US consultancy McKinsey has agreed to pay $650 million in a deferred prosecution agreement with the US government to avoid a criminal trial for its role in the opioid crisis.
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The amount of the latest bill that the famous American consulting firm McKinsey agrees to pay amounts to $650 million, in order to avoid criminal prosecution at the federal level. But this is not a first. Since 2019, McKinsey has, in total, agreed to pay more than a billion and a half dollars to different communities and in civil proceedings, in order to avoid convictions.
McKinsey is accused of having advised opiate manufacturers, including Purdue Pharma and its infamous OxyContin, to push the sale of painkillers. These products have caused the deaths of more than 800,000 people by overdose. UNITED STATES since 1999.
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McKinsey under surveillance for 5 years
According to the agreement filed Friday, December 13 with a Virginia court, McKinsey acknowledges having knowingly and intentionally conspired to aid and abet laboratories in providing poor communication about prescription drugs. The firm notably encouraged its clients to sell highly dosed and addictive products.
The firm will be under scrutiny for five years for its contribution to the opioid crisis. According to the agreement, McKinsey did not benefit from a certain amount of goodwill from the American authorities, because it did not itself reveal the alleged facts on time. On the other hand, its ex post facto cooperation and the measures subsequently undertaken worked in its favor during these negotiations. In particular, he undertook to no longer advise companies on the development, manufacturing, promotion, marketing, sale or use of an opiate or any other narcotic. He also dismissed two employees for destroying documents in this case.
Targeted by numerous prosecutions, Purdue Pharma declares bankruptcybut his payment plan of more than five billion dollars was rejected by the Supreme Court, because it exonerated the Sackler familyowner of the company for future victims’ lawsuits.
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