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Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims

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101–110 of 196 posts

Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims

#101
post #60
post #24

With the Sackler family funneling out money prior to this, is there any chance a judge would refuse the bankruptcy?

20 states and D.C. reject the settlement. They think there is a good change to prove fraudulent intent behind those transfers and claw back those funds. The lawsuit is alleging systematic fraud and requests an order for the Sacklers to return any transferred assets; and to restrain them from disposing of any property. https://ag.ny.gov/sites/default/files/oag_opioid_lawsuit.pdf Interesting that these decisions are so…

The Purdue PAC is a big donor mainly, though not exclusively to republican campaigns.

Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims

#102
post #61

One naive question - why are doctors who overperscribed opiates still allowed to practice medicine?

We spent the better part of decade catching and locking up doctors who prescribed opioids out of guidelines, so much so that doctors are now terrified of prescribing them to people who legitimately need them.

The problem is that the prescribing guidelines, which were written by the pharmaceutical companies themselves, described a regimen that would get pretty much anyone physically addicted to their product.

So you had doctors acting in good faith, prescribing medications only when indicated and following their manufacturer's prescribing guidelines, inadvertently creating new addicts where the manufacturer's literature said there would be none.

Not only that, but we spent several decades treating chronic pain patients with opioids, such that they are completely dependent on that class of drugs to manage their condition. Only very recently have prescribing guidelines adjusted to reflect the reality that opioids are not a good treatment for chronic pain. When those pain patients are driven off of their opioid prescriptions, even if their doctor is well-meaning, some of them turn to heroin/fentanyl to manage their pain.

Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims

#103
post #24

With the Sackler family funneling out money prior to this, is there any chance a judge would refuse the bankruptcy?

No. They will sue the sackler family directly.

26 states already are.

Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims

#105
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After all they are responsible for thousands of deaths. And they knew it. I don't know why they aren't in jail already.

That's because of the "limited" of private limited. (Under capitalism) many costs of having PtLds are externalized.

is that inherent? i haven't read Capital, but this doesn't seem so much of an inherent problem with capitalism than it seems like a very dumb implementation liability protection.

Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims

#106
post #105
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because of the "limited" of private limited. (Under capitalism) many costs of having PtLds are externalized.

is that inherent? i haven't read Capital, but this doesn't seem so much of an inherent problem with capitalism than it seems like a very dumb implementation liability protection.

What do you suggest instead?

The possibility to bankrupt a company without losing more than you put into the venture is in my eyes a feature of capitalism, not a bug.

Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims

#107
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Epstein affair was not just Epstein the single individual. He could not have operated alone all these years in the way that he did. He got lenient sentences whenever he was brought to justice. The people who supported him remain untouchable.

Ok, but he was rich. And he got "touched". Therefore the rich are not untouchable, which was the original point under discussion. Just like the Sackler family does not appear to be immune from prosecution and confiscation of their property.

We don't know that he got touched. We have a press story with some unlikely events that strongly suggests he got touched.

There's a between-the-wars novel by English author Evelyn Waugh called Decline and Fall. The main character gets involved in all kinds of unspeakable crimes, more out of naivety than inherent criminality, and at the end is "disappeared" out of jail and given a new identity.

Waugh was an Establishment insider and knew how the upper classes operated. It's a very interesting novel.

I'm not suggesting Epstein was naive - far from it.

But if you're in a position to bribe prison guards and authorities to cover up murder-by-fake-suicide, I suspect it's not significantly harder or more expensive to bribe prison guards and authorities to cover up an escape.

It's debatable if it would more expedient to remove the evidence permanently or have it moved to another location where some of its skills might continue to be useful. But I would be surprised if option 2 wasn't at least a possibility.

As for the Sacklers - we'll see if any of them do jail time.

Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims

#108
post #105
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because of the "limited" of private limited. (Under capitalism) many costs of having PtLds are externalized.

is that inherent? i haven't read Capital, but this doesn't seem so much of an inherent problem with capitalism than it seems like a very dumb implementation liability protection.

what capital says is that under capitalism, the ruling class will continually set up dumb rules, such as this one, in their favor, and they have a structural advantage in doing so, so are increasingly successful at it until it provokes revolt.

Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims

#109
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

is that inherent? i haven't read Capital, but this doesn't seem so much of an inherent problem with capitalism than it seems like a very dumb implementation liability protection.

What do you suggest instead? The possibility to bankrupt a company without losing more than you put into the venture is in my eyes a feature of capitalism, not a bug.

It's a feature when it's good faith efforts. It's very clearly a bug when it's used to evade no end of abuse, illegality and fraud, or to avoid paying the pollution cleanup.

There probably needs to be some exceptional way in law to pierce the shell of limited liability and go after officers, perhaps even claw back from investors and shareholders.

Re: Purdue Pharma files for bankruptcy with $10B plan to settle claims

#110
post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, but he was rich. And he got "touched". Therefore the rich are not untouchable, which was the original point under discussion. Just like the Sackler family does not appear to be immune from prosecution and confiscation of their property.

We don't know that he got touched. We have a press story with some unlikely events that strongly suggests he got touched. There's a between-the-wars novel by English author Evelyn Waugh called Decline and Fall. The main character gets involved in all kinds of unspeakable crimes, more out of naivety than inherent criminality, and at the end is "disappeared" out of jail and given a new identity. Waugh was an Establishm…

Epstein’s brother identified the body.
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