The Sacklers transfer Purdue Pharma’s $10 billion to its other companies

The Sacklers transfer Purdue Pharma’s $10 billion to its other companies

The owners of Purdue Pharma, the Sackler family, transferred more than $10 billion in a decade from the OxyContin maker to its trust and holding companies, according to a New York Times report on Monday, citing the drugmaker’s newly-commissioned audit.

The audit is likely presumed to add further scrutiny on how much the Sackler family should pay to resolve lawsuits that Purdue Pharma faced regarding the U.S. opioid epidemic, the New York Times added.

From state and local government-filed lawsuits, it alleged that Purdue and the Sacklers contributed to a public health crisis, claiming the lives of nearly 400,000 people since 1999 by aggressively marketing opioids while downplaying its addiction and overdose risks.

The audit showed that from 2008 through 2017, Purdue’s payouts to the Sackler family totaled $10.7 billion. The auditors reported that they did not know how much cash distributed to the Sacklers was actually used to pay taxes.

“We need full transparency into their total assets and must know whether they sheltered them in an effort to protect against creditors and victims,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said. “We are committed to holding the Sacklers responsible for the role they played in fueling the opioid crisis and will not stop fighting until we have achieved justice for victims.”