of Information Act,
Speaker 2: and the unexpected places that takes us. Matt, what T
Speaker 2: shirt you wearing today?
Speaker 1: I've warned this thing a thousand times.
Speaker 2: It's a bacon mobile. Bacon mobile. Nice, It's like a
Speaker 2: food truck looking thing. It says, a bacon mobile one dollar.
Speaker 1: So. Prices have gone up quite a bit on bacon
Speaker 1: since I got this shirt.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they have also the health risks as well. Matt, Oh,
Speaker 2: don't believe that. What do you say that this T
Speaker 2: shirt is like amazing? Is it the quality of the shirt,
Speaker 2: the material? Yes, there were instances in my life where
Speaker 2: I would find a shirt that I loved, and it's
Speaker 2: usually a band T shirt that was so comfortable that
Speaker 2: I have to buy two in case the one got ripped.
Speaker 1: This is one of those.
Speaker 2: And the funny thing about this weird tick that I
Speaker 2: had of needing two of everything and how it relates
Speaker 2: to the foyer, is that back in the day, agencies
Speaker 2: would say to me when they're conducting a search, Hey,
Speaker 2: do you mind if we remove the duplicates, like duplicate emails,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, yes, I mind. I want two of everything,
Speaker 2: So like two of everything, even like extended to whatever.
Speaker 2: Like they're telling me, like, may take longer. I'm like,
Speaker 2: but I want both. I need to have two of everything.
Speaker 2: I finally, you needed someone to tell me, like, listen,
Speaker 2: you're not going to miss anything. If you tell them
Speaker 2: to remove, it's not going to break. But for some reason,
Speaker 2: it was just like, no, I want both. You're deeply distrustful.
Speaker 2: That's very true, as you should be. It's your job,
Speaker 2: which is why we fought as hard and long as
Speaker 2: we did against the government to get that bill of
Speaker 2: sale that showed finally how much the government sold Once
Speaker 2: upon a Time in Shellin. For do we need like
Speaker 2: a drum roll?
Speaker 1: Drum roll? No, not for Wu Tang, we need like
Speaker 1: a record scratch. Hey on, let's do the backstory first.
Speaker 1: Can we start with what is Once upon a Time
Speaker 1: in Shallin?
Speaker 2: Okay? So the Justice Department didn't get his hands on
Speaker 2: some used Wu Tang CD. This album Once upon a
Speaker 2: Time in shall In wasn't just rare, it was singular,
Speaker 2: a creature of myth in an age of mass production.
Speaker 2: It's Riza, the architect of the Wu Tang clan, wanted
Speaker 2: the album to be treated like a sacred artifact. It
Speaker 2: was a way to restore value to music by making
Speaker 2: it scarce, untouchable. In his view, people only truly value
Speaker 2: what they can have.
Speaker 1: We've only made one copy and and it's gonna you
Speaker 1: got to go to a museum to hear it.
Speaker 2: The album's creation defied every convention of the music industry.
Speaker 2: No labels, no corporate fingerprints. It was all a shadow
Speaker 2: operation known only to Rizza and the producer, not even
Speaker 2: other Wu Tang members. I didn't know anything about anything,
Speaker 2: not method Man, not ghost face Killer. That was never
Speaker 2: really know what I Over six years, the album took
Speaker 2: shape in fragments recorded mostly in Staten Island, forged in Marrakech,
Speaker 2: and finally pressed into a double disc set sealed inside
Speaker 2: a vault at one of Africa's finest hotels. This was
Speaker 2: Rizza's Phantom Treasure. Thirty one tracks. Every member of Wu
Speaker 2: Tang on the record, with guest appearances from Redman, a
Speaker 2: few FC Barcelona players, and apparently the Goddess of pop.
Speaker 2: That voice sounds familiar, yes, a.
Speaker 1: Little bit like share.
Speaker 2: Apparently because very few people have heard the album, and
Speaker 2: that's the point. In March twenty fourteen, Riza announced that
Speaker 2: he was about to put out an album like no
Speaker 2: one had ever done in the history of modern music.
Speaker 2: It's like the Illis package right there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the Hillis album covering the history of the world.
Speaker 2: The plan was for once upon a time in Shaolin
Speaker 2: to disappear into private hands, sold to a single chosen bidder.
Speaker 2: Its new master would be bound by an oath of silence.
Speaker 2: Only the owner or those summoned to private, heavily guarded
Speaker 2: listening rituals would ever hear it. No recordings, no leaks,
Speaker 2: no exceptions. The album wouldn't be released publicly for eighty
Speaker 2: eight years. Once the world got wind of Once upon
Speaker 2: a Time in shall In it indeed became a living legend.
Speaker 2: A guy from Forbes flew to Morocco to be one
Speaker 2: of the first to hear the record before it got
Speaker 2: auctioned off. I'm going to drive about one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty miles to Marrakesh, and then I'm going to go
Speaker 2: into the foothills of the Atlas Mountains to hear part
Speaker 2: of the Wu Tang plant's new secret album at a
Speaker 2: MoMA PS one unveiling. Roughly one hundred and fifty hand
Speaker 2: picked guests endured tsa level security, surrendering phones, passing double
Speaker 2: metal detector scans, and facing guards checking for bugs just
Speaker 2: to hear a thirteen minute excerpt of the album, which
Speaker 2: by the way, was locked behind velvet ropes and hulking
Speaker 2: security men.
Speaker 3: We are all in the very privileged situation to witness
Speaker 3: the first, the last, and the only public listening session
Speaker 3: of Once Upon a Time in Shao Lein.
Speaker 2: But not everyone was so enthusiastic about the record. Fans
Speaker 2: were upset that they couldn't hear it. Other Wu Tang
Speaker 2: members agreed, and many of them felt shut out of
Speaker 2: the project entirely they took issue with the idea of
Speaker 2: their music being locked away like a private treasure, not
Speaker 2: to mention how the producer went about the project.
Speaker 1: Everybody else just got paid whenever they got paid for
Speaker 1: their feature.
Speaker 2: But you accept me that you're gonna build the album
Speaker 2: around it. That's the sneaky. That's ghost Face Killer on
Speaker 2: the bootleg keV podcast saying he didn't know his track
Speaker 2: would be turned into a secret Wu Tang Clan album
Speaker 2: and sold for millions without the group being cut in.
Speaker 2: Didn't y'all gonna do that? It didn't even bring nobody off.
Speaker 2: Do you show that for that much? I'll be honest
Speaker 2: with you. I do like Wu Tang Clan and I
Speaker 2: thought it was just wow, that's interesting. But it wasn't
Speaker 2: until they auctioned it off and then finding out who
Speaker 2: the buyer was where it suddenly became a little bit
Speaker 2: more interesting to me.
Speaker 1: Bill Ball comes on, right, is that Rizza?
Speaker 2: That's Riza on an interview series build and he.
Speaker 1: Goes, hey, you guys, hear about this comeback and it's
Speaker 1: ma scurelly like.
Speaker 3: Wait a minute, hey baby, that's the guy that bought
Speaker 3: the album.
Speaker 2: So Martin Screlly is the farmer Bro, the farmer.
Speaker 1: Bro, farmer Bro, the notorious farmer Bro. He's best known
Speaker 1: as the farmer Bro Martin Screlly.
Speaker 2: If I was aware of that, I may have every
Speaker 2: different approach to put that in his head. And I
Speaker 2: want to describe him.
Speaker 1: I'm going to look and see how the Internet has
Speaker 1: described him. I mean, I immediately found on Reddit Screlly
Speaker 1: is a piece of that raised prescription drug prices thousands
Speaker 1: of percent. He's also been called a moor Ley bankrupt sociopath,
Speaker 1: a garbage monster, and everything that's wrong with capitalism.
Speaker 2: And why is he hated?
Speaker 3: Well, tonight, the head of a drug company who's accused
Speaker 3: of gouging patients says he should be thanked.
Speaker 2: I don't really care about people hating me. He was
Speaker 2: a farmer executive and a hedge fund manager. He had
Speaker 2: this company and this is what earned him that notorious
Speaker 2: nickname farmer Bro. He jacked up the price of this
Speaker 2: life saving drug by like five thousand percent. There's no
Speaker 2: excuse from going from thirteen dollars and fifty cents to
Speaker 2: seven hundred and fifty dollars for one pill.
Speaker 1: This is a capitalist society, capitalist system and capitalist rules
Speaker 1: and my investors expect me to baximize profits.
Speaker 2: People started calling him the most hated man in America.
Speaker 1: What do you say to that signal pregnant woman who
Speaker 1: might have aids she needs terre prihim in order to survive.
Speaker 2: He had testified before Congress about the drug, the price
Speaker 2: of what he raised. He was very, very smug.
Speaker 4: On the advice of counsel, I invoke my Fifth Amendment
Speaker 4: privilege against self incrimination.
Speaker 2: Then he was charged with securities fraud, nothing to do
Speaker 2: with any price gouging, but for defrauding investors in his
Speaker 2: hedge fund. Busy guy. People hated him, They had choice
Speaker 2: words for him, and anyway along the way, he purchased
Speaker 2: Once upon a Time in Shallon. What did you think
Speaker 2: the first time you listened to it? He was mad,
Speaker 2: but I don't think it was ever about the music,
Speaker 2: not exactly thirty six shapers.
Speaker 1: So he wins the auction and he pays for the
Speaker 1: album with drug blood money basically, oh man, So how
Speaker 1: much exactly did he pay for it? Most reports put
Speaker 1: it out two million Shtrelli himself has said one point
Speaker 1: five million. So how did the government get the album?
Speaker 2: Eventually gets to a point where they put him in jail.
Speaker 2: He's convicted of securities fraud, has a seven year sentence,
Speaker 2: and as part of that, the government seesed a bunch
Speaker 2: of his assets, including Once upon a Time in Shallon.
Speaker 1: After he's convicted of securities fraud, he owes a bunch
Speaker 1: of restitution and then they seize his assets order to
Speaker 1: pay back the victims.
Speaker 2: Is that the idea exactly?
Speaker 1: I got to say, as a piece of performance art,
Speaker 1: if that's what you look at the album is, it's
Speaker 1: doing pretty good right now?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Right?
Speaker 1: It ends up in the hands of this crazy guy
Speaker 1: and then it gets seized by the federal government right
Speaker 1: in an asset seizure to pay off the guy's restitution. Like,
Speaker 1: I mean, how amazing is that. You couldn't have made
Speaker 1: a better storyline for this album.
Speaker 2: It's amazing. So they seize this album and that's kind
Speaker 2: of the last thing we hear about it for probably
Speaker 2: about three, you know, over three years.
Speaker 1: So what's going on in the summer I move twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, Jason, that causes you to make this request?
Speaker 2: There was so much secrecy around this. What was happening
Speaker 2: at that time was the Justice Department and the US
Speaker 2: marshals had this joint announcement where they sold once upon
Speaker 2: a time in Shoulin to whom. They didn't say who
Speaker 2: they sold it to. But here's what the announcement said,
Speaker 2: read by rapper and comedian open Mike Eagle, the contract
Speaker 2: of sale contains a confidentiality provision that protects information relating
Speaker 2: to the buyer and price. It was that secret. So
Speaker 2: I followed requests with the DOJ Criminal Division after the announcement,
Speaker 2: and they were taking an unnecessarily long time to respond.
Speaker 2: I sent this to you because I wanted to sue.
Speaker 1: Well, you wanted your records and you realized it was
Speaker 1: going to take a lawsuit to get it. I assume
Speaker 1: you didn't just like want to sue.
Speaker 2: Why would you assume that I was just trying to
Speaker 2: make you sound good, buddy. But let's fine.
Speaker 1: Jason enjoys the combat, yes, Matt, I enjoy the government
Speaker 1: fulfilling their duty to release records that below to the public,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that takes a lawsuit. Okay, fair enough, let
Speaker 1: me read the email.
Speaker 2: Start us up, buddy, all right?
Speaker 1: I get an email from Jason about a request that
Speaker 1: he made to the Criminal Division of the Justice Department.
Speaker 1: I request disclosure from the Asset Recovery Section in the
Speaker 1: Office of the Criminal Division for the following records. One.
Speaker 1: A copy of the receipt of sale of the album
Speaker 1: Once Upon a Time In shall In by the recording
Speaker 1: group Wu Tang Clan. A copy of the contract in
Speaker 1: returns of sale by the Government of Once Upon a
Speaker 1: Time in shall In any and all photographs in video,
Speaker 1: and possession of the Asset Recovery Section of Once Upon
Speaker 1: a Time In shallon any, all legal memos, opinions and
Speaker 1: guidance provided to the Asset Recovery Section related or referring
Speaker 1: to the sale of Once Upon a Time in shall In,
Speaker 1: and just a bunch of other communications about all this stuff.
Speaker 1: This is like the most formal email I've ever gotten
Speaker 1: from you. May I have some lawsuits?
Speaker 2: Please please, sir? Can I? It's not even any profanity
Speaker 2: in this anyway? So we filew the lawsuit and in
Speaker 2: only a few short months I actually did get some records,
Speaker 2: which is surprising because sometimes it can take years before
Speaker 2: we'll see anything. It's January twenty twenty two and the
Speaker 2: first batch of records hits my inbox. And what's the
Speaker 2: first thing that catches my eye photos. There are photos
Speaker 2: of the mythical Once upon a Time in shall Lin
Speaker 2: take a look at these photos, Matt? What do you see? So?
Speaker 1: The first thing I see is this black box with
Speaker 1: a Wu Tang insignia on tap that kind of looks
Speaker 1: like a large cigar humidor.
Speaker 2: It's not just a black box. It's a cedar wood
Speaker 2: box covered in black cow leather with light beige velvet lining.
Speaker 2: According to the asset list.
Speaker 1: Looking at this, someone has not taken very good care
Speaker 1: of this. It's like scratched up. It looks like there's
Speaker 1: like cigarette ash on it. Like I don't know what
Speaker 1: this thing's been through, but I don't think mister Scrilly
Speaker 1: just put this in like somewhre re safe keeping, like
Speaker 1: it's a little worn for wear.
Speaker 2: What's inside the box?
Speaker 1: So you open up the box and then there's another
Speaker 1: box inside that is like gold and it's got really
Speaker 1: sort of intricate patterns on it, and another Wu tang
Speaker 1: it's singing on top of it.
Speaker 2: It's a nickel silver box and an inner jewel case
Speaker 2: containing two CDs over cedar wood with black cow leather lining.
Speaker 2: To be precise, this one looks like.
Speaker 1: It's maybe gotten a little bit of use to.
Speaker 2: These descriptions are so damn sexy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's real sexy.
Speaker 2: Wait if there's also a leather battle lyric book that
Speaker 2: looks like it came from Jandolf yet totally.
Speaker 1: It's like, got this like medieval kind of like leather
Speaker 1: look with some fancy metalwork on it.
Speaker 2: And look, the certificate of purchase has its own book.
Speaker 1: You've got a gold certificate with some insignias on it.
Speaker 1: And then it looks like we've got like a wax imprint,
Speaker 1: something that would have been used hundreds of years ago.
Speaker 2: What does it say, Matt.
Speaker 1: Dear mister Martin Screlley, here by your purchase certificate from Squoze.
Speaker 1: Congratulations on your purchase. Right, Martin Screlly's name is now
Speaker 1: permanently associated with this album. For just one point five
Speaker 1: million dollars, hip hop culture could be yours.
Speaker 2: But I wanted to know how much the DOJ sold
Speaker 2: it for more on that after the break, So I
Speaker 2: get the first batch of records and they are incredible.
Speaker 2: The majority of good fifty pages are just photos. I'm
Speaker 2: seeing once upon a time and shell in for the
Speaker 2: first time. But how much did the government auction it
Speaker 2: off for I was dying to know. And right there
Speaker 2: before my eyes at the end of the batch of
Speaker 2: records is the purchase agreement. I was about to find
Speaker 2: out there toward the bottom purchase price quote, the price
Speaker 2: is redacted. They redacted the price. But wait, the very
Speaker 2: last page the United States Marshals bill of sale quote. Now, therefore,
Speaker 2: and in consideration of the payment of the sum of
Speaker 2: redacted the reason for trade secrets, Matt, can you explain that?
Speaker 1: So there's an exemption in FOYA that says the government
Speaker 1: isn't required to release trade secret kind of information that
Speaker 1: they receive from people or companies in the course of
Speaker 1: doing government stuff. So the government's argument is that this
Speaker 1: is a trade secret and they're not supposed to release it.
Speaker 1: But our counter to that was basically that the buyer
Speaker 1: had already publicly announced.
Speaker 2: What they paid for it. Right In October twenty twenty one,
Speaker 2: The New York Times revealed that the new owners of
Speaker 2: Once Upon a Time in Shell in, a digital art
Speaker 2: and crypto collective known as Pleaser Dow, had paid the
Speaker 2: equivalent of four million dollars in a cryptocurrency tied to
Speaker 2: the dollar for the album according to the story, please
Speaker 2: are now obtained it through an intermediary, which then paid
Speaker 2: the government. I wanted to see if the bill of
Speaker 2: sale back that up, so I was furious. The people
Speaker 2: absolutely deserve to know what their government is off to,
Speaker 2: how much they're auctioning off for. But it would take
Speaker 2: another three years to find out why because there was
Speaker 2: still more records to come, and I couldn't challenge the
Speaker 2: exemptions until all records were in. What happened next was
Speaker 2: at times illuminating, other times it was maddening. I get
Speaker 2: the next batch of records nearly four months later. I
Speaker 2: opened them up and they appear to be emails between
Speaker 2: the attorneys Matt and open Mike Eagle want to read them.
Speaker 2: So this is an email thread titled Screlly Update Wednesday,
Speaker 2: fourteen July twenty twenty one, twelve twenty oh one.
Speaker 4: Hi Jackie and Alex rejected. Then another reduction it's even bigger,
Speaker 4: thanks Laura. And then we've got another part of the
Speaker 4: email from Claire that says dear Jackie and Alex, and
Speaker 4: it's an even bigger redacted box. So we know who's talking,
Speaker 4: but we have no idea what they're saying. Because they've
Speaker 4: rejected it all based on some Foyer exemptions.
Speaker 2: The government stripped out all the behind the scenes discussions
Speaker 2: that were taking place in emails that would kind of
Speaker 2: give us a window into how they were managing and
Speaker 2: setting up the sale of the album. And this is
Speaker 2: kind of how it went for a few months. I'd
Speaker 2: get a slow trickle of records and inside was nothing much,
Speaker 2: but a few things were kind of hilarious. So here's
Speaker 2: an email from one of the attorneys at the US
Speaker 2: Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. The
Speaker 2: subject line is Screlly Wu Tang Clan album and Picasso.
Speaker 3: All earlier this morning and following yesterday's denial of Screlley's
Speaker 3: cert petition, the Marshalls took custody of the Wu Tang
Speaker 3: Clan album and Picasso sketch that he owned.
Speaker 2: Then somebody responds to that email and says, today's call.
Speaker 3: Focused on the album only. We will follow up to
Speaker 3: discuss the Picasso, which is worth far less. It's more
Speaker 3: like a sketch, and I believe it was a praise
Speaker 3: to being worth less than thirty thousand dollars. It's more
Speaker 3: like a sketch Wu Tang's single copy album is worth
Speaker 3: more than a Picasso sketch, eh. I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm not an art collector. That seems kind of low
Speaker 3: to me for a Picasso sketch. But he's got like
Speaker 3: a million of them.
Speaker 1: You know, this is the only copy. I mean, it's
Speaker 1: kind of a brilliant idea. Right, they make an album,
Speaker 1: they make one copy of it, it's going to be worth,
Speaker 1: you know, a fair amount.
Speaker 2: He also had a copy of the Carter five by
Speaker 2: Lil Wayne, and they considered seizing that too, but we
Speaker 2: never got how much that's worth. I don't know what
Speaker 2: that is. You got to leave that part in where
Speaker 2: Matt says, I don't know what that is. So these
Speaker 2: records were interesting just in terms of getting a little
Speaker 2: understanding on how they were communicating behind the scenes. There
Speaker 2: were some emails about prospective buyers, and this one is
Speaker 2: kind of funny. It's from an attorney representing an interested buyer.
Speaker 3: Hi, Claire and Laura, I just wanted to let you
Speaker 3: know that my client is still interested in buying at
Speaker 3: one million dollars.
Speaker 2: To be clear, he doesn't have.
Speaker 3: One million dollars right now, but things he could raise
Speaker 3: it in a realutable amount of time. Please let me
Speaker 3: know if there's any interest or also, please do make
Speaker 3: a counter offer if you have one, Thanks best, redacted.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he's going to have to do better
Speaker 1: than that. That's not even close to what Screlly paid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is like a classic low ball. Hey, I'm giving
Speaker 1: you this garbage offer, but please counter As somebody who
Speaker 1: negotiates all the time, that's always kind of annoying, like,
Speaker 1: come on, give me a real offer.
Speaker 2: And then there's this one from an attorney in the
Speaker 2: Isset Forfeiture unit asking for a background check on a
Speaker 2: potential buyer who QUO may have a large wallet. Large
Speaker 2: in all caps.
Speaker 3: It says, Hi, Will, could you please look into both
Speaker 3: redacted and let me know if there are any red
Speaker 3: flags that would raise concerns or due diligence, criminal history,
Speaker 3: issues with dirty funds, et cetera, any indication that they
Speaker 3: could have a conflict of interest with Martin Screlly.
Speaker 2: Thanks. At least from what we saw, there's no one
Speaker 2: discussing holy crap. We got Wu Tang clan Once upon
Speaker 2: a time in Shaolin. We got to go, you know,
Speaker 2: have a listening party. It was really centered on business,
Speaker 2: on legal business. The closest we get to any kind
Speaker 2: of excitement about the record is this email between two
Speaker 2: assistant US attorneys on the case when they're getting close
Speaker 2: to closing a deal.
Speaker 3: I'm going to wear my shaolin lid.
Speaker 2: What is it?
Speaker 3: Shaolin lid for good luck all week? Dot dot dot
Speaker 3: exclamation point.
Speaker 1: Like a hat. Yeah, I mean that's what's coming to
Speaker 1: mind for me. I actually looked up shaolin lid and
Speaker 1: didn't find much on Google. Shallin has been part of
Speaker 1: the Wu Tang mythology all along.
Speaker 2: But Shallin lid, I mean, I don't know.
Speaker 1: He's gotta be talking about a hat.
Speaker 2: She's gotta be talking about a hat. But you can't
Speaker 2: tell if their ascitement is because they're interested in the
Speaker 2: record or if they're just ready to be done with Screlley.
Speaker 2: There's one email while the attorneys are shoring up loose
Speaker 2: ends with the sale, when one comment.
Speaker 3: Hopefully this will mean the end of all things screlly
Speaker 3: for us exclamation point.
Speaker 2: In the end.
Speaker 1: It all kept the end, and by July twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: the assistant US attorneys seem to relish a little hardball
Speaker 1: from a judge presiding over yet another case, one in
Speaker 1: civil court.
Speaker 2: Screlly was involved in. The subject says.
Speaker 3: See attached decisions from Judge Nathan looks like she isn't
Speaker 3: going to tolerate any more delays.
Speaker 2: From Screlly, and the email reads it's about time someone
Speaker 2: stopped tolerating his nonsense.
Speaker 1: Also, that's a ridiculously long subject line. It's like two sentences.
Speaker 2: I mean, basically they put the body of the email
Speaker 2: in the subject line.
Speaker 1: It's a little invasive to the inbox in my opinion.
Speaker 2: So during the course of this litigation, you know, we
Speaker 2: got to a point where it was kind of interesting
Speaker 2: at first, but certainly the redactions didn't help, and it
Speaker 2: became just boring and I'm not really getting what I need.
Speaker 2: And to make matters worse, after a year of document dumps,
Speaker 2: the government tells us we're not even close to the end.
Speaker 2: They miraculously found ten thousand more emails. I don't know
Speaker 2: how you misplace those, but I'm getting about one hundred
Speaker 2: at a time, and it could be years before I
Speaker 2: could challenge the redactions. So I did something I've never
Speaker 2: done before. That's after the break. So I wanted to
Speaker 2: get everything I wanted to know how much the government
Speaker 2: auctioned the album off, for who they sold it to,
Speaker 2: the name of the corporate entity that purchased the album,
Speaker 2: pretty much everything, but they were withholding and so I
Speaker 2: was like, Okay, I'm done with these emails. They're really
Speaker 2: not telling me anything. I said, let's just move forward
Speaker 2: with getting what I want. I told my attorneys that
Speaker 2: I was willing to give up the rest of the
Speaker 2: emails so they could challenge what we believed was the
Speaker 2: agency's improper use of the trade secrets and privacy exemptions.
Speaker 2: And so we entered into negotiations, you know, with the government,
Speaker 2: and the government maintained that this person had a privacy
Speaker 2: interest and that his or her name, you know, would
Speaker 2: not be disclosed. Making a long story short, you know,
Speaker 2: got to an agreement that basically the government said if
Speaker 2: I didn't pursue the name of the individual buyer, meaning
Speaker 2: like if I were to just drop that, they would
Speaker 2: give us the name of the corporate entity that purchased
Speaker 2: the album as well as the purchase price. And I
Speaker 2: thought that that was a good deal one because I figured, like, Okay,
Speaker 2: if I get the name of the corporate entity, then
Speaker 2: maybe I could use that to kind of chase down
Speaker 2: who the buyer is, who actually purchased the album.
Speaker 1: But once we came to the decision like okay, we
Speaker 1: want to like give up this to get that, I
Speaker 1: don't think that was more than weeks or maybe like
Speaker 1: a few months.
Speaker 2: So finally in July twenty twenty five, it came the
Speaker 2: purchase agreement with a lot of redactions lifted. This asset purchase.
Speaker 3: Agreement is made as of July nineteenth, twenty twenty one,
Speaker 3: by the United States Marshall Service four and on behalf
Speaker 3: of the United States of America and redacted and WTC
Speaker 3: Endeavors Limited, a Hong Kong Limited company.
Speaker 2: And then scrolling down it says purchase price. So the
Speaker 2: government sold the album.
Speaker 3: For two million, two hundred and thirty eight, four hundred
Speaker 3: and eighty two dollars and thirty cents for the assets.
Speaker 2: And purchasers will also reimburse the US Marshall Service for
Speaker 2: its expenses in.
Speaker 3: The amount of seven thousand, one hundred and sixty two
Speaker 3: dollars and twenty seven cents, for a total payment of
Speaker 3: two million, two hundred and forty five thousand, six hundred
Speaker 3: and forty four dollars and fifty seven cents.
Speaker 2: That's what the government withheld under trade secrets for Genius
Speaker 2: for more than three years.
Speaker 1: How did they get to that number?
Speaker 2: So it's interesting and a good question. And what I
Speaker 2: discovered was is that they basically were just looking to
Speaker 2: sell the album to cover what he owed the government.
Speaker 1: But might it not have been worth more than that? Well,
Speaker 1: if there was more money to be had, it might
Speaker 1: be that that's money that would have to go to screlly.
Speaker 1: It's like if you're in foreclosure on your house. If
Speaker 1: you owe like one hundred thousand in your house is
Speaker 1: worth three hundred thousand. I don't think the bank and
Speaker 1: most states gets to just like pocket the other two
Speaker 1: hundred thousand. But I'm not a specialist in the sale
Speaker 1: of one of a kind albums to satisfy government debts.
Speaker 2: In total, Shcrelli old the government more than seven million,
Speaker 2: and the album satisfied the outstanding balance. That's what I thought.
Speaker 1: So that invites an inquiry into whether they really got
Speaker 1: as much for it as they could have, because you
Speaker 1: could see how they don't really have a whole lot
Speaker 1: of incentive to get any more money for it than
Speaker 1: whatever it is to satisfy the judgment. If the money's
Speaker 1: just going to go back to Screlly, the guy who's
Speaker 1: case they can't wait to be done with, and probably
Speaker 1: for good reason, then you know, that's why there's an
Speaker 1: interest in knowing what the amount is, because I think
Speaker 1: that's a fair thing to scrutinize on.
Speaker 2: So what we ended up with and the end was
Speaker 2: the purchase price, and that was a big deal to
Speaker 2: get that. I mean, it felt like, holy crap, we
Speaker 2: pride lose a significant amount of information. And by the way,
Speaker 2: the DOJ made it clear to us that please her Now,
Speaker 2: the crypto collective that currently owns the album, wasn't connected
Speaker 2: in any way to the corporate entity or the individual
Speaker 2: who purchased the album. So I thought that was very
Speaker 2: interesting that please er Now was not the direct purchaser
Speaker 2: of any of this. So I found this, you know,
Speaker 2: kind of fascinating. So the name of the company that
Speaker 2: was set up to purchase Once upon a Time in
Speaker 2: Shaolan is WTC Endeavors Limited, Right, so assuming WTC and
Speaker 2: Devor's limited at Wu Tang Clan Endeavors Limited, It's incorporated
Speaker 2: in Hong Kong in May twenty twenty, and then dissolved
Speaker 2: in March twenty twenty three. So just through a little
Speaker 2: slew thing, after we get the unredacted documents with the
Speaker 2: purchase price, you know, we were able to see various
Speaker 2: officers who are affiliated with WTC endeavors, but none of
Speaker 2: those names were well known. So to me, it appears
Speaker 2: that the actual name of the person who bought Once
Speaker 2: upon a Time I'm in shall Lynn is not even noteworthy.
Speaker 2: So the best read I have is that the Justice
Speaker 2: Department sold the album to someone we still don't know
Speaker 2: who for two point two million dollars, a bit more
Speaker 2: than Screlly paid, and that person or entity basically turned
Speaker 2: around and sold it again to please her now for
Speaker 2: four million dollars worth of crypto. So that's not really
Speaker 2: a bad deal.
Speaker 1: It sold for a fair amount more than Screlly paid
Speaker 1: for it, right, like double.
Speaker 2: Right, which is good for rizz.
Speaker 3: I guess just like an appreciates like a house or something,
Speaker 3: It's like it is more and more valuable with tom.
Speaker 1: Now, do you think any curious people in the Justice
Speaker 1: Department decided they would just go ahead and give it
Speaker 1: a little listen?
Speaker 2: Yes? Yes, so that was part of like what I
Speaker 2: was hoping that all of the emails that we obtained
Speaker 2: through FOYA, through the lawsuit that we filed would actually yeah,
Speaker 2: they would actually have someone inside DOJ saying hey, I
Speaker 2: just listened to Wu Tang last night. Oh man, you
Speaker 2: know what an incredible album. But no, luck, you didn't
Speaker 2: need I mean, there were ten thousand more emails we
Speaker 2: never got to see. But I will say to this day,
Speaker 2: even though we do not have evidence that the government
Speaker 2: through a listening party, you know, for once upon a
Speaker 2: time in Sheldon the.
Speaker 1: Saddest listening party that there ever was in the world.
Speaker 2: I know, but I absolutely believe they listened to it.
Speaker 2: Come on, I mean you could.
Speaker 1: They could take the position of like, look, if we're
Speaker 1: going to sell this asset, we have to listen to
Speaker 1: it first so we know what we're selling right right,
Speaker 1: you know, we need to make sure it's authentic.
Speaker 2: It's really Wu Tang. Yeah, of course they listen to it.
Speaker 2: By the way, we'll need to contact the OJAY and.
Speaker 1: Ask them whether anyone listened to it.
Speaker 2: Whether anyone listened to it.
Speaker 1: You could also ask, like any credit card receipts or
Speaker 1: reimbursement for any food or beverages that were purchased for
Speaker 1: the purposes of a Wu Tang listening party, and you
Speaker 1: could kind of indirectly get the answer through that.
Speaker 2: Okay, We asked the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern
Speaker 2: District in New York if anyone listened to the album them,
Speaker 2: and they said no comment.
Speaker 1: I mean, I suspect that just their policy is just
Speaker 1: always going to be no comment. But that really kind
Speaker 1: of feels like if they were going to deny it,
Speaker 1: they would have said no.
Speaker 2: It's the equivalent Matt of a Glomar response.
Speaker 1: Is it is exactly a Glomar response.
Speaker 2: There's actually a stipulation in the purchase agreement that says
Speaker 2: at closing, the buyer could play quote.
Speaker 3: At least the first ten seconds of each track, but
Speaker 3: they had to bring their own CD player. Look, we're
Speaker 3: not giving you the CD player.
Speaker 1: And that's funny because I know the government has a
Speaker 1: lot of CD players because they're always producing US documents
Speaker 1: on CDs.
Speaker 2: So it sounds like they followed through. There's an email
Speaker 2: from an attorney with the Marshalls asking for a meeting
Speaker 2: room with an electrical outlet so the buyer can plug
Speaker 2: in their CD player.
Speaker 1: I guess it's fair right, like they don't want to
Speaker 1: get home, Like, what the hell? This thing doesn't work?
Speaker 1: I can't even play in the government's like sorry, buyer, beware,
Speaker 1: you're out of luck.
Speaker 2: Or if it skips right skip and this is kind
Speaker 2: of interesting, so pleaseer now is bound by the same
Speaker 2: restrictions as Screlley was when he purchased the album. Right,
Speaker 2: they can't stream it or duplicate it until two thousand,
Speaker 2: one hundred and three. That sounds like way far in
Speaker 2: the future. Last year, however, they found a workaround. Following
Speaker 2: discussions with the original artists and producer, the album was
Speaker 2: turned into an NFT and for the equivalent of a dollar,
Speaker 2: fans can listen to a five minute sampler of Once
Speaker 2: Upon a Time in shell In. Each sale will speed
Speaker 2: up the release of the album by eighty eight seconds.
Speaker 1: Eighty eight seconds, okay, So how much would it cost
Speaker 1: to speed it up by a year? Then?
Speaker 2: Okay, we actually did this math. It would cost more
Speaker 2: than three hundred and fifty thousand dollars to speed up
Speaker 2: the release of Once Upon a Time in shell In
Speaker 2: by one year.
Speaker 1: WHOA, so have you heard it?
Speaker 2: I didn't buy a sample with bitcoin, but Screlly did
Speaker 2: make a video of himself playing the record.
Speaker 3: Let me play at least a little bit of that's
Speaker 3: the intro.
Speaker 2: I guess you can get a little bit of check
Speaker 2: to to when it sounds theatrical, like you're getting ready
Speaker 2: for something big.
Speaker 1: It definitely sounds like wu tang. I mean, I could
Speaker 1: see it in a movie mission impossible, But watching it
Speaker 1: with Shrelly's reaction to it is so distracting and disturbing,
Speaker 1: like he's bobbing his head in the haircut like he's
Speaker 1: a keeper. Help.
Speaker 2: You know. My advice is to close your eyes and
Speaker 2: just do not look at Screlly while listening to this.
Speaker 2: But this was a pretty amazing use of foy if
Speaker 2: I do say so myself patting myself on the back here,
Speaker 2: it felt like we really knocked down some walls here.
Speaker 2: That's you know that the government put up trade secrets,
Speaker 2: which didn't make sense to me at least, you know,
Speaker 2: getting over that hurdle to obtain the purchase price and
Speaker 2: then the name of the corporate entity that then bought
Speaker 2: it and then sold it immediately sold it to another entity.
Speaker 2: It's kind of amazing.
Speaker 1: And we learned that Foye is so broad it can
Speaker 1: even get you records about a one of a kind
Speaker 1: Wu Tang album that ended up in the hands of
Speaker 1: a farmer bro and then ended up in the hands
Speaker 1: of the government, who sold it so that the farmer
Speaker 1: bro could pay off what he owes for the damage
Speaker 1: he caused. That's the power of FOYA. And if it
Speaker 1: wasn't clear already, Dox rule everything around us.
Speaker 2: Boy, your boy, your request, y'all. Hey open Mike Ego.
Speaker 2: By the way, what do you think about all this did?
Speaker 3: Further emphasizes how dumb this all is. That there's a
Speaker 3: two million dollar Woo Sang album, some weird guy bought it,
Speaker 3: and that weird guy went to jail, and now the
Speaker 3: government is selling it to people and he won't tell
Speaker 3: you who they sold it to. It's all very stupid,
Speaker 3: and there's real problems in the world that I wish
Speaker 3: these millions of dollars could be addressing somehow instead of
Speaker 3: the government doing a weird deal with a secret album
Speaker 3: that's probably not even good.
Speaker 2: And there you have it from Bloomberg and no smiling.
Speaker 2: This is disclosure. The show is hosted by Matt Topic
Speaker 2: and me Jason Leopold, It's produced by Heather Schroering and
Speaker 2: Sean Cannon. For No Smiling, our editor for Bloomberg is
Speaker 2: Jeff Grocott. Our executive producers for Bloomberg are Sage Bauman
Speaker 2: and me Jason Leopold, and our executive producers for No
Speaker 2: Smiling are Sean Cannon, Heather Schroering and Matt Topic. The
Speaker 2: disclosure theme song is by Nick, with additional music by Nick.
Speaker 2: An Epidemic sound, sound design and mixing is by Sean Cannon.
Speaker 2: Emails were read this week by open Mic Eagle. For
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Speaker 1: We'll see you again next Tuesday, Boy, you get the
Speaker 1: records