J&J Baby Powder Claims Spur Bankruptcy Despite $25 Billion in Cash
- Used Texas Two-Step technique as a shield from cancer claims
- At least three other firms have tapped business-friendly law
This article is for subscribers only.
Only two companies in the world can pay their bills so reliably that they wield perfect credit ratings from both S&P and Moody’s. But one of them, Johnson & Johnson, just turned to bankruptcy court to deal with customers who argue the company’s products gave them cancer.
The consumer products giant put a unit into bankruptcy on Thursday because it owes at least $2 billion to people who say they got sick from J&J baby powder tainted with asbestos.