Tag: OxyContin

Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy plan includes special protection for the Sackler family fortune

NOTE:  This is another post about trusting American corporations to do the right thing for their customers, Americans.

Washington Post logoIf lawsuits against the wealthy family aren’t halted, the Sacklers ‘may be unwilling—or unable’ to contribute billions to the drugmaker’s bankruptcy as planned, Purdue said in a court filing Wednesday.

In 2008, as Purdue Pharma was searching for a new chief executive, Richard Sackler received a memo from an adviser.

“In the event that a favorable [recapitalization] deal cannot be structured during 2008, the most certain way for the owners to diversify their risk is to distribute more free cash flow to themselves,” F. Peter Boer, a member of Purdue’s board of directors told Sackler, a prominent member of the wealthy family that owns the company.

[Read the 2008 memo from a Purdue board member to Richard Sackler]

That, authorities allege, is exactly what the Sackler family did. A lawsuit filed by the state of Massachusetts claims the Sacklers transferred more than $4 billion from the company to personal accounts between 2008 and 2016. Oregon asserts the family may have taken as much as $10 billion out of the company.

View the complete September 18 article by Renae Merle and Lenny Bernstein on the Washington Post website here.

New York Uncovers $1 Billion in Sackler Family Wire Transfers

NOTE:  In the “trust corporate American to do the right thing file, we’re passing along this article:

New York Times logoIn a court filing, the state attorney general’s office says that it has found new account transfers by members of the family that owns Purdue Pharma, the maker of opioids.

The New York attorney general’s office said on Friday that it had tracked about $1 billion in wire transfers by the Sackler family, including through Swiss bank accounts, suggesting that the family tried to shield wealth as it faced a raft of litigation over its role in the opioid crisis.

Earlier this week, thousands of municipal governments and nearly two dozen states tentatively reached a settlement with the Sackler family and the company it owns, Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin. It was unclear if the new disclosure would change the thinking of any of the parties that agreed to the settlement.

The attorneys general of a majority of states, including New York and Massachusetts, have already balked at the proposed deal, contending that the Sackler family has siphoned off company profits that should be used to pay for the billions of dollars in damage caused by opioids.

View the complete September 13 article by Danny Hakim on The New York Times website here.