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Comment by germinalphrase | Hacker News Reader

NYTimes quoted 8.3 billion in fines.

From NYTimes: “ Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and face penalties of roughly $8.3 billion, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday, a move that could pave the way for a settlement of thousands of lawsuits brought against the company for its role in the opioids epidemic.

The company’s owners, members of the wealthy Sackler family, will pay $225 million in civil penalties. Federal prosecutors said the settlement did not preclude criminal charges against Purdue executives or individual Sacklers.”

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$8.3B is extremely misleading- the article says it won't happen.

"A forensic audit last year by Purdue found that the Sacklers directed at least $10.7 billion in the company’s proceeds to family-controlled trusts and holding companies"

So the family extracts $10.7B from the company and pays a $225M fine. The company is fined $8.3B but most likely goes bankrupt because it's already been drained by the family.

It still leaves $2.7 billion profit and no jail time.

It's a slap in the face.

Plus this is only for Purdue. How many other companies pumped opioids into the medical system? Not a peep out of law enforcement at all. You can wake a judge in the middle of the night to send 2 swat teams on a dynamic entry to get a 16 year old with 12 oz of cannabis. But the guys pumping over 90% of the opioids in the medical system? Crickets.

That's where you know that money talks in America.

> That's where you know that money talks in America.

Is there any place where money does not talk?

Would it be possible for the victims to sue them now since criminal actions have been proven?

No, it leaves $10.5B profit to the family since they've already drained $10.7B from the company and are only being fined $225M themselves.

The family will lose control of the company but they knew this was coming and drained it ahead of time. DoJ is letting them get away with it.

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