Crime Pays –
Oct. 21, 2020 – The controversial settlement, valued at more than $8.3 billion, would restructure Purdue Pharma, which entered bankruptcy last year. Going forward, the company would operate as a public trust under government control, continuing to manufacture opioid medications. The Justice Department also said much of this settlement will help states and communities, providing them with “extraordinary new resources” for treatment of people suffering addiction.
In recent days, critics worked to head off this deal even before it was made public, saying it would entangle the government in a risky drug-making operation without holding the company or its owners accountable.
In a letter sent last week to Attorney General William Barr, 25 state attorneys general urged the Justice Department to “avoid having special ties to an opioid company” that “caused a national crisis.”
Nearly three dozen Democratic members of Congress also sent a letter to Barr last week insisting any resolution of Purdue Pharma’s role in the opioid crisis result in prison time for company owners and executives.
“Purdue and the Sackler family perpetrated one of the most egregious criminal acts in American history,” lawmakers argued in the letter, calling for more aggressive prosecutions.
