NEW from ⁦ @praddenkeefe⁩: While opioid deaths have surged during the pandemic, the Sackler family has been quietly staging an end game in which it will keep most of its fortune—and be released from all future liability. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-sackler-familys-plan-to-keep-its-billions

“The Sacklers may be embattled, but they have hardly given up the fight. And a bankruptcy court in White Plains, it turns out, is a surprisingly congenial venue for the family to stage its endgame.”

Behind the scenes, lawyers for Purdue and its owners have been quietly negotiating w/ Donald Trump’s Justice Department to resolve all the various federal investigations in an overarching settlement, which would likely involve a fine but no charges against individual executives.

“In other words, the deal will be a reprise of the way that the company evaded comprehensive accountability in 2007.”

“Multiple lawyers familiar with the matter told me that members of the Trump Administration have been pushing hard to finalize the deal before Election Day.”

“The Administration will likely present such a settlement as a major victory against Big Pharma—and as another “promise kept” to Trump’s base.”

“If the deal goes forward, it would mark a stunning turn in the decades-long saga of trying to hold Purdue and the Sacklers responsible for their role in the opioid crisis.”

“But even more stunning is the projected outcome of the bankruptcy proceeding in White Plains. At a recent hearing, the judge, Robert Drain, became defensive when a lawyer representing creditors suggested that the Sacklers might “get away with it.””

“But, if the Sacklers achieve the result that the family’s legal team is quietly engineering, they seem poised to do just that.”