The Oregon Department of Justice has filed suit against eight members of the notorious Sackler family, who became fabulously wealthy selling Oxycontin and other highly addictive painkillers.
Purdue Pharma, owned by the Sacklers, is also a defendant. The justice department alleges that the Sacklers fraudulently transferred billions of dollars out of Purdue while engaging in the “unlawful marketing and promotion of OxyContin.”
OxyContin and similar painkillers have become a national scourge, killing untold thousands and moving the opioid crisis out of the inner city and into the heart of suburban America.
Meanwhile, the Sacklers became well known for their support of the arts and museums. There’s a Sackler Museum at Harvard, there’s even a Sackler wing at the Louvre.
Critics contend that while the Sacklers were being toasted by the arts crowd for their generosity, they knew that OxyContin was highly addictive and deadly.
The new complaint, filed in Multnomah County Circuit Court, alleges that as federal and state officials began to file multiple lawsuits against them, the Sacklers siphoned billions of dollars out of Purdue fearing that the company would not survive.
Virtually every state in the nation has launched some sort of action against Purdue. Oregon is the first state to attempt to find the family liable by “piercing the corporate veil,” a legal doctrine used to hold owners accountable. Only members of the Sackler family who served as members of the Purdue Pharma Board of Directors are named in the lawsuit.
“Twelve years ago, Oregon settled with Purdue for deceptively marketing OxyContin, and for blatantly ignoring the alarming rate of addiction that their drug was causing,” said Attorney General Rosenblum. “Over the past decade, the destruction that OxyContin has caused has skyrocketed -- and it is clear we must go even further to ensure this company is held to account for its egregious misconduct, including violating their 2007 negotiated agreement. The time has come to hold these members of the Sackler family personally responsible.”