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Editorial: Sackler family takes another questionable stab at settling their opioid-addiction liabilities

The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune on

Published in Op Eds

The notorious Sackler family, opioid pushers responsible for countless cases of addiction and death, can’t seem to settle their legal problems without turning to some kind of unprincipled maneuver.

Last time they proposed a settlement, the bosses of Purdue Pharma tried to get the protection that comes from filing for bankruptcy without ever filing for it — which would have forced them to expose the fortune they’ve stashed in offshore banks. The U.S. Supreme Court shot down that Sackler scheme, mercifully striking a blow for justice in the face of a coercive settlement deal.

Now, the Sacklers are offering a multibillion dollar payout that would provide funding for some of the family’s victims, but once again the proposal comes with a poison pill, according to a New York Times report.

Money that should be devoted to addiction treatment and emergency overdose medicines instead would fund a gigantic war chest the family could draw down to fight lawsuits against it. The states agreeing to the settlement reportedly would have to set aside as much as $800 million for the Sacklers to use against other claimants bringing separate cases rather than going along with the settlement.

Illinois and 14 other states reportedly have signed on to this dirty deal, in which part of the money they recover would pay for the Sacklers’ defense against the family’s other victims, effectively pitting victims against victims. Illinois was on board with the previous dirty deal as well: Justice clearly matters less than expediency in the office of Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul.

The previous Sackler deal, which Raoul embraced, followed a playbook in which corporate executives who never filed for bankruptcy themselves were given protection from future litigation when their companies reorganized.

 

Those free passes were a frequent abuse of the law in the past, and low-profile corporate nobodies got away with them for years. When the Sacklers tried the same thing, they put a spotlight on the whole rotten business. The nation’s high court couldn’t bring itself to sanction such a flagrant injustice.

The most recent deal evidently is structured in a way that has passed muster in mass-tort cases involving dangerous substances such as asbestos, where companies received broad protections and created separately administered funds to pay future legal fees and settlement costs.

But as everyone found out last time, it’s one thing when these deals affect relatively obscure companies and their executives. It’s quite another when a deal benefits a family that had a hand in addicting millions of people and then used foreign tax havens to wall off its ill-gotten billions. (The Sacklers have denied they were complicit in the opioid epidemic, and blamed the media for distorting their actions.)

We’re hopeful this latest scheme receives the scrutiny it deserves and continues to upend unjust practices that have been festering in this part of the law. The Supreme Court choked on the Sacklers’ previous gambit. Here’s hoping this one gets stopped before it reaches Chief Justice John Roberts and Co.

_____


©2025 Chicago Tribune. Visit chicagotribune.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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