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Purdue pleads guilty fined 8 billion
“WASHINGTON — Purdue Pharma, the company whose OxyContin painkiller drove a nationwide opioid epidemic, has agreed to plead guilty to federal criminal charges as part of a settlement with the government that includes fines of more than $8 billion, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.”
“The company, according to the agreement, will plead guilty to fraud and violations of the federal kickback laws. The criminal charges do not, however, absolve the company’s owners, the Sackler family, of future criminal liability, federal authorities said.”
It appears once again a company was knowingly engaging in a criminal act and was justifiably fined. Hooray we say, but stop a moment.
Does anyone go to jail? Just like so much of recent history — remember Arthur Anderson and then the big banks in the 2008 financial debacle. Oh yes, the companies paid their fines. But no one went to jail. Legal minds will have their mechanized responses, all flowered with the prose they have been brainwashed with for decades. It will be interesting to hear their responses. But then, they need not respond for they are legally puffed up with their rightness.