Purdue Pharma Sentenced to Over $5 Billion in Penalties

A federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, sentenced Purdue Pharma on Tuesday to more than $5 billion in criminal penalties, following the company's 2020 guilty plea to charges stemming from its role in the opioid crisis.

The penalties include a $3.544 billion criminal fine and $2 billion in criminal forfeiture. The Justice Department will credit up to $1.775 billion against the forfeiture, depending on the value provided to state, local and tribal governments through Purdue's ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. The sentencing clears a key hurdle for Purdue to complete its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, filed in 2019 amid thousands of lawsuits from states, localities, tribes and individuals over the company's OxyContin marketing practices.

Prosecutors accused Purdue, owned by the Sackler family, of illegally marketing opioids from 2007 to 2017, including deceiving the Drug Enforcement Administration about anti-diversion programs to secure higher manufacturing quotas and paying kickbacks to doctors to boost sales. The company admitted to misrepresenting OxyContin as less addictive and less prone to abuse than other painkillers, contributing to widespread addiction and overdoses.