Former Eminem studio employee charged by FBI after online leak of unreleased songs

Two months after a set of unreleased Eminem tracks unexpectedly leaked online, the FBI has accused a former staffer of the Detroit rapper with the leak.

Joseph Strange, 46, of Holly, faces up to ten years in jail after being charged on Wednesday with criminal copyright infringement and interstate transportation of stolen goods. According to the agency, Strange received around $50,000 in Bitcoin online from a Canadian man who raised the cash with a number of other Eminem fans in return for the unreleased song recordings.

Joseph Strange was charged with felony copyright infringement and interstate transportation of stolen goods for allegedly leaking the rapper's unreleased tracks, Michigan authorities stated Wednesday.

According to prosecutors, Joseph Strange sold roughly 25 songs written by Eminem between 1999 and 2018 but were still in progress. According to court records, they were played, shared, or sold online without the approval of Eminem or the Interscope Capital Labels Group, which owns Eminem's music.

Strange worked as an audio engineer at Eminem's Ferndale-based Effigy recording studio from 2007 until his layoff in 2021. Mike Strange, the rapper's brother, is a studio engineer who has worked with him for over two decades and still works at Effigy today.

The FBI claimed Joseph Strange was one of four Effigy employees who had access to the password-protected hard disks containing Eminem's music that were safely held at the Ferndale location.

Prosecutors allege that on Jan. 16, workers of Eminem's recording studio in Ferndale, Michigan, called the FBI after discovering unpublished, still-in-development songs on the internet.

According to the lawsuit, the employees received and recognized a picture of a list of unreleased music that was copied from a hard drive at the Ferndale studio and sold online.

In a statement sent Wednesday to the Detroit Free Press, the rapper's publicist said, "Eminem and his team are very appreciative of the efforts by the FBI Detroit bureau for its thorough investigation" that led to the accusations against Strange.

"The significant damage caused by a trusted employee to Eminem's artistic legacy and creative integrity cannot be overstated, let alone the enormous financial losses incurred by the many creators and collaborators that deserve protection for their decades of work," said the statement from longtime spokesperson Dennis Dennehy.

"We will continue to take any and all steps necessary to protect Eminem's art and will stop at nothing to do so."

The FBI investigated Strange's home and discovered hard disks holding copies of the unreleased music, as well as bank documents indicating Strange's payment for the music, according to prosecutors. Investigators discovered handwritten notes and song sheets created by Eminem.

The FBI interrogated a guy from Canada who purchased the unreleased music.  According to the accusation, he paid $8,500 for four tracks using Bitcoin and gathered the funds with the support of an online community of Eminem followers. Overall, the individual claimed he made $50,000 in Bitcoin payments to Strange over a six-month period, purchasing 25 tracks in all.

Strange faces a possible five-year jail sentence and a $250,000 fine if convicted of criminal copyright infringement. Meanwhile, the accusation of interstate transportation of stolen goods carries a maximum sentence of ten years in jail.

"Protecting intellectual property from thieves is critical in safeguarding the exclusive rights of creators and protecting their original work from reproduction and distribution by individuals who seek to profit from the creative output of others," Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Julie Beck, said in a statement.