Results 1 to 15 of 15

Thread: OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma agrees to plead guilty in $8B opioid settlement

  1. #1
    #DeSantis2024 Teh One Who Knocks's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    5280' Above Sea Level
    Posts
    256,044
    vCash
    10966
    Mentioned
    20 Post(s)
    Thanks
    23,810
    Thanked 113,085 Times in 59,902 Posts

    News OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma agrees to plead guilty in $8B opioid settlement

    By Evie Fordham | FOXBusiness




    OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma has agreed to plead guilty to three federal criminal charges as part of a settlement of more than $8 billion, Justice Department officials announced Wednesday.

    Purdue Pharma is expected to plead guilty to one count of dual-object conspiracy for defrauding the U.S. and to violate the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and two counts of conspiracy to violate the Federal Anti-Kickback Statute. The criminal resolution includes a criminal fine of more than $3.5 billion and $2 billion in criminal forfeiture, plus a civil settlement of $2.8 billion.

    The deal does not release any of the company’s executives or owners — members of the wealthy Sackler family — from criminal liability. A criminal investigation is ongoing.

    The company is in the middle of bankruptcy proceedings, and a bankruptcy court would need to approve the settlement.

    "The agreed resolution, if approved by the courts, will require that the company be dissolved and no longer exist in its present form," Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen said at a news conference.

    OxyContin is a powerful prescription painkiller that experts say helped touch off the opioid epidemic that resulted in nearly 450,000 American deaths between 1999 and 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    The settlement comes less than two weeks before a presidential election where the opioid epidemic has taken a political back seat to the coronavirus pandemic and other issues. But the deal does give President Trump’s administration an example of action on the addiction crisis, which he promised early in his term.

    As part of the resolution, Purdue will admit that it impeded the Drug Enforcement Administration by falsely representing that it had maintained an effective program to avoid drug diversion and by reporting misleading information to the agency to boost the company's manufacturing quotas, the officials said.

    A Justice Department official said Purdue had been representing to the DEA that it had “robust controls” to avoid opioid diversion but instead had been “disregarding red flags their own systems were sending up.”

    Purdue will also admit to violating federal anti-kickback laws by paying doctors, through a speaking program, to induce them to write more prescriptions for the company’s opioids and for using electronic health records software to influence the prescription of pain medication, according to the officials.

    Purdue will make a direct payment to the government of $225 million, which is part of a larger $2 billion criminal forfeiture. In addition to that forfeiture, Purdue also faces a $3.54 billion criminal fine, though that money probably will not be fully collected because it will be taken through a bankruptcy, which includes a large number of other creditors. Purdue will also agree to $2.8 billion in damages to resolve its civil liability.



    Purdue would transform into a public benefit company, meaning it would be governed by a trust that has to balance the trust’s interests against those of the American public and public health, the officials said. The Sacklers would not be involved in the new company and part of the money from the settlement would go to aid in medically assisted treatment and other drug programs to combat the opioid epidemic, the officials said. That arrangement mirrors a key element of the company's proposal to settle about 3,000 lawsuits filed by state, local and Native American tribal governments.

    As part of the plea deal, the company admits it violated federal law and “knowingly and intentionally conspired and agreed with others to aid and abet” the dispensing of medication from doctors “without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice,” according to a copy of the plea agreement obtained by the AP.

    The company is also required to cooperate with the ongoing federal investigation and potential other prosecutions.

    But even before the deal was announced, it was facing resistance from state attorneys general, Democratic members of Congress and advocates who wrote Attorney General William Barr asking him not to make the bargain with the company and the family. They said it does not hold them properly accountable and they raised concerns about some of the details.

    “Millions of American families impacted by the opioid epidemic are looking to you and your Department for justice. Justice for the sleepless nights spent worrying about sons and daughters trapped in the grip of substance use disorder, justice for the jobs lost and the lives ruined, and justice for the lives of loved ones lost to overdoses,” 38 Democratic members of Congress wrote. “If the only practical consequence of your Department’s investigation is that a handful of billionaires are made slightly less rich, we fear that the American people will lose faith in the ability of the Department to provide accountability and equal justice under the law.”

    The Sackler family has already pledged to hand over the company itself plus at least $3 billion to resolve thousands of suits against the Stamford, Connecticut-based drugmaker. The company — but not the family — declared bankruptcy as a way to work out that plan, which could be worth $10 billion over time.

    About half the states oppose that settlement and wrote Barr to ask him not to make the federal deal that includes converting Purdue into a public benefit corporation. They say it would be wrong for governments to rely on earnings from the sale of more OxyContin to fund programs to mitigate the toll of an opioid crisis wrought by prescription drugs as well as heroin and illicitly produced fentanyl.

    With the terms of the Justice Department deal, the federal government gives a strong endorsement to the idea of a version of Purdue continuing as a “public benefit corporation.” If that plan does not end of being the heart of the reorganization through bankruptcy court, the U.S. could make Purdue pay it more, potentially unraveling any other settlement arrangement.

    The state governments that oppose the settlements are pushing in bankruptcy court for documents that would spell out how much Sackler family members made from the sale of OxyContin over the years.

    The Sackler family was once listed among the nation’s wealthiest by Forbes magazine. A 2019 court filing said they had made up to $13 billion over the years from the blockbuster drug, though a lawyer said they brought in far less after taxes and reinvestment in the company.

    Until recently, the family’s name was on museum galleries and educational programs around the world because of gifts from family members. But under pressure from activists, institutions from the Louvre in Paris to Tufts University in Massachusetts have dissociated themselves from the family in the last few years.

    It’s not the first time Purdue has admitted wrongdoing: The company and three executives pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges in 2007 and paid more than $630 million in a settlement. But after that, the nation’s addiction crisis only deepened.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

  2. #2
    Shelter Dweller PorkChopSandwiches's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    77,135
    vCash
    5000
    Mentioned
    15 Post(s)
    Thanks
    47,197
    Thanked 29,254 Times in 16,488 Posts
    Lets see if anyone goes to prison






  3. The Following User Says Thank You to PorkChopSandwiches For This Useful Post:

    FBD (10-21-2020)

  4. #3
    unedited FBD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    26,000LYR out, paying taxes to pedophiles
    Posts
    24,602
    vCash
    1000
    Mentioned
    10 Post(s)
    Thanks
    15,855
    Thanked 5,822 Times in 3,934 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by PorkChopSandwiches View Post
    Lets see if anyone goes to prison

    The deal does not release any of the company’s executives or owners — members of the wealthy Sackler family — from criminal liability. A criminal investigation is ongoing.
    into da chippa with the pedos

  5. #4
    Shelter Dweller PorkChopSandwiches's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    77,135
    vCash
    5000
    Mentioned
    15 Post(s)
    Thanks
    47,197
    Thanked 29,254 Times in 16,488 Posts
    I read that, but lets see what happens






  6. The Following User Says Thank You to PorkChopSandwiches For This Useful Post:

    FBD (10-21-2020)

  7. #5
    #DeSantis2024 Teh One Who Knocks's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    5280' Above Sea Level
    Posts
    256,044
    vCash
    10966
    Mentioned
    20 Post(s)
    Thanks
    23,810
    Thanked 113,085 Times in 59,902 Posts

    Update Walmart files pre-emptive lawsuit against federal government in opioid case

    By Brent Kendall, Sara Randazzo | The Wall Street Journal




    Walmart Inc. sued the federal government in an attempt to strike a pre-emptive blow against what it said is an impending opioid-related civil action from the Justice Department.

    The retail giant said in its lawsuit that the Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Administration are seeking to scapegoat the company for the federal government’s own regulatory and enforcement shortcomings in the opioid crisis.

    Walmart said the government is seeking steep financial penalties against the retailer for allegedly contributing to the opioid crisis by filling questionable prescriptions.

    The suit names the department and Attorney General William Barr as defendants, as well as the DEA and its acting administrator, Timothy Shea. It is asking for a declaration from a federal judge that the government has no lawful basis for seeking civil damages from the company based on claims pharmacists filled valid prescriptions that they should have known raised red flags.

    Walmart, which operates more than 5,000 in-store pharmacies in the U.S., said the government’s “threatened action would be unprecedented.” It said the government hasn’t alleged that the company was filling altered prescriptions, or that its pharmacists had inappropriate relationships with patients or doctors.

    “In the shadow of their own profound failures, DOJ and DEA now seek to retroactively impose on pharmacists and pharmacies unworkable requirements that are not found in any law and go beyond what pharmacists are trained and licensed to perform,” the company said in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas.

    The Justice Department and DEA declined to comment.

    Walmart’s lawsuit is an unusual and aggressive tactic for a company in high-stakes talks with the department. Its suit won’t necessarily head off any Justice Department action, but a court ruling embracing the company’s view of the law could give it a weapon against any government case.

    Quicken Loans Inc. tried a similar tactic against the federal government in 2015 to avoid being pegged with mortgage fraud, but the Justice Department sued weeks later in a case Quicken settled last year.

    Walmart said the department has identified hundreds of specific doctors as having written problematic prescriptions that company pharmacists allegedly shouldn’t have filled, according to the government. But nearly 70% of those doctors continue to have active DEA registrations, the company said.

    “In other words, defendants want to blame Walmart for continuing to fill purportedly bad prescriptions written by doctors that DEA and state regulators enabled to write those prescriptions in the first place and continue to stand by today,” Walmart said in the suit.

    Walmart is one of several large companies that have been targeted in lawsuits by state and local governments for allegedly helping to fuel the opioid crisis. About 3,000 of the cases have been consolidated in a federal court in Ohio, where a judge has pressed both sides to settle for nearly three years.

    Plaintiffs focused less on Walmart in the early days of the opioid litigation, though the company has since been sued by counties and a handful of states across the country for its role as both a distributor of opioids to its own stores and as a pharmacy.

    Walmart pharmacists felt pressure to fill prescriptions quickly, the plaintiffs alleged, and had incentive bonuses tied to volume. Walmart stopped serving as its own distributor of controlled substances in 2018.

    Walmart has denied the allegations and said that opioid dispensing is a small part of its business.

    The Justice Department previously launched a criminal investigation, based out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Texas, related to Walmart’s dispensing of opioids. The department’s leadership in Washington decided in 2018 against bringing charges, according to the company’s lawsuit. The department’s decision not to prosecute was reported previously by ProPublica.

    Walmart in its complaint Thursday alleged federal prosecutors “tried to use the threat of criminal indictment to pressure the company into paying a massive civil penalty.” One U.S. attorney suggested the company could afford to pay $1 billion, the lawsuit said.

    The company argues in the lawsuit that the federal government was placing it in an untenable position because pharmacists face professional and legal risks -- and potential harm to patients -- if they reject prescriptions, but face federal liability if they do fill them and the government determines they shouldn’t have.

    Initial civil settlement talks in the broader opioid litigation have focused on the three biggest drug distributors in the country, Cardinal Health Inc., AmerisourceBergen PLC and McKesson Corp. , as well as major drugmakers including Johnson & Johnson. States are nearing a $26.4 billion settlement with those four companies and are in settlement discussions with others up and down the pharmaceutical supply chain.

    Some targets in the litigation, including OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP, have filed for bankruptcy to try to resolve the cases. Purdue agreed this week to plead guilty to three felonies related to its marketing and distribution of OxyContin, as part of an $8.34 billion settlement of civil and criminal investigations pursued by the Justice Department.

    Walmart was among six pharmacies slated to go to trial in federal court in November in the cases of Ohio’s Cuyahoga and Summit counties. The judge, however, recently delayed the trial indefinitely, citing the coronavirus pandemic. That trial was set to focus on the pharmacies’ roles as distributors of opioids to their own stores but wouldn’t have included allegations related to dispensing drugs to customers.

  8. The Following User Says Thank You to Teh One Who Knocks For This Useful Post:

    FBD (10-23-2020)

  9. #6
    Shelter Dweller lost in melb.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Down Under
    Posts
    23,762
    vCash
    7596
    Mentioned
    18 Post(s)
    Thanks
    18,671
    Thanked 7,553 Times in 5,206 Posts
    It must be lucrative being a lawyer in the United States

  10. #7
    Take Box B DemonGeminiX's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Bum Fuck Egypt, East Jabip
    Posts
    64,803
    vCash
    27021
    Mentioned
    25 Post(s)
    Thanks
    45,041
    Thanked 16,891 Times in 11,966 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by lost in melb. View Post
    It must be lucrative being a lawyer in the United States
    It depends on which area of law you go into and how good you are at procuring clients in your area. Business law can be very lucrative, if you get big clients.


    Warning: The posts of this forum member may contain trigger language which may be considered offensive to some.

    Music was better when ugly people were allowed to make it.

  11. #8
    21-Jazz hands salute Muddy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    On the Waters of Life
    Posts
    47,246
    vCash
    9653
    Mentioned
    5 Post(s)
    Thanks
    25,971
    Thanked 12,316 Times in 8,172 Posts
    What a crock of shit.. Rich people money changing hands.. Any normal people benefitting from this payout?

  12. #9
    unedited FBD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    26,000LYR out, paying taxes to pedophiles
    Posts
    24,602
    vCash
    1000
    Mentioned
    10 Post(s)
    Thanks
    15,855
    Thanked 5,822 Times in 3,934 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by lost in melb. View Post
    It must be lucrative being a lawyer in the United States
    there's a reason the british attacked to prevent the signing of the original 13th amendment

  13. #10
    Shelter Dweller lost in melb.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Down Under
    Posts
    23,762
    vCash
    7596
    Mentioned
    18 Post(s)
    Thanks
    18,671
    Thanked 7,553 Times in 5,206 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by DemonGeminiX View Post
    It depends on which area of law you go into and how good you are at procuring clients in your area. Business law can be very lucrative, if you get big clients.
    There seems to be a lot of clients, I guess that's what I'm saying

  14. #11
    Take Box B DemonGeminiX's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Bum Fuck Egypt, East Jabip
    Posts
    64,803
    vCash
    27021
    Mentioned
    25 Post(s)
    Thanks
    45,041
    Thanked 16,891 Times in 11,966 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by lost in melb. View Post
    There seems to be a lot of clients, I guess that's what I'm saying
    I have a few lawyers in my family. Some do well, some don't. Either way, one thing doesn't change: they're rats that think unjustifiably and extraordinarily big of themselves. They're irritating to deal with. That's one of the reasons I didn't go after a law degree myself, even though my family pushed really hard for me to do it (that was another reason).


    Warning: The posts of this forum member may contain trigger language which may be considered offensive to some.

    Music was better when ugly people were allowed to make it.

  15. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to DemonGeminiX For This Useful Post:

    FBD (10-26-2020), lost in melb. (10-26-2020)

  16. #12
    Shelter Dweller lost in melb.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Down Under
    Posts
    23,762
    vCash
    7596
    Mentioned
    18 Post(s)
    Thanks
    18,671
    Thanked 7,553 Times in 5,206 Posts
    Yeah, I don't know how a lot of them sleep at night. I guess money is a nice sedative for the conscience. I'll never forget when I used a lawyer to do the paperwork for selling a house, there was a small form outside our pre-arranged financial agreement. He said he'd take care of it it's about 20 minutes work and I could have done it. He then tacked on an extra $400 to the bill. I refused to pay and took him to the ombudsman.

  17. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to lost in melb. For This Useful Post:

    DemonGeminiX (10-26-2020), FBD (10-26-2020)

  18. #13
    unedited FBD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    26,000LYR out, paying taxes to pedophiles
    Posts
    24,602
    vCash
    1000
    Mentioned
    10 Post(s)
    Thanks
    15,855
    Thanked 5,822 Times in 3,934 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by lost in melb. View Post
    Yeah, I don't know how a lot of them sleep at night. I guess money is a nice sedative for the conscience. I'll never forget when I used a lawyer to do the paperwork for selling a house, there was a small form outside our pre-arranged financial agreement. He said he'd take care of it it's about 20 minutes work and I could have done it. He then tacked on an extra $400 to the bill. I refused to pay and took him to the ombudsman.
    pops bills more than that per hour, but that's because he's usually doing high priced medical malpractice...of course he's on the cusp of retirement these days...
    unc...fuck that guy, he's an asshole and always has been, long before he ever got a law degree. he does allright for himself. (unc is not on that side of the fam or part of firm)
    older brother....couldnt bring himself to do it and probably bombed the LSATs on purpose, none of us wanted to go into that shitty family business.


    things like the scissors getting sewn up into someone, real cases as told by my pops...but he was representing the anesthesiologist on that one, wasnt his fault but he got sued anyway because he was involved. pops makes some good cash but the insurance he's got to carry is absolutely insane for all of it.

  19. #14
    Shelter Dweller lost in melb.'s Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2011
    Location
    Down Under
    Posts
    23,762
    vCash
    7596
    Mentioned
    18 Post(s)
    Thanks
    18,671
    Thanked 7,553 Times in 5,206 Posts
    Unc = your uncle? Sorry to hear.

    The funny thing is they look miserable no matter how much money they make. I call it hollow earnings ...doesn't satisfy the palate.

  20. #15
    unedited FBD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    26,000LYR out, paying taxes to pedophiles
    Posts
    24,602
    vCash
    1000
    Mentioned
    10 Post(s)
    Thanks
    15,855
    Thanked 5,822 Times in 3,934 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by lost in melb. View Post
    Unc = your uncle? Sorry to hear.

    The funny thing is they look miserable no matter how much money they make. I call it hollow earnings ...doesn't satisfy the palate.
    yeah, uncle...he does pithy shit law stuff, but I doubly hate him because one of his old secretaries is married to my buddy's uncle, and they defrauded my buddy's other uncle, altered gram's will and had her sign it and then they fucked up her meds and OD'd her on coumadin and she went batty and could no longer change the will. did it all through his office and then denied secretary had any involvement since she no longer worked at the firm. some people are just absolute scum. they had the will changed to say that gramp's name on the house, that gramp willed this to the other brother and not the unc who owned the house. (nevermind that gramp & executor were ignorant of the law, otherwise a quit claim deed would have been done a long time ago.) those two motherfuckers tricked poor dumb unc into signing over power of attnorney and he thought he was just signing something to use the dump or some shit. (we're waiting for them to try and use PoA on gram's house to try and fuck swayback over again but we've preempted it and will go after them for fraud if they are dumb enough to try it.)

    /0 when my dad told me years ago about how satisfying his job and profession was....but my dad's a bit of a stiff with a sense of humor as dry as the sahara. glad to say that though I got dad's brains, I got mom's heart.

  21. The Following User Says Thank You to FBD For This Useful Post:

    lost in melb. (10-26-2020)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •