Sacklers Withdrew $10 Billion Out of Purdue, Report Finds
- Purdue commissioned report as part of its bankruptcy case
- Money was reinvested, used for taxes and paid out in cash
Opponents of the Sackler family’s offer to settle opioid lawsuits against Purdue Pharma LP for about $10 billion say a new report showing the clan withdrew more than that out of the drugmaker over the last decade confirms their reasons for rejecting it.
An audit -- commissioned as part of Purdue’s bankruptcy -- found family members transferred $10.4 billion out of the maker of the once-ubiquitous opioid painkiller OxyContin since 2008, sometimes directing it into offshore trusts and holding companies.
The report revives calls for the billionaire Sackler family to open its books about profits from sales of OxyContin after it was approved in 1995. Some state attorneys general and lawyers for U.S. cities and counties are demanding the family pay more to resolve about 2,700 lawsuits alleging the company and the family inflamed the opioid crisis by illegally pushing OxyContin.
“We need full transparency into their total assets and must know whether they sheltered them,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in an emailed statement. She’s among 24 state law-enforcement officials opposing the Sacklers’ offer to settle.