Sackler family members face mass litigation and criminal charges, as OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma Pleads Guilty to Criminal Charges for Opioid Sales & Crisis. The Department of Justice on Oct. 21 announced a $8.3 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma as a result of criminal investigations into opioid distribution.
The Justice Department announced a historic $8.3 billion settlement Wednesday with OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma, capping a long-running federal investigation into the company that, for critics, became a leading symbol of corporations profiting from America’s deadly addiction to opioid painkillers.
As part of the deal — the largest such settlement ever reached with a pharmaceutical company, officials said — Purdue Pharma agreed to plead guilty to three felonies. But state authorities and families who have lost loved ones to its products said the Justice Department’s terms, which include a $225 million civil settlement with the billionaire Sackler family that once ran the firm, are too lenient.
Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, said the Justice Department “failed” because justice in this case “requires exposing the truth and holding the perpetrators accountable, not rushing a settlement to beat an election. I am not done with Purdue and the Sacklers, and I will never sell out the families who have been calling for justice for so long.”
The family members — including Richard Sackler, David Sackler, Mortimer D.A. Sackler, Kathe Sackler and Jonathan Sackler (who is now deceased) — demanded in 2012 that company executives come up with a plan to generate greater revenue in response to slumping sales, according to the settlement. They approved a new marketing plan called “Evolve to Excellence” in which “Purdue sales representatives intensified their marketing of OxyContin to extreme, high-volume prescribers who were already writing ’25 times as many OxyContin scripts’ as their peers,” the Justice Department said.
As reported by the guardian in Sackler family members face mass litigation and criminal investigations over opioids crisis: Suffolk county in Long Island has sued several family members, and Connecticut and New York are considering criminal fraud and racketeering charges against leading family members.
Named in the Suffolk county complaint filed in New York state court are Richard, Jonathan, Kathe and Mortimer David Alfons Sackler, and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt – adult children of deceased brothers Mortimer and Raymond Sackler who developed Purdue Pharma and launched OxyContin in the mid-1990s.
Also named are Theresa and Beverly Sackler, the widows of those two brothers, and David Sackler, son of Richard. Theresa Sackler lives in London and the others named lived in the US, mainly in New York and Connecticut.
These eight family members serve or have served on the board of Purdue. Forbes magazine estimates that a core group of 20 Sacklers in the Mortimer and Raymond branches of the secretive family, including the eight named above, are collectively worth $13bn.
Hanly said: “What Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family have done to society through their aggressive peddling of opioids is unconscionable.”
Purdue Pharma to plead guilty – Criminal Sackler Family
Local NYC brings you local & relevant community news that matters. The opioid crisis has severely impacted New York City, and the greed of this company, and Sackler Family is in fact criminal and evil.
It will be interesting to see how many institutions that have taken Sackler blood money begin to distance themselves from the family, and even remove the Sackler name from buildings, halls, and other recognition’s as a result of donations to them.
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