A Corrupt Decision, through a Corrupt Process, with a Hand-Picked Judge

Judge Robert Drain, beloved by big money bankruptcy filers for his rocket docket and his unwillingness to look for fraud has ruled to dissolve Purdue Pharma and indemnify the Sackler Crime Family™ from civil suits.

It stinks, and the whole process is corrupt from top to bottom:

1. Sacklers create an opioid pain killer and sell it with false claims.
2. The knowingly and aggressively market it to create as much addiction and death as possible because it is profitable.
3. When caught, they set up a phony headquarters in White Plains, New York (Purdue is based in Connecticut) so that they can use a judge who has been very accommodating to the wealthy for decades.
4. The judge lets them off the hook.
5. They get off with a pittance paid out over more than a decade and remain fabulously wealthy.
6. Rinse, lather, repeat.
   

The injustice and corruption here is so clear that is shocks the conscience:

Purdue Pharma, the maker of the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin, was dissolved on Wednesday in a wide-ranging bankruptcy settlement that will require the company’s owners, members of the Sackler family, to turn over billions of dollars of their fortune to address the deadly opioid epidemic.

But the agreement includes a much-disputed condition: It largely absolves the Sacklers of Purdue’s opioid-related liability. And as such, they will remain among the richest families in the country.

Judge Robert Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., approved the settlement, saying he wanted modest adjustments. The painstakingly negotiated plan will end thousands of lawsuits brought by state and local governments, tribes, hospitals and individuals to address a public health crisis that led to the deaths of more than 500,000 people nationwide.

The settlement terms have been harshly criticized for shielding the Sacklers. They are receiving protections that are typically given to companies that emerge from bankruptcy, but not necessarily to owners who, like the Sacklers, do not themselves file for bankruptcy.

………

While the settlement serves as a benchmark in the nationwide opioid litigation aimed at covering governments’ costs and compensating families, it also means that a full accounting of Purdue’s role in the epidemic will never unfold in open court. Purdue pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for drastically downplaying OxyContin’s addictive properties and, years later, for soliciting high-volume prescribers.

………

Companies that emerge from bankruptcy restructuring are granted considerable legal protections. But federal appeals courts disagree over whether that shield can be accorded to owners, like the Sacklers. The prospect of Sacklers left relatively unscathed has led some members of Congress to introduce a bill that would prevent protections for owners in similar situations.

Your mouth to God's ears. 

It is clear that the corporate bankruptcy code encourages both reckless and criminal behavior, particularly the degree to which some judges choose to indemnify unconscionable behavior.

………

Nine states objected to the plan, arguing that the shields would prevent them from exercising their police powers to prosecute the Sacklers for violating civil laws like consumer protection statutes.

Washington State’s attorney general, Bob Ferguson, called the plan “morally and legally bankrupt,” because, he said, “it allows the Sacklers to walk away as billionaires with a lifetime legal shield.”

Another objector was the U.S. Trustee, a program under the Department of Justice that monitors bankruptcy cases. Immediately after Judge Drain’s ruling, its lawyer said he would be requesting a stay of the order, pending an appeal.

………

Judge Drain had largely excluded the voices of victims during the two years. But at the conclusion of testimony in August, he pointedly acknowledged the families whose tragedies were entwined with Purdue’s drug.

Yes, he excludes the victims, and then makes pious pronouncements when he bails out the rich criminals.  Pardon me for doubting his sincerity.

The venal corruption of this decision mirrors his ruling in the Sears Bankruptcy, when he blithely signed off on Eddie Lampert's looting of that company.

Without meaningful reform, at some point, someone is going to go end going postal on folks like this, and if I'm the jury, there is no way that I would vote to convict.