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2:42

The settlers made their money. From

2:45

one drug in particular. An

2:48

opioid painkiller could. oxycontin.

2:52

Oxycontin unleashed an opioid

2:54

crisis. That continues to

2:56

kill tens of thousands. Of Americans

2:58

as a year. Many

3:01

people blame. For cyclists on

3:03

a serious crisis, but there's hardly

3:05

been held accountable. Site.

3:08

Last year the Us Supreme Court heard

3:10

arguments about one of the highest. Price

3:13

are bankruptcies As a. Dot

3:15

As Thirty Sauna, The Sacks

3:17

and Company that created Oxycontin.

3:20

The. Nine justices have a huge decision

3:23

to make. Well. The

3:25

Sat close settlements and. If

3:28

it does, the Sat close and thirty

3:30

salma will pay out as a six

3:32

billion dollars. And for the

3:34

first time during the opioid crisis, hundreds

3:36

of millions of dollars will actually go

3:38

to victims. But it will

3:41

mean that the Sat Close will be

3:43

shielded from any future civil litigation. No.

3:46

One will ever. Be able to see

3:48

them. And if the settlement

3:50

collapses. Well. Then. The

3:52

Sat Close won't have that immunity that

3:54

a chance of compensation down to the

3:57

victims. becomes much more difficult

4:01

My colleagues David Taylor, Phoebe Davis

4:03

and Xavier Greenwood have spent weeks

4:06

talking to people involved in the case,

4:08

and many of those directly affected by

4:10

the opioid crisis. I'll

4:12

hand over to David now. If

4:17

you've watched Dopesick or read

4:19

Patrick Raddinkief's bestseller, Empire of

4:21

Pain, you know the beginning

4:23

and the middle of this story. In

4:26

opioid epidemic, hundreds of thousands of

4:29

deaths are family blamed for the

4:31

way they fueled the crisis, but

4:33

no criminal charges against a single

4:36

SACLA. It's the

4:38

ending of the story that's elusive. What

4:41

happened to the SACLAs? So

4:44

I'm going to bring you right up

4:46

to date, starting not under the Corinthian

4:48

columns of the Supreme Court, but in

4:50

some country gardens outside of London. So

4:52

we're just walking around the side of

4:54

the house past the lions

4:56

on their pedestals, and coming

4:58

up to a fountain in the

5:00

middle of a lovely former garden, and on

5:03

the side of the house there's just an amazing

5:06

show of yellow honey ...

5:08

Thanks to the National Garden Scheme, we've got

5:10

a ticket to go behind the walls and

5:12

gates of a private garden at Rook's

5:15

Nest. Strictly speaking,

5:17

the estate seems to officially belong

5:19

to a long list of offshore

5:21

trusts in Bermuda and Jersey, but

5:23

it's where generations of SACLAs have

5:25

come over the years to celebrate

5:28

family moments and enjoy their riches.

5:31

It's a place that's usually shielded from the

5:33

world, still home to Dame Theresa

5:36

Sackler, one of the key figures in

5:38

the Opioid Empire, who was on the

5:40

board of Purdue Farmer for 25 years.

5:45

It's pretty extraordinary. The

5:47

high gates are 10 acres of

5:50

gardens around a mansion in the

5:52

Berkshire countryside. There's a chapel which

5:54

has been turned into an indoor pool, a

5:56

hot tub where the altar would have been,

5:59

there's a giant S set

6:01

into the terrace. You can't get in

6:03

through the front door without realising

6:06

that this is the sanctuary of

6:08

the sacros. It's part

6:10

of the real estate empire built up

6:12

by the sacre family, in enclaves from

6:14

the Swiss Alps and the French Riviera

6:16

to the elite zip codes of New

6:18

York, New England and Florida. And

6:22

the thing is, great wealth and high

6:24

walls can make a family feel untouchable.

6:28

But it's an illusion. The

6:30

sacros realised long ago that high

6:33

walls might not keep them safe

6:35

forever. I'm a convinced and taught

6:37

healer I should was hunt for

6:39

the sacros time. It's

6:46

the 17th of May 2007 and a moment

6:48

of maximum jeopardy. The

6:52

sacros are panicking. Purdue

6:55

Pharma has just pled guilty to

6:58

three felony charges. They've

7:00

admitted that they misled

7:02

regulators, doctors and patients

7:04

about the risks of

7:06

Oxycontin. The drug that

7:08

made them rich is killing people.

7:11

And government and law enforcement are

7:14

starting to pay attention. The

7:17

sacros family company is hit with fines

7:19

of 674 million dollars. But

7:23

the pressure doesn't end there. For

7:26

five years, Purdue's books and

7:28

records showing it's billions of

7:30

dollars of assets would be

7:32

open to the federal government.

7:35

They'll be able to check that the company

7:37

has been run with integrity. And

7:40

for the sacros, all of

7:42

this spells trouble. Jonathan

7:44

Sackler, son of one of the

7:46

founders of Purdue, emails his relatives

7:48

with an anecdote. Your

7:50

family is already rich, an investment banker

7:52

once told him, the one thing

7:54

you don't want to do is to become poor.

7:57

David Sackler, his nephew, then still has a

7:59

family. in his twenties shoots back

8:02

the very same day. What

8:04

do you think is going on in all these courtrooms

8:06

right now? We're rich? For

8:08

how long? Until which suits

8:11

get through to the family? David Sackler

8:13

suggests that the family leave her up

8:15

in case more lawsuits come their way.

8:17

We may well need it, even if we have to keep

8:19

it in cash. It's better to have the

8:22

leverage now while we can get it than thinking it will

8:24

be there for us when we get sued. For

8:27

a decade after the launch of

8:29

their lucrative painkiller OxyContin, the Sacklers

8:31

are worried that they might lose

8:33

everything. Less

8:35

than a week after David Sackler sends

8:38

his email, senior family members meet with

8:40

a bankruptcy attorney. And in

8:42

the following months, as the Sacklers

8:44

fret about being personally sued, they

8:46

talk about selling Purdue or pulling

8:48

out cash. They

8:52

choose the cash. It's

9:02

a far cry from the

9:04

1990s when Purdue Pharma and

9:06

the Sacklers are flying high.

9:09

By the time the Sacklers launch OxyContin in 1996,

9:13

Purdue already has a successful opioid

9:16

on the market, a morphine pill

9:18

called MS-Contin that is used to

9:20

manage the pain of cancer patients.

9:24

But OxyContin is a route to an

9:26

even bigger market. Once

9:35

you've found the right doctor and have told

9:38

him or her about your pain, don't

9:40

be afraid to take what they give you. Chronic

9:43

pain relief for routine

9:46

medical emergencies, arthritis, accidents

9:48

at work, even dental

9:50

work, those patients are getting 68

9:54

million prescriptions a year in the

9:56

US. because

10:00

they're perceived as too strong or

10:03

addictive. They're people who are looking for

10:05

something to get them through the day-to-day

10:07

pain. But that is far from actual

10:09

fact. OxyContin

10:12

is a hit. But

10:17

the realities of OxyContin are concealed.

10:19

It's potent and addictive. One and

10:21

a half times more powerful and

10:24

morphine. But that's not how it's

10:26

marketed. It's sold as a

10:28

medicine for long-term use. The

10:30

drug to start with and to stay

10:33

with. And Sackler's sales

10:35

reps use misleading tactics. They rely

10:37

on deeply flawed research to play

10:40

down addiction risks. And they are

10:42

instructed by managers never to use

10:44

language that might scare doctors. We

10:46

can show that we are as

10:48

quote-unquote effective as morphine. But do not

10:51

want to say OxyContin is as quote-unquote

10:53

powerful as morphine. Words

10:56

such as powerful may make some

10:58

people think drug is dangerous. But

11:00

the drug is dangerous. And across

11:03

the US families fall into a

11:05

spiral of despair, dependency and death.

11:08

It's my belief that from that point on

11:10

is when he started to do pills. People

11:13

who prescribe the drug become addicted

11:15

and people who misuse the drug

11:18

soon learn that if it's crushed

11:20

and snorted or injected the drug's

11:22

slow release can be overridden to

11:24

deliver the full impact in one

11:26

hit. Grief is... unless

11:30

you've lost a child you can't really

11:32

even explain it. It's the

11:34

most horrific thing

11:37

that holds onto your heart that

11:39

won't let go. Cheryl

11:42

Joair is a leader in the legal

11:44

fight against the Sackler family. Before that

11:46

she was mothered to three boys. Bobby

11:50

the eldest became a police officer. Sean

11:53

and Corey ended up on a different

11:55

path. I was married to my

11:57

husband who was an alcoholic. I

12:00

was. Brought. Up to believe that

12:02

when you get married you to stay married

12:04

and that's how it's gonna be sick. They

12:06

all had the same dad and that was

12:08

really important to me. But when we. Split

12:10

up. The. Boys

12:12

became idolize. They. Were

12:14

like everything to me. I didn't

12:17

miss or a football game of

12:19

baseball game. A wrestling match. I

12:21

didn't miss anything because I wanted them

12:23

to have as much. Of a

12:25

normal upbringing as possible. The.

12:28

Oldest to were like twins almost because

12:31

they were fourteen months apart. I have

12:33

a picture of Corey learning to walk.

12:35

It was actually on his first birthday

12:38

going from one brother to the other

12:40

Because of a big difference in age

12:42

he they really watched over him. When.

12:45

He was a teenager korea had a

12:47

hernia surgery and was given a pain

12:50

prescription. He. Became addicted

12:52

as you become aware that

12:54

he had moved from. Opioid

12:57

painkillers on. On

13:00

to illegal jokes. On to heroin.

13:02

I had a suspicion. But.

13:06

I wanted to block it out. I didn't want to

13:08

believe that. Although I remember one

13:10

time on the sacking the bathroom door down because

13:12

he wouldn't come out and she was in their

13:14

suit. not. And to side mom just I'll

13:17

be on the men it just. Go.

13:19

Away you know in like what are

13:21

you taking so long for. And

13:24

my heart just melted because I thought the

13:26

see in they're. Doing. Something he

13:29

shouldn't be doing. Today, the United

13:31

States has come in the cost of

13:33

the opioid epidemic. One and

13:35

a half trillion dollars a year.

13:37

And. More than two point seven million

13:40

Americans are addicted to opioids. So

13:42

Korea was living in Boston. She.

13:44

Was having issues with his girlfriend at the

13:46

time and they had of. Four a

13:48

month old daughter. I was living in

13:51

Florida. And. He just

13:53

needs a break and one to call to make sure

13:55

that he had a ride to the airport so that

13:57

in a we. could connect and

13:59

And there was no answer on his

14:01

phone. By dinnertime,

14:03

I started to pace because it wasn't

14:05

like him to not answer the phone.

14:09

And I was leaving him messages. Cory, call me. I need

14:11

to talk to you. I want to make sure you have

14:13

a ride to the airport. I

14:15

just had that gut. It was just a gut

14:17

feeling. And I called

14:19

my oldest son, the police officer

14:21

who was living in Massachusetts, and I said, Bobby, I

14:23

can't get a hold of Cory. He's

14:26

supposed to be on an airplane

14:28

tomorrow morning. And

14:30

so he said, I'll have the Arlington police

14:32

go do a wellness check. And

14:36

so we waited and waited and waited.

14:39

And Bobby called and my

14:41

husband answered the phone. And

14:43

Bobby said, I want to

14:46

talk to mom. And he says, you can tell me.

14:48

He says, no, I need to talk to mom. And

14:51

so when I got the phone call, he said,

14:53

mom, Cory's dead. And

14:57

I just screamed and

15:00

dropped to the floor and just I

15:03

was hysterical, hysterical. And

15:06

as a matter of fact, she's had to go to

15:08

counseling because of that scream because he couldn't get it

15:10

out of his head. I don't

15:12

know where it came from, but that was the scream

15:14

of losing my child. It's

15:17

a tragic story repeated in so

15:19

many families. Since OxyContin

15:21

was brought to market, over 700,000

15:24

Americans have died from opioid-related overdoses.

15:30

Many of those who died had probably never

15:33

heard of the Sackler family, but it was

15:35

the Sacklers who sat on the board of

15:37

Purdue Pharma, the company behind OxyContin. Front

15:40

and center was Richard Sackler. Do you know

15:42

how much the Sackler family has made off

15:45

the sale of OxyContin? I don't know. I'm

15:49

fair to say it's over a billion dollars. It

15:52

would be fair to say that, yes. A

15:54

Brusk intellectual, he led the company,

15:56

sparring with his cousin Kathy and

15:58

grooming his family. son David for

16:00

a leading role. Richard is

16:03

79 now and he lives in a

16:05

mansion on a golf course in Florida.

16:07

He was the key figure in the

16:09

research, launch and marketing of OxyContin. The

16:12

way the sales scheme was set up,

16:14

if they sold more OxyContin, they made

16:16

more money. Yes, same

16:18

as almost every other

16:21

company in the industry. One of the

16:23

advantages of more than 20 years of

16:25

litigation against Purdue Pharma is that a

16:28

lot of internal information is now

16:30

in the public domain. Emails,

16:32

field reports, board presentations.

16:35

It's a paper trail of all

16:38

the kinds that the Sacklers, especially

16:40

Richard, should have said enough. As

16:43

early as 1997 reports

16:45

were coming back from sales reps

16:47

with hundreds of references to terms

16:49

like crush and snort. And

16:52

word was reaching Purdue from its sales force

16:54

that there was a credibility problem. One

16:57

wrote, many physicians now think

16:59

OxyContin is obviously the street

17:01

drug all the drug addicts

17:03

are seeking. But

17:05

Richard Sackler seemed impervious to the

17:07

mounting dangers of OxyContin. In

17:10

a confidential email in 2001 he wrote,

17:12

we have to hammer on the abusers

17:14

in every way possible. They are the

17:17

culprits in the problem. They are reckless

17:19

criminals. And even after

17:21

Purdue pleaded guilty to the felony

17:23

charges in 2007, that moment which

17:26

put the Sacklers in a panic,

17:28

the family were still focused on

17:30

making profits. When the

17:32

market for OxyContin began to shrink,

17:34

after the drug was reformulated to

17:36

make it harder to abuse, the

17:39

Sacklers demanded more aggressive sales tactics.

17:41

We brought in the consultancy giant

17:44

for McKinsey who suggested an approach

17:46

that they called turbocharging the sales

17:48

engine. McKinsey discovered that

17:51

7% of doctors who prescribed

17:53

OxyContin were responsible for writing

17:55

more than half of all

17:58

prescriptions. it

18:00

then and sales go up.

18:03

Richard Sackler sent an email to one of his

18:05

cousins saying that the

18:07

discoveries of McKinsey were astonishing.

18:11

There's a key moment in August 2013

18:13

when McKinsey

18:15

made a presentation to the Purge-U

18:17

board. One

18:19

of the McKinsey partners wrote that

18:22

the room was filled with only

18:24

Sackler family members who were extremely

18:26

supportive of the findings, they gave

18:28

a ringing endorsement of moving forward

18:31

first. This

18:33

is one of those moments where

18:35

the Sacklers could have said enough.

18:40

Everyone in the room knew that

18:42

Oxycontin was a danger to America,

18:44

but the Sackler family kept going.

18:49

We know now in the years after

18:52

Purge-U's guilty pleas and all those panicked

18:54

emails, the Sacklers did take

18:56

billions of dollars out of the company.

18:59

They put it into a complex collection of

19:02

trusts, many of them in offshore locations

19:04

like Bermuda, and in 2018 justice caught

19:08

up with them again. This time

19:10

it was personal. Massachusetts Attorney General

19:13

Maura Healy was the first

19:15

to name specific members of

19:17

the Sackler family in her

19:19

lawsuit, saying eight people

19:21

in a single family made

19:23

the choices that caused much

19:26

of the opioid epidemic. Going

19:28

after the Sacklers individually broke new

19:31

ground. They were in the

19:33

boardroom, they owned the company. One of

19:35

the Sackler family members went so far

19:38

as to want to get in the

19:40

car, with produce sales reps and drive

19:42

around to visit doctor's offices to try

19:45

to sell more Oxy. And

19:47

for Cheryl Duair, who'd already lost

19:49

one son as part of the

19:51

opioid crisis, it was a moment

19:53

of sudden realisation. of

20:00

parents in there that have all lost a child to

20:02

substance use disorder. And it

20:04

wasn't until Maura Healy filed

20:06

that lawsuit that

20:08

I connected the dots. It

20:12

was unbelievable. It was the

20:14

Sacklers and how they marketed their

20:17

drugs that led to all

20:19

these kids dying. And

20:21

so August

20:24

18th, 2018, I believe, was shortly after she

20:26

filed that complaint, I

20:31

organized a march around Purdue Pharmaceuticals.

20:34

And I put it out there in a group and we had 400 parents

20:37

show up. Taking

20:39

the fight to the Sacklers, she wanted to

20:41

take them down. She joined

20:43

thousands of parents protesting the family and

20:46

joined the lawsuit against them. But

20:49

at home, she was reminded why she

20:51

was seeking justice. Now

20:53

her second son, Sean, was struggling with

20:55

opioids. And just

20:57

as the Sacklers came into Cheryl's sights, Sean

21:00

relapsed. He had had a

21:02

bad day and he went into

21:04

his father-in-law's medicine cabinet who

21:06

was dying of cancer. And

21:09

he had a bottle of Oxycontin in there and

21:12

he took one. And that was the beginning of his relapse.

21:17

Purdue Pharma was facing thousands of

21:19

cases brought by states and cities

21:21

and counties across the US. If

21:23

you piled them all up, the claims amounted to

21:25

more than $40 trillion. If

21:29

the cases got to court, the first

21:31

successful lawsuit could wipe them out. So

21:34

in 2019, the Sacklers agreed to

21:36

a new strategy. With

21:38

lots of money safely taken out

21:41

of Purdue, the family company declared

21:43

itself bankrupt. My name

21:45

is Aric Price. I am a bankruptcy

21:47

lawyer at Eakin Gump Strauss, Howard &

21:50

Feld in New York. For

21:52

the last five years, I have

21:54

been involved in the Opioid Chapter

21:56

11 bankruptcies. A

21:58

number of companies, including... Purdue. Arek

22:01

Price has been dealing with the

22:03

impact of the opioid crisis, fielding

22:05

calls from its victims and their

22:07

families for years. These five

22:09

years have been very difficult

22:12

for me, but I always remind myself

22:14

my job is one

22:17

one thousand one one millionth as

22:20

difficult as the job of a parent who

22:22

was buried a child. When

22:25

bankruptcy lawyers get involved, as Arek Price

22:27

puts it, they have a very simple

22:29

ambition. We're trying to get the most money

22:31

we can, the quickest amount of time for the most amount

22:33

of people. It's a simple

22:36

ambition and a very complicated process.

22:38

The ugly messy politics of this

22:40

saga within a saga has never

22:42

really been laid bare. So

22:45

let's start at the end. Right

22:48

now, everyone is waiting for the US

22:50

Supreme Court to make its decision. It

22:53

should come by the end of June this year.

22:56

Here's what's at stake. A bankruptcy

22:58

deal has been reached where the

23:00

Sacklers and their company, Purdue Pharma,

23:02

would pay more than six billion

23:04

dollars in compensation. Most

23:07

of the money would go to

23:09

states, cities and counties across America

23:11

to fund treatment, recovery and prevention

23:13

of opioid addiction. It will

23:15

save countless lives. And

23:18

for the first time, thousands

23:20

of victims of the opioid

23:22

epidemic, grieving families, recovery addicts,

23:24

children whose health has been

23:26

damaged, they would share in

23:28

some of the money $750 million. It

23:33

doesn't sound like much. At most people

23:35

will get $48,000. Lots

23:38

will get less than that and some might not

23:40

get anything at all. Most

23:42

people would put the cost of a life a lot more

23:44

than $48,000. Well,

23:48

it's something and it's never

23:50

happened before. But there are strings attached

23:52

to the deal. The biggest one is

23:54

this. The Sackler family

23:56

members will be shielded from ever

23:58

being sued. Even

24:01

though the Sacklers have not personally

24:03

declared themselves bankrupt, they would be

24:05

protected from future civil lawsuits. The

24:09

deal was approved by a bankruptcy court judge.

24:12

It was sold as a huge

24:14

triumph by President Trump's Department of

24:16

Justice about three weeks

24:18

before the 2020 presidential election against

24:20

Joe Biden. The Department of Justice

24:22

is announcing a global resolution of

24:25

our criminal and civil investigations to

24:28

the opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma, as

24:31

well as a civil resolution with

24:33

members... But behind the scenes, negotiations

24:35

have been fraught. At

24:38

first, a group of Republican states agreed a

24:40

deal with the Sacklers where the family would

24:42

pay $3 billion over

24:44

seven years in compensation,

24:48

and Purdue would contribute all of its

24:50

value. But none of the

24:52

Democratic states backed the deal. Then

24:54

the 2020 US election happened.

24:56

President Trump loses, Biden wins. And

24:59

for a period of months thereafter,

25:02

I can tell you that the

25:04

relations between the Republican, the

25:06

so-called consenting states, and the

25:09

non-consenting states, the ones

25:11

who were civil war, became pretty icy.

25:13

What was the Democratic state's

25:16

principal objection? Too little

25:18

money. There were some

25:20

Democratic states that wanted

25:22

just more money. Some of them

25:24

were focused on taking the

25:27

Sacklers' name off of buildings. Some

25:30

of them were focused on getting an apology. Through

25:33

negotiations, more Democratic states did get

25:35

on board. The total pot

25:37

grew to $6 billion. Those

25:40

who stood to gain were states

25:42

and cities that had lost out

25:44

on taxes and paid out on

25:47

unnecessary prescriptions, private hospitals that

25:49

lost money, Native American tribes

25:51

hit hard by addiction, and

25:53

of course the victims and their families.

25:56

They Won't all get a share of the payout, but $140,000.

26:00

The part of the case. But.

26:02

The story didn't end there because not

26:04

everyone was happy. The. Deal which

26:06

was first took to the Trump Administration

26:09

was challenge by the Department of Justice

26:11

under the new President Joe Biden. Bidens.

26:14

Department of Justice argued that the Bankruptcy

26:16

court had gone beyond it's powers when

26:18

it agreed to that immunity shield for

26:21

the settlers. It. Looked like

26:23

bad politics for the democrats. Support

26:25

the deal and you help create

26:27

a back for billionaires to escape

26:30

personal responsibility. To the

26:32

D O J appealed the decision to

26:34

let the settlement go forward. By.

26:37

This time several to I was

26:39

part of the bankruptcy process on

26:41

a committee representing thousands of families

26:43

battling for a deal that would

26:45

put billions of dollars in saving

26:47

lives. Put. Everything in the court

26:50

start to drag. And. It

26:52

was too late for her second son.

26:55

My. Oldest son to start. had just

26:57

graduated high school. And. He

26:59

was having a party for her on Saturday.

27:02

And so on Friday I was going to

27:04

pick sign up. After work.

27:08

Bring. Him to my house she was

27:10

can sleep overnight and then go to

27:12

the party the next morning. I

27:15

drove down with my husband to the Cape

27:17

which is about an hour from my house.

27:20

She. Wasn't ready. When.

27:22

We got there. And

27:24

my husband went up to the room,

27:26

knocking on the door and open the

27:29

door. an infant son. He had been.

27:32

Gone. There was nothing that could save them.

27:35

I walked up to the top of

27:38

the stairs, his room was right there

27:40

and he was sitting kitty corner on

27:42

the floor between the bed in the

27:44

wall. So really, All I could see

27:46

was the top of his head because it

27:48

was bent over and his shoulders. So.

27:51

i never saw his face or anything but

27:53

i was able to see my son and

27:56

tell him from much i loved him before

28:00

he left. It's

28:03

been the same story too little

28:05

too late for many more families.

28:08

Purdue has been in bankruptcy since

28:12

September of 2019. That means that

28:15

216,000 people have

28:18

died from opiate overdose since

28:21

the Purdue case began. And

28:24

after the DOJ's appeal, everything

28:26

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to go.acast.com/closer to

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get started. With

30:25

a potential watershed moment in the

30:28

opioid epidemic, today the Supreme Court

30:30

will review a $6 billion bankruptcy

30:32

settlement between Purdue Pharma, the maker

30:35

of OxyContin, and the victims and

30:37

communities ravaged by the opioid crisis.

30:40

In December 2023, oral arguments were

30:42

heard in the Supreme Court. Lawyers

30:45

for the victims and for Purdue

30:47

Pharma argued passionately for

30:49

the Sackler deal. Let me

30:51

be crystal clear. Without the

30:53

release, the plan will unravel and

30:55

there will be no viable path

30:58

to any victim recovery.

31:01

President Biden's Solicitor General argued against

31:03

it. This court should hold that

31:05

non-consensual third-party releases are not authorized

31:07

by the bankruptcy code. It permits

31:09

the Sacklers to decide how much

31:11

they're going to contribute. It

31:14

grants the Sacklers the functional equivalent of

31:16

a discharge. Some justices

31:18

seemed sympathetic to those who favour the

31:20

deal. Overwhelming the support for

31:22

this deal, and among people who have

31:24

no love for the Sacklers, among people

31:27

who think that the Sacklers are pretty

31:29

much the worst people on earth. But

31:31

others worry that the Sacklers are getting

31:34

too much protection without actually declaring themselves

31:36

bankrupt, that it might set

31:38

an unwelcome precedent. When we look

31:40

at the background structure of the

31:42

bankruptcy code, it has a

31:44

couple of important provisions. One

31:46

is you've got to put everything on the table, as we've

31:49

been discussing. The

31:52

other is that, at least with respect to individuals,

31:54

you don't get off the hook for fraud. Families

31:58

and lawyers are furious. that

32:00

the Department of Justice is willing to blow

32:02

up the deal even though all the groups

32:04

of creditors wanted to go through. In

32:07

fact, the only organisation arguing that

32:09

the deal should be struck down

32:11

is the Department of Justice. It

32:14

invites the question why? There

32:17

is a legal argument that the DOJ

32:19

and the Solicitor General are pursuing, but

32:22

there might be something else going on. I

32:24

believe it was all politically motivated. I

32:27

believe that at the end of the day, the Democratic

32:30

SG's office basically

32:33

was either going to try

32:35

to undo this plan and

32:37

the original Trump settlement, and

32:41

if they couldn't, they could

32:43

at least say, well, we did

32:45

everything we could in the Supreme Court

32:47

ruled against us, as

32:49

opposed to yes, we laid down and we agreed to

32:51

settle. Anne

32:54

Andrews, another lawyer acting for

32:56

families, agrees. Her guess

32:58

is that the Biden administration is

33:00

trying to avoid political blowback. They

33:02

don't want to be blamed in

33:06

places that may affect the outcome

33:08

of elections. We contacted the

33:10

DOJ, but they said they

33:12

don't comment on ongoing litigation. Whatever

33:16

the DOJ's motivations, their record with Perdue

33:18

spanning the Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden

33:20

years is awful. Remember, in 2007, Perdue

33:22

had pleaded guilty, their

33:28

books had been open, and yet no one

33:30

in government acted when the Sacklers started moving

33:33

around Perdue's cash. The Sacklers realized, they're like,

33:36

oh my goodness, oh

33:40

my goodness, eventually they're going

33:42

to come after us. Eventually they're going

33:44

to come after all the money. So

33:46

let's start moving it. They

33:49

effectively moved out of Perdue $11

33:52

billion in that decade. It

33:54

seems like a failure of oversight.

33:56

The DOJ reaches the settlement in

34:00

They take 674 million, they prosecute not one

34:02

Sackler. For

34:08

the next five years they have access

34:11

to the books and records of Purdue,

34:13

and that's when the Sacklers take the

34:15

most money out of Purdue. And

34:18

the only body to have had any

34:20

money from the Sacklers since the settlement

34:23

negotiations began is the Department of Justice.

34:26

That's because in 2020 Trump's DOJ

34:28

settled its civil claim for $225

34:30

million and the Sacklers paid

34:34

up. The money went to

34:37

the US Treasury and none has been used

34:39

to deal with the opioid crisis. The

34:42

million dollar, or maybe the six

34:44

billion dollar question, is this. How

34:47

much money have the Sacklers really got? The

34:51

bankruptcy process has given us a detailed

34:53

but incomplete picture. Here's what

34:55

we do know. We know they took

34:57

$11 billion out of the company

34:59

between 2007 and 2018 and paid $4.5 billion back

35:06

in taxes. And a breakdown

35:08

of the money and holdings of the

35:10

families show that even after this they

35:12

still had net assets of more than

35:14

$11 billion. So

35:17

in spite of paying $4.5 billion in

35:19

taxes, by 2020 they seemed

35:21

to have made that money back. Confidential

35:24

documents put into the public domain

35:26

by a congressional committee reveal a

35:28

network of dozens of trusts linked

35:30

to the Sacklers. The

35:32

trust names are blacked out but

35:34

the cash figures show many multi-million

35:37

dollar funds. Other details

35:39

made public show $950 million

35:41

in cash, international drug companies valued

35:44

at a billion dollars, and a

35:46

global real estate empire valued at

35:48

another billion dollars. All

35:50

of the main family members also benefit

35:52

from a series of joint trusts. And

35:55

individual net assets are listed like

35:57

this. Teresa has a hundred dollars.

36:00

Cathy, $150 million. Richard, $166.5 million. And Richard's son

36:02

David has $1,000. David

36:15

Sackler was on the Perdue Board between 2012 and 2018.

36:17

He had a background in finance, set

36:22

up his own hedge fund and then

36:24

created a family investment company. He lives

36:26

in a Florida mansion bought just before

36:28

Perdue filed for bankruptcy. He

36:30

appears to manage his money in a different

36:33

way to other family members and declared net

36:35

assets of $1,000. So

36:38

as I said, this is an incomplete picture.

36:40

We don't know how much their investments have

36:43

made in the past few years. What

36:45

we do know is that they're still in

36:47

the opioid business. Mundy

36:49

Pharma, an international pharmaceutical company

36:52

controlled and held for the

36:54

benefit of the Sackler family,

36:56

continues to sell painkillers, including

36:58

OxyContin, outside of the US.

37:02

That's not all. Mundy

37:04

Pharma has also been

37:06

working with King's College

37:08

London on the other

37:10

side of the opioid

37:12

market. In 2019, even as other

37:14

universities were distancing themselves from the Sacklers,

37:17

King's accepted over $1.5 million

37:19

from Mundy Pharma for an ongoing study.

37:22

The study is trialing the community use of

37:24

a nasal spray, which can be used

37:26

to stop someone dying of an opioid

37:28

overdose. This is Phoebe Davis, who's been

37:31

reporting this story with me. In

37:33

the past, King's has also received millions

37:35

from the Dr Mortimer and Teresa Sackler

37:37

Foundation to fund the Neurodevelopment Research Centre.

37:40

When we contacted King's, they said they had

37:42

cut ties with the foundation and that no

37:44

new studies with Mundy Pharma will take place.

37:47

Mundy Pharma told us it doesn't profit from the

37:49

nasal spray they developed with King's. farmer

38:00

and its offshoots and put a billion

38:02

and a half dollars from the sale

38:04

into the settlement. So, if

38:07

the bankruptcy deal goes through, the Sacklers

38:09

will definitely take a hit, but they'll

38:11

still be very rich. The

38:14

alternative, the deal collapses at the Supreme

38:16

Court and lawyers for the victims have

38:18

to start all over again with the

38:20

risk that the Sackler fortune is completely

38:22

out of reach. If

38:25

the deal collapses, Republicans will blame

38:27

Biden for killing the deal for

38:29

opioid victims. Biden will say, we

38:32

can't allow immunity for billionaires. If

38:35

it goes ahead, Republicans will claim victory

38:37

and say they were architects of a

38:39

historic deal for victims. Biden will say,

38:41

we tried to hold billionaires to account,

38:43

but the Supreme Court stopped us. Predicting

38:47

the opinions of the Supreme Court

38:49

involves educated guesswork, but the justices

38:51

appear to be split. This

38:54

is the lawyer, Anne Andrews, again. We

38:56

use our connections, colleagues

38:59

in the Supreme Court bar, this inner

39:01

circle of lawyers who can

39:04

divine. They watch,

39:06

they study their

39:09

experience at describing

39:11

how they think the court is going to react.

39:14

It's going to be, in their

39:16

opinion, closely

39:19

divided. They're

39:22

expecting a five to

39:24

four decision and everyone I

39:26

talk to, it's about even

39:28

on as to whether it will be affirmed or

39:30

whether it will be overturned. But

39:33

it's really a cliffhanger. As

39:35

for the Sacklers, where are they now

39:38

as they wait on the justices' decision?

39:42

Dame Theresa lives in that beautiful

39:44

Berkshire Manor house, though she's not

39:46

on the gallery circuit anymore. Kathy

39:50

Sackler seems to split her time

39:52

between Connecticut and New York's Upper

39:54

East Side. Richard

40:01

and his son David, they live just

40:03

down the road from each other in

40:05

Boca Raton, Florida, a wealthy haven of

40:07

golf courses and beaches. The

40:09

family and the board acted legally

40:12

and ethically. Even

40:14

now, none of them have apologised for

40:16

their role in the opioid crisis, and

40:18

it turns out their names are still

40:20

on display. We've

40:33

just arrived in Westminster Abbey, and the way

40:35

we're heading for is the Henry

40:37

VII Lady Chapel, which

40:40

was a burial

40:43

place of 15 kings and queens of

40:45

England, and

40:48

including Elizabeth I.

40:54

We just spotted what we

40:56

came here to look for, the

40:58

stained glass window to

41:01

our right, it

41:03

says M&T Sackler Family

41:05

on the left, it

41:08

says Peace Through

41:10

Education, which is the Sackler

41:13

Family motto. The

41:16

way that many people came across

41:18

the Sackler stories was through protest.

41:20

In galleries, museums and campuses around

41:22

the world, activists fought

41:24

to remove the Sackler name. In

41:27

many cases, it worked. But

41:29

walking around London a few weeks ago, it wasn't

41:31

all gone. In the certain

41:33

time north was a glass plinth giving

41:35

the Dr Mortimer and Teresa Sackler Foundation

41:38

top billing as a principal donor. At

41:40

Tate Modern, the Sacklers are still on

41:43

the benefactor's wall of fame in the

41:45

Turbine Hall. And then

41:47

in Westminster Abbey, a monument to the

41:49

Sacklers in stained glass. It's

41:52

almost like the other pinnacle of the Sackler

41:54

family, if you wanted your

41:56

name to live on, your work to

41:59

live on. It's hard to

42:01

imagine that this

42:04

chapel with its hundreds of years of

42:06

history and a direct line to the

42:08

King and Queen of England could

42:12

act as a more solemn and

42:15

hermered mind to

42:17

the great works of her family. It

42:20

costs £14 million a year

42:22

to maintain Westminster Abbey. The

42:24

Sacklers have donated £600,000 and they got a stained glass window. When

42:30

we asked Westminster Abbey about the

42:32

window they said that the Sackler

42:34

Trust had in the past contributed

42:36

towards restoration work and other major

42:38

projects. They said they

42:41

were no longer in discussion with the

42:43

Sackler Trust about future donations but had

42:45

no plans to remove or alter the

42:47

stained glass windows. They

42:50

say that these policies are kept under review. For

42:52

me, the question they should ask themselves is

42:55

not how much does it cost to replace

42:57

a stained glass window but how

42:59

much does it cost you to keep it? This

43:02

is a fascinating story about one

43:04

of the largest consulting firms in

43:07

the world now facing a criminal

43:09

investigation for allegedly working to boost

43:11

sales of highly addictive prescription painkillers.

43:14

While we were making this episode,

43:16

news broke that the DOJ was

43:18

investigating McKinsey, the consultants who advised

43:21

Purdue Pharma to turbocharge the sales

43:23

engine. If the

43:25

investigation moves forward, it raises

43:28

an obvious question. Is

43:30

a criminal prosecution of the Sacklers coming

43:32

next? There's nothing

43:34

in the settlement deal that stops it.

43:37

The future immunity just applies

43:39

to civil cases and we've

43:41

seen the documents that show

43:44

how enthusiastically the Sackler family

43:46

responded to McKinsey's plans. But

43:48

Aruch Price was sceptical that the Sacklers would

43:50

face a criminal case. not,

44:00

clearly they're not going to do, because if they haven't done

44:02

it by now, I can't imagine they're going to wake up

44:04

tomorrow and do it. So I'm left

44:06

at the end of this wondering, are the Sacklers

44:08

getting away with it? Will they

44:10

compensate the victims? Maybe.

44:13

Have they been erased from

44:15

public life? Largely,

44:17

but not entirely. And

44:19

has their wealth shielded them from

44:22

consequences? Without a doubt. It's

44:25

tough to think that even if the deal

44:27

still goes through, if they end

44:30

up putting billions of dollars of their fortunes

44:32

in their recovery and treatment, they'll

44:34

still be rich for generations

44:36

to come. They'll be shielded

44:38

from any more civil cases, and

44:41

they'll still be short of apologies.

44:46

From Berkshire to Florida, their

44:48

gates and their walls remain

44:50

high. What

44:52

is the point of a morality

44:54

tale if actions don't have consequences?

44:58

But there's another way to look at it, and

45:00

the closer you are to the case, maybe

45:03

the more realistic you are in the

45:05

end. There are some people who say,

45:07

I don't care if it takes 10 years. I

45:10

want the Sacklers to pay every dime. And

45:14

there are some that say, in fact, most of

45:16

the people I've talked to say, I don't care

45:18

if it's the Sacklers or the Schmacklers. I

45:21

just want the money and I want to move on. And

45:24

nope, there's not a right or wrong answer. At

45:27

some point, you have to move on. You

45:30

have to take what you can get, abate

45:32

the crisis, compensate

45:34

victims, and move

45:36

on. In 2022,

45:39

the families wrecked by

45:41

opioids were finally given a voice

45:43

in a legal process that had

45:45

always shut them out. Cheryl

45:47

was one of 26 people chosen

45:50

to directly address the Sacklers.

45:53

Theresa and David Sackler were on

45:56

camera watching and listening as parents

45:58

told their stories. Richard

46:00

Sackler was also present on the Zoom

46:02

call, but off camera. Cheryl

46:05

told the Sacklers about Corey and

46:07

Sean, about how her family had

46:09

been torn apart. I remember asking

46:11

them how much money was

46:13

enough. A year

46:16

later, she wrote a letter that has formed

46:18

part of the Supreme Court case. She

46:20

told the justices how much she'd wanted

46:22

the Sacklers to go to jail. And

46:25

then, she urged them to

46:27

allow the settlement plan to go forward.

46:31

So I asked her, do you think they're getting

46:33

away with it? I don't. They've

46:37

ruined themselves. They

46:39

can't walk on the streets. I'm

46:42

sure they're not even being invited to

46:44

these galas and parties anymore. I

46:47

don't think they can even come out of their homes. I

46:50

think we've won. We've won that way.

46:53

It's more important to me that

46:55

the money's diverted into recovery and

46:57

treatment. I don't want to see another mom

47:00

have to bury her child and have

47:02

the pain that I had felt for so

47:04

long. No,

47:06

it wasn't a perfect plan, but I think

47:08

it was perfect for us. And

47:11

it will save lives. And that's what it's

47:13

all about. That's what it's

47:15

all about. Thanks

47:24

for listening to this episode of The Slow

47:26

Newscast. If you enjoyed this

47:28

episode, please do leave us a rating

47:30

and review. It was

47:32

reported by me, David Taylor and Phoebe

47:34

Davis. It was produced

47:37

by Xavier Greenwood with additional

47:39

production by Imogen Harbor. The

47:41

sound designer was Dominic Delage.

47:43

The editor was Kerry Tence. Totally.

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