This is Special Agent Riggle.
about the start, consensual telephone call with Dr. Diwasang.
“China's Ministry of State Security is one of the most mysterious and powerful”
spy agencies in the world. But in 2017, the FBI got inside. "Wait? That's a Noshikina."
"Hey, Noshikina. I've never seen that much evidence in my entire career and I don't
think we'll ever see that much evidence again." I now have several terabytes of an MSS officer, no doubt, no question of his life. And that's the Unicorn. This is a story of the inner workings of the MSS, and how one man's ambition and mistakes open its vault of secrets.
Listen to the sixth bureau from Bloomberg Podcasts, starting on February 13th on the I-Heart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I gotta be honest, I never thought I'd be doing a lawsuit about a single copy of a Wu Tang record. Yeah, I love this story and how the album ends up in the hands of the U.S. marshals
and it just sits there and evolved for like two years. "Cue the music. I'm investigative journalist Jason Leopold. I spend most of my days getting documents from the government." "I'm a turning-met topic and I fight them in court to open their files when they don't want to." From Bloomberg and No Spiral, this is Disclosure, a podcast about flying loose government
secrets, the Freedom of Information Act, and the unexpected places that takes us." Matt, what do you think you're wearing today? I've won this thing a thousand times, it's a bacon mobile. Bacon mobile. Nice.
It's like a food truck looking thing. It says a bacon mobile $1. So prices have gone up quite a bit on bacon since I got this shirt. Yeah, they have also the health risks as well, Matt. Oh, don't believe that.
“What you say that this t-shirt is like, amazing is that the quality of the shirt, the material?”
Yes. There were instances in my life where I would find a shirt that I loved and it's usually a band t-shirt that was so comfortable that I have to buy two in case the one got ripped. This is one of those. And the funny thing about this weird tick that I had of needing two of everything and
how it relates to the FOIA is that back in the day, agencies would say to me when they're conducting a search, "Hey, do you mind if we remove the duplicates like duplicate emails?" And I'm like, "Yes, I mind. I want two of everything." So like two of everything, even in like, extended to FOIA.
They're telling me, like, they take longer, I'm like, "But I want both. I need to have two of everything."
I finally need someone to tell me, like, "Listen, you're not going to miss anything if
you tell them to remove. It's not going to break." But for some reason, it was just like, "No, I want both." You're deeply distrustful. That's very true.
“As you should be, it's your job, which is why we fought as hard and long as we did against”
the government to get that bill of sale that showed, finally. How much the government sold once upon a time in shell in four? Do we need, like, a drum roll? Drum roll? No.
Not for Wu Tang. We need, like, a record scratch. What? Hang on. Let's do the backstory first.
Can we start with what is "Once upon a time in shell in?" OK. So the Justice Department didn't get his hands on some news Wu Tang CD. This album, "Once upon a time in shell in," wasn't just rare. It was singular, a creature of myth in an age of mass production.
It's only one Mona Lisa, yo. Riza, the architect of the Wu Tang clan, wanted the album to be treated like a sacred artifact. It was a way to restore value to music by making it scarce, untouchable. In his view, people only truly value what they can have.
The album's creation defied every convention of the music industry. Wu labels, no corporate fingerprints. It was all a shadow operation, known only to Riza and the producer. Not even other Wu Tang members. I didn't know anything about anything, not method man, not Ghostface killer.
That was never really, you know what I did.
Over six years, the album took shape and fragments. Recorded mostly in Staten Island, forged in Merrikech, and finally pressed into a double disc set sealed inside of vault at one of Africa's finest hotels. This was Riza's Phantom Treasure, 31 Tracks, every member of Wu Tang on the record.
With guest appearances from Red Man, a few FC Barcelona players, and apparent...
of Pop. I say it like shit. In March 2014, Riza announced that he was about to put out an album, like no one had ever done in the history of modern music. The plan was for once upon a time in Shaolin to disappear into private hands, so to
a single chosen winner. Its new master would be bound by an oath of silence. Only the owner, or those summoned to private, heavily guarded listening rituals would ever hear it. No recordings, no leaks, no exceptions.
The album wouldn't be released publicly for 88 years. Once the world got wind of once upon a time in Shaolin, it indeed became a living legend.
A guy from Forbes flew to Morocco to be one of the first to hear the record before it got
auctioned off. "I'm going to drive about 150 miles to Marrakesh, and then I'm going to go into the
“foothills of the Atlas Mountain to hear part of the Wu Tang Clan's new secret album."”
At a Moma PS1 unveiling, roughly 150 hand-picked guests endured TSA level security, surrendering phones, passing double metal detector scans, and facing guards checking for bugs. Next to hear a 13 minute excerpt of the album, which by the way was locked behind velvet ropes and hulking security men. "We are all in the very privileged situation to witness the first, the last, and the only
public listening session of once upon a time in Shaolin." But not everyone was so enthusiastic about the record, fans were upset that they couldn't hear it. Other Wu Tang members agree, and many of them felt shut out of the project entirely. They took issue with the idea of their music being locked away, like a private treasure,
not to mention how the producer went about the project. "Everybody else just got paid whenever they got paid for their feature." "But you didn't tell me that you want to build that album around it. That's the sneaky." That's Ghostface Killa on the bootleg Kev podcast saying he didn't know his track would
“be turned into a secret Wu Tang Clan album, and sold for millions without the group”
in cut-ins. "Didn't I go to do that? It didn't even break nobody off, and you sold it for that much." "I'll be honest with you. I do like Wu Tang Clan, and I thought it was just, wow, that's interesting. But it wasn't until they auctioned it off, and then finding out who the buyer was, where
it suddenly became a little bit more interesting to me." "Bill ball comes on, right?" "Is that Rizza?" "That's Rizza on an interview series, build." "And he goes, "Hey, you guys see about this scumbag? It is mine, Screlly. You're like, wait a minute."
"Hey, baby, that's the guy to put that." "So Martin Screlly is the farmer, bro. The farmer, bro, farmer, bro." "The notorious farmer, bro. He's best known as the farmer, bro. Martin Screlly." "I was aware of that. I may have a very different approach to pick that in his hand." "I don't want to describe him."
“"I'm going to look and see how the internet has described him."”
"I immediately found on Reddit, Screlly is a piece of, that Rizza prescription drug prices thousands of percent." "He's also me called a morally bankrupt sociopath, a garbage monster, and everything is wrong with capitalism. And why is he hated?" "Well, tonight the head of a drug company who's accused of gouging patients says he
should be thanked." "I don't really care about people hitting me." "He was a farmer executive and a hedge fund manager." "He had this company, and this is what earned him that notorious nickname Farmerbro.
He jacked up the price of this life-saving drug by like 5,000 percent."
"There's no excuse from going from $13.50 to $750 for one pill." "This is a capitalist society, capitalist rules, and my investors expect me to maximize profits." "People started calling him the most hated man in America." "What do you say to that signal-pregnant woman who might have AIDS?"
"She needs dereprim in order to survive." "He had testified before Congress about the drug, the price of what she raised, and he's very, very smug." "On the advice of Caltsline Vogue, my fifth amendment, privilege against self-incrimination." "Then he was charged with securities fraud."
"Nothing to do with any price gouging, but for defrauding investors in his hedge fund." "Bizzy guy." "Jay, mom, friends." "People hate him. They had choice words for him."
"And anyway, along the way, he purchased once upon a time in Shaolin.
What did you think the first time you listened to it?"
"It was bad." "But I don't think it was ever about the music."
"It's not exactly the 36-shapers.
"So he wins the auction and he pays for the album with drug-blood money." "Bizzy guy." "Oh, man." "So how much exactly did he pay for it?"
Those reports put it up to a million.
Screely himself has said 1.5 million." "So how did the government get the album?" "Eventually, I guess, at a point where they put him in jail, he's convicted of securities fraud, has a seven-year sentence, and as part of that, the government seized a bunch of his assets, including once upon a time in Shaolin."
"After he's convicted of securities fraud, he owes a bunch of restitution, and then they need to seize assets in order to pay back the victims." "Is that the idea?" "Exactly."
“But to say, as a piece of performance art, if that's what you look at the album is,”
it's doing pretty good right now, right? It ends up in the hands of this crazy guy, and then it gets seized by the federal government in an asset seizure to pay off the guy's restitution. Like, "I mean, how amazing is that?" "You could have made a better storyline for this album.
It's amazing." "So they seized this album, and that's kind of the last thing we hear about it. Or probably about three, you know, over three years." "So what's going on in the summer of 2021, Jason, that causes you to make this request?" "There was so much secrecy around this.
What was happening at that time was the Justice Department, and the U.S. marshals had this joint announcement where they sold once upon a time in Shaolin." "To whom?"
"They didn't say who they sold it to, but here's what the announcement said.
By wrapper and comedian, open my key goal, the contract of sale contains a confidentiality provision at protects information relating to the buyer and price. It was that secret. So I further request with the DOJ Criminal Division after the announcement, and they were
“taking an unnecessarily long time to respond.”
I sent this to you because I wanted to sue." "Well, you wanted your records, and you realized there was going to take a lawsuit to get it. I assume you didn't just want to sue." "Why would you assume that?"
"I was just trying to make you sound good, buddy, but it's fine. Jason enjoys the combat." "Yes, Matt. I enjoy the government fulfilling their duty to release records that belong to the public. And sometimes that takes a lawsuit."
"Okay, fair enough. Let me read the email." "Start us up, buddy." "Ban-an-an-an-an-an-an-an." "All right.
I get an email from Jason about a request that he made to the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. The request disclosure from the asset recovery section in the office of the Criminal Division for the following records." 1.
“A copy of the receipt of sale of the album "Once Upon a Time in Shallon" by the recording”
group Wu Teng Client. A copy of the contract in return to sale by the government of "Once Upon a Time in Shallon," any in all photographs in video and possession of the asset recovery section of "Once Upon a Time in Shallon," any in all legal memos, opinions, and guidance provided to the asset recovery section related or referring to the sale of "Once Upon a Time in Shallon," and just a bunch
of other communications about all this stuff. "This is like the most formal email I've ever gotten from you." "May I have some lawsuits, please?" "Please, sir. Can I sell?"
"It's not even a profanity in this." "Anyway, so we filed the lawsuit and in only a few short months, I actually did get some records," which is surprising because sometimes it can take years before we'll see anything.
It's January 2022 and the first batch of records hits my inbox.
And what's the first thing that catches my eye? Photos. There are photos of the mythical, "Once Upon a Time in Shallon," take a look at these photos, Matt. What do you say?
So the first thing I see is this black box with a Wu Teng insignia on top that kind of looks like a large cigar humidor, and it's not just a black box. It's a cedar wood box covered in black cow leather with light beige velvet lining, according to the asset list. Looking at this, someone has not taken very good care of this.
It's like scratched up. It looks like there's like cigarette ash on it. Like, I don't know what this thing's been through, but I don't think Mr. Scrilly just put this in, like, somewhere we're sleeping, like, it's a little worn for wear. What's inside the box?
So you open up the box and then there's another box inside. It is like gold, and it's got really sort of intricate patterns on it in another Wu Teng insignia on top of it. It's a nickel, silver box, and an interdual case containing two CDs over cedar wood with black cow leather lining to be precise.
This one looks like it's maybe gotten a little bit of use to these descriptions are so damn sexy. Yeah, it's real sexy. Wait, there's also a leather battle lyric book that looks like it came from Gandalf. Yeah, totally.
It's like got this medieval kind of leather look with some fancy metal work on it.
Look, this certificate of purchase has its own book.
We've got a gold certificate with some insignia's on it, and then it looks like we've
“got like a wax imprint, something that would have been used hundreds of years ago.”
What does it say, Matt? Dear Mr. Martin Screlly, hereby your purchase certificate from Sclusay, congratulations on your purchase. Right, Martin Screlly's name is now permanently associated with his album. For just $1.5 million, hip hop culture could be yours.
But I wanted to know how much the DOJ sold it for, more on that after the break. Bloomberg Invest returns to New York on March 3rd and 4th, where the sharpest voices across banking, asset management, and private capital will discuss the forces reshaping finance. Powered by Bloomberg's global newsroom and data from the Bloomberg Terminal, this flagship
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So I get the first batch of records and they are incredible.
The majority of good 50 pages are just photos. I'm seeing once upon a time in shallow in for the first time, but how much is the government auctioned it off for? I was dying to know. And right there before my eyes, at the end of the batch of records, is the purchase
agreement. I was about to find out. There toward the bottom. Such a price, quote, "the price is redacted. They redacted the price."
But wait, the very last page. United States Marshall's Bill of Sale, quote, "now therefore, an inconsideration of the payment of the sum of redacted."
“The reason for trade secrets, Matt, can you explain that?”
So there's an exemption in FOIA that says the government isn't required to release trade secret kind of information that they receive from people or companies in the course of doing government stuff. So the government's argument is that this is a trade secret and they're not supposed to release it.
But our counter to that was basically that the buyer had already publicly announced what they paid for. Right. In October 2021, the New York Times revealed that the new owners of once upon a time in Shaolin, a digital art and crypto collective, known as Pleaser Dahl, had paid the equivalent
of $4 million in a crypto currency tied to the dollar for the album.
According to the story, Pleaser Dahl obtained it through an intermediary which then paid the government. I wanted to see if the bill of sale back that up. So I was furious. The people absolutely deserve to know what their government is up to, how much they're
auctioned off for, but it would take another three years to find out. Why? Because there was still more records to come and I couldn't challenge the exemptions until all records were in. What happened next was a Times illuminating.
Other times it was maddening. I get the next batch of records nearly four months later. I open them up and they appear to be emails between the attorneys. Matt and Open Mike Eagle want to read some. So this is an email thread titled Screlly Update Wednesday, 14 July 2021, 12201.
Hi, Jackie and Alex, redacted. Then another redaction. That's even bigger. Thanks, Laura. And then we've got another part of the email from Claire that says Dear Jackie and Alex.
And it's an even bigger redacted box. So we know who's talking, but we have no idea what they're saying because they've redacted it all based on some FOIA exemptions. The government stripped out all the behind the scenes discussions that were taking place in emails that would kind of give us a window into how they were managing and setting up
the sale of the album. And this is kind of how it went for a few months. I get a slow trickle of records and inside was nothing much. But a few things were kind of hilarious. So here's an email from one of the attorneys at the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern
District of New York. The subject line is Screlly, Wu Tang Clan album and Picasso. All, earlier this morning and following yesterday's denial of Screlly's cert petition, the Marshall's took custody of the Wu Tang Clan album and Picasso sketched that he owned, then somebody responds to that email and says, "Today's call focused on the album only.
We will follow up to discuss the Picasso, which is worth far less."
“It's more like a sketch and I believe it was a praise to being worth less than $30,000.”
It's more like a sketch. Wu Tang's single copy album is worth more than a Picasso sketch.
I mean, I'm not an art collector.
That seems kind of low to me for a Picasso sketch, but he's got like a million of them. This is the only copy.
“It's kind of a brilliant idea, they make an album, they make one copy of it.”
It's going to be worth a fair amount. He also had a copy of the Carter 5 by Lil Wayne, and they considered seizing that too,
but we never got how much that's worth.
I don't know what that is. You got to leave that part in where Matt says, "I don't know what that is." So these records were interesting, just in terms of getting a little understanding on how they were communicating behind the scenes. There were some emails about perspective buyers, and this one is kind of funny.
It's from an attorney representing an interested buyer. High-clear and Laura, I just wanted to let you know that my client is still interested in buying at $1 million. To be clear, he doesn't have $1 million right now, but things he could raise it in a reasonable amount of time.
Please let me know if there's any interest or also, please do make a counteroffer if you have one. Thanks. Best. Redacted.
“I think he's going to have to do better than that.”
That's not even close to what Screely paid. Yeah, this is like a classic lowball. Hey, I'm giving you this garbage offer, but please counter it's somebody who negotiates all the time.
That's always kind of annoying.
Come on. Give me a real offer. Then there's this one from an attorney in the I said forfeiture unit asking for a background check on a potential buyer who may have a large wallet, large in all caps. It says, "Hi, Will, could you please look into both redacted and let me know if there
are any red flags or would raise concerns or do diligence criminal history issues with dirty funds, et cetera." Any indication that they could have a conflict of interest with Martin Screely? Thanks. At least from what we saw, there's no one discussing Holy crap.
We got Wu-Tang clan, but once upon a time in Shaolin, we got to go have a listening party. This is really centered on business, on legal business. The closest we get to any kind of excitement about the record is this email between two assistant U.S. attorneys on the case when they're getting close to closing a deal.
I'm going to wear my Shaolin lid. What is it? Shaolin lid. For good luck all week dot dot dot exclamation point. Like a hat?
Yeah.
“That's what's coming to mind for me, I actually looked up Shaolin lid and didn't find”
my Sean Google. Shaolin has been part of the Wu-Tang mythology all along, but Shaolin lid, I mean, I don't know. He's got to be talking about a hat. She's got to be talking about a hat, but you can't tell if their excitement is because
they're interested in the record or if they're just ready to be done with Screely. There's one email while the attorneys are showing up loose ends with a sale when one comments, hopefully this will mean the end of all things Screely for us exclamation point. In the end in all caps, the end.
And by July 2021, the assistant U.S. attorneys seem to relish a little hardball from a judge presiding over yet another case, one in civil court, Screely was involved in. The subject says, see a text decisions from Judge Nathan looks like she isn't going to tolerate any more delays from Screely, and the email reads, "It's about time someone
stopped tolerating his nonsense." Hmm. Also, that's a ridiculously long subject lie. It's like two sentences. I mean, basically, they put the body of the email in the subject lie.
It's a little invasive to the inbox in my opinion. So, during the course of this litigation, we got to a point where it was kind of interesting at first, but certainly the reductions didn't help, and it became just boring. On that really getting what I need, and to make matters worse, after a year of document dumps, the government tells us we're not even close to the end.
They miraculously found 10,000 more emails. I don't know how you misplace those, but I'm getting about a hundred at a time, and it could be years before I could challenge the redactions.
So I did something I've never done before.
That's after the break. April 29th and 30th, Bloomberg House arrives in Miami at the Formula One Grand Prix. Set against one of the world's most electrifying sporting events, Bloomberg House brings business investment and culture together, powered by Bloomberg Journalism, real-time data, and forward-looking conversations.
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I wanted to get everything.
I wanted to know how much the government auctioned the album off for, who they sold it to,
“the name of the corporate entity that purchased the album, pretty much everything, but”
they were withholding. And so I was like, okay, I'm done with these emails. They're really not telling me anything. I said, let's just move forward with getting what I want. I told my attorneys that I was willing to give up the rest of the emails, so they could
challenge what we believe with the agencies improper use of the trade secrets and privacy exemptions. And so we entered into negotiations with the government and the government maintained that this person had a privacy interest, and that his or her name would not be disclosed.
Making a long story short, you know, got you on a agreement that basically the government
said, if I didn't pursue the name of the individual buyer, meaning like, if I were to just drop that, they would give us the name of the corporate entity that purchased the album, as well as the purchase price. And I thought that that was a good deal, one, because I figured, like, okay, if I get the name of the corporate entity, then maybe I could use that to kind of chase down who
the buyer is, who actually purchased the album? But once we came to the decision, like, okay, we want to, like, give up this to get that. I don't think that was more than weeks or maybe like a few months. So finally, in July, 2025, it came the purchase agreement with a lot of redactions lifted. This asset purchase agreement is made as of July 19th, 2021 by the United States Marshall
Service for and on behalf of the United States of America and redacted and WTC and Deborah's limited, a Hong Kong limited company. And then scrolling down, it says, purchase price. So the government sold the album for $2,238,482 in 30 cents for the assets. And purchases will also reimburse the U.S. Marshall service for its expenses, ending
amount of $7,162.27 for a total payment of $2,245,644.57.
“That's what the government withheld under trade secrets for cheese for more than three years.”
How did they get to that number?
So it's interesting and a good question, and what I discovered was, is that they basically
were just looking to sell the album to cover, what do you owe the government? But might it not have been worth more than that? Well, if there was more money to be had, it might be that that's money that would have to go to Screlly. It's like if you're in for closure on your house, if you owe like 100,000 in your house
as worth $300,000, I don't think the bank in most states gets to just like pocket the other 200,000. But I'm not a specialist in the sale of one of the kind albums to satisfy government debts.
In total, Screlly owed the government more than $7 million, and the album satisfied the
outstanding balance. That's what I thought. So that invites an inquiry into whether they really got as much for it as they could up, because you could see how they don't really have a whole lot of incentive to get any more money for it than whatever it is to satisfy the judgment.
If the money's just going to go back to Screlly, the guy who's case they can't wait to
“be done with and probably for good reason, then that's why there's an interest in knowing”
what the amount is, because I think that's a fair thing to scrutinize on. So what we ended up with in the end was the purchase price, and that was a big deal to get that. Like Holy crap, we pride loose a significant amount of information, and by the way, the deal, Jay made a clear to us that please her dow, the crypto collective that currently owns
the album, wasn't connected in any way to the corporate entity or the individual who purchased the album. So I thought that was very interesting that please her dow was not the direct purchaser of any of this. I found this kind of fascinating. So the name of the company that was set up to purchase
once upon a time in Shaolin is WTC endeavors limited, right? So assuming WTC endeavors limited, would tank land endeavors limited. It's incorporated in Hong Kong in May 2020, and then dissolved in March, 2023. So just through a little sleuth thing after we get the unredacted documents with the purchase price, you know, we were able to see various officers who are affiliated with WTC
endeavors, but none of those names were well known.
To me it appears that the actual name of the person who bought once upon a ti...
is not even no worthy. So the best read I have is that the Justice Department sold the album to someone, we still
know who for $2.2 million, a bit more than Shkreli paid, and that person or entity basically
turned around and sold it again to please her dow for $4 million worth of crypto. So that's not really a bad deal.
“It sold for a fair amount more than Shkreli paid for, right?”
Like double. Right. Which is good for Rizza, I guess. It's like it appreciates like a house of some, it's like it gets more and more valuable of the time.
Now do you think any curious people in the Justice Department decided they would just go ahead and give it a little listen? Yes. Yes, so that was part of like what I was hoping that all of the emails that we obtained through FOIA through the lawsuit that we filed would actually, yeah, they would actually have
someone inside DOJ saying, hey, I just listen to Wu Tang last night, oh man, you know, what an incredible album. But no luck.
I mean, there were 10,000 more emails we never got to see.
But I will say to this day, even though we do not have evidence that the government through a listening party, for once upon a time in Shalvin, the saddest listening party that there ever was in the world. I know. But I absolutely believe they listened to it.
Come on. I mean, they could take the position of a click if we're going to sell this asset.
“We have to listen to it first so we know what we're selling, right?”
Right. You know, we need to make sure it's authentic. It's really Wu Tang. Yeah. Of course, they listen to it.
By the way, we'll need to contact DOJ and ask them whether anyone listen to it. Whether anyone listen to it. You could also ask, like, any credit card receipts or reimbursement for any food or beverages that were purchased for the purposes of a Wu Tang listening party and you can kind of indirectly get the answer through that.
Okay, we asked the U.S. attorney's office or the eastern district in New York if anyone listens to the album and they said, no comment.
I mean, I suspect that just their policies, just always going to be no comment, but that
really kind of feels like if they were going to deny it, they would have said no. It's the equivalent mat of a Glomar response. It is, it is exactly a Glomar response. There's actually a stipulation in the purchase agreement that says, at closing, the buyer could play, quote, at least the first 10 seconds of each track.
If they had to bring their own CD player, look, we're now giving you the CD player. And that's funny because I know the government has a lot of CD players because they're always producing us documents on CDs. So it sounds like they followed through. There's an email from an attorney with the marshals asking for a meeting room with an electrical
outlet.
“So the buyer can plug in their CD player, I guess it's fair, right?”
Like they don't want to get home, you're like, what the hell? This thing doesn't work. And even play it, the government's like, sorry, buyer beware, you're out of luck. Or if it's skips, right, CD skip. And this is kind of interesting.
So please, her Dow is bound by the same restrictions as Screlly was when he purchased the album, right? They can't stream in or duplicate it until 2,103. That sounds like way far in the future. Last year, however, they found a work around following discussions with the original artists
and producer. The album was turned into an NFT. And for the equivalent of a dollar, fans can listen to a five minute sampler of once upon a time in Sheldon. Each sale will speed up the release of the album by 88 seconds.
88 seconds. Okay, so how much would it cost to speed it up by a year then? Okay, we actually did this math. It would cost more than $350,000 to speed up the release of once upon a time in Sheldon by one year.
Whoa. So have you heard it? I didn't buy a sample with Bitcoin, but Screlly did make a video of himself playing the record. We play at least a little bit.
That's the intro, I guess you'd get a little bit of chat too, too. It sounds theatrical, like you're getting ready for something big. It definitely sounds like Wu Tang. I'd like to see it in a movie, Mission Impossible, but watching it with Screlly's reaction to it is so distracting and disturbing.
Look, he's Bob and his head in the haircut, like he's a keeper of. You know, my advice is to close your eyes and just do not look at Screlly while listening to this. But this was a pretty amazing use of FOIA, if I'd you say so myself, pat on myself
On the back here.
It felt like we really knocked down some walls here, that the government put up trade
secrets, which didn't make sense. To me at least, getting over that hurdle to obtain the purchase price and then the name of the corporate entity that then bought it and then sold it immediately sold it to another entity. It's kind of amazing.
And we learned that FOIA is so broad, it can even get you records about a one-of-a-kind Wu Tang album that ended up in the hands of a pharma bro. And then ended up in the hands of the government who sold it so that the pharma bro could pay off what he owes for the damage he caused. That's the power of FOIA.
And if it wasn't clear already, Docs rule everything around us. FOIA, for your request, y'all. Hey, open my key goal. By the way, what do you think about all this?
The further emphasizes how dumb this all is that there is a two million dollar Wu Tang
album, some weird guy bought it, and that weird guy went to jail and now the government is selling it to people when they any won't tell you who they sold it to, it's all very stupid. And there's real problems in the world that I wish these millions of dollars could be addressing
“somehow instead of the government doing a weird deal with a secret album that's probably”
not even good. And there you have it. From Bloomberg and No Smiling, this is disclosure. The show is hosted by Matt Topic and Me, Jason Leopold.
It's produced by Heather Schroering and Sean Cannon for No Smiling.
Our editor for Bloomberg is Jeff Brocott. Our executive producers for Bloomberg are Sage Ballman and Me, Jason Leopold. And our executive producers for No Smiling are Sean Cannon, Heather Schroering and Matt Topic. The disclosure of theme song is by Nick, with additional music by Nick and Epidemic Sound.
Sound design and mixing is by Sean Cannon. E-mails were read this week by Open My Kegel.
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