Eminem’s Ex-Employee Pleads Guilty Over Stolen Music

Eminem‘s former employee Joseph Strange pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal copyright infringement in a case over the rapper’s unreleased music.

The Justice Department said Strange, 48, sold at least 10 files online for about $50,000 in July and August 2024. Eminem had not known about or approved those sales.

Prosecutors said the files had been accessed more than eight million times by November 2025. They estimated the infringement amount at $750,000 or more. Some tracks had been mastered for possible sale, but a release was not certain or about to happen.

“Today’s guilty plea reinforces a simple principle: accountability follows those who compromise the integrity of another person’s creative labor,” FBI Detroit chief Jennifer Runyan said.

Strange had worked at Eminem’s studio in Ferndale, Michigan, from 2007 to 2021. His job included helping run the computer system that stored music still in progress.

He could access files the studio kept private. Investigators accused him of taking music from drives that needed passwords and stayed offline in a locked safe. They said studio logs showed files had left the drives while Strange still worked there, years before they reached the public.

The staff learned of the leak in January 2025, after unfinished Eminem tracks went up for sale online. An image posted there also matched a private list on a studio drive. Staff called the FBI, and several buyers then identified Strange to agents.

The first case also charged him with moving stolen property across state lines. Prosecutors later filed a new one-count copyright charge in August 2026. It accused him of copying and sharing the music for financial gain. The filing did not include a signed plea agreement or proposed sentence. Strange had not yet admitted guilt.

Eminem’s spokesman Dennis Dennehy had called the alleged theft a betrayal of the rapper and others who worked on the music.

“We will continue to take any and all steps necessary to protect Eminem’s art and will stop at nothing to do so,” he previously said.

Strange’s sentencing is set for January 27, 2027. He faces up to five years in prison. A judge will decide his sentence.