Purdue Challenged Over Attempt to Pay $38 Million in Bonuses

Purdue Pharma LP’s push to pay executives $38 million while it’s in bankruptcy was challenged by two dozen states, as the Connecticut attorney general called it “morally repugnant.”

The states on Thursday joined an objection filed earlier by the U.S. trustee assigned to the case. That filing argued that Purdue and its billionaire owners, the Sackler family, failed to give enough detail to justify the payments, including whether any of the recipients engaged in misconduct tied to marketing of the addictive painkiller OxyContin.

Purdue and the Sacklers have been accused of triggering the opioid crisis with aggressive and deceptive marketing of OxyContin that reaped billions of dollars in profit. The company and family deny wrongdoing. The states filed their opposition after Purdue asked the bankruptcy court to approve the payouts to cover bonuses, incentives and severance plans.

“Every last cent of that money must be used to combat the opioid epidemic -- on addiction science, treatment and recovery,” William Tong, the attorney general in Purdue’s home state of Connecticut, said in a statement. “Purdue has given next to no information as to who these bonus payments would benefit, and why these gratuitous payments should be allowed under bankruptcy code.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-03/purdue-challenged-over-attempt-to-pay-38-million-in-bonuses?srnd=markets-vp