Purdue Pharma's Sackler Family Accused Of Hiding Funds As Opioid Suits Continue To Rise

The office of the New York Attorney General has reportedly found at least $1 billion in wire transfers by the Sackler family, the owners of OxyContin producer Purdue Pharma. The findings appear to indicate that the family is attempting to obscure its wealth as lawsuits pertaining to its roles in the ongoing opioid crisis continue to mount.

New York Attorney General Letitia James has reportedly subpoenaed 33 institutions for information pertaining to the Sackler family’s personal fortune. A recent court filing from Friday represented the information received from only one of them. All of this information forms the basis of the accusation that the family is lowballing opioid crisis victims.

“While the Sacklers continue to lowball victims and skirt a responsible settlement, we refuse to allow the family to misuse the courts in an effort to shield their financial misconduct,” James said in a statement. “The limited number of documents provided to us so far underscore the necessity for compliance with every subpoena.”

According to NBC News, the Friday filing includes one transfer of $64 million to Mortimer Sackler, co-owner of Purdue Pharma, through an account in the Bailiwick of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. The state attorney general's office has also accused Mortimer Sackler of hiding his ownership of an Upper Eastside Manhattan townhouse via a shell corporation, which he did not disclose the existence of in litigation.

“Already these records have allowed the state to identify previously unknown shell companies that one of the Sackler defendants used to shift Purdue money through accounts around the world and then conceal it in at least two separate multi-million dollar real estate investments,” the filing states.

“There is nothing newsworthy about these decade-old transfers, which were perfectly legal and appropriate in every respect,” a spokesman for Mortimer Sackler said in response to these allegations. “This is a cynical attempt by a hostile AG's office to generate defamatory headlines to try to torpedo a mutually beneficial settlement that is supported by so many other states and would result in billions of dollars going to communities and individuals across the country that need help.”