Sacklers Raise Their Offer to Settle Opioid Lawsuits by More Than $1 Billion
upstart writes:
Sacklers Raise Their Offer to Settle Opioid Lawsuits by More Than $1 Billion:
Members of the billionaire Sackler family have sweetened their cash offer to settle thousands of opioid-related lawsuits against them and their company, Purdue Pharma, offering up to $6 billion, an increase of more than $1 billion from an earlier offer, according to a mediator's report filed Friday afternoon in bankruptcy court.
But the deal is not done. The Sacklers have not budged from the line they drew in the sand at the outset of the case. In exchange for their billions, they are continuing to demand an end to all civil claims against them related to Purdue and opioids, and that future such claims be prohibited.
Legal experts and the public have criticized efforts by the Sackler family to seek personal protection from liability. It is a shield typically granted to companies seeking bankruptcy restructuring, as Purdue is, but rarely extended to owners who do not file for personal bankruptcy. Eight states and the District of Columbia refused to sign on to an earlier proposal because of the Sackler liability shields.
The mediator, Judge Shelley Chapman, a federal bankruptcy judge, said in her report that a "supermajority" of those states had now agreed to the new offer. But holdouts remain and the deal is not yet done.
Read more of this story at SoylentNews.