McKinsey to pay $650m to settle US opioid consulting probe
Al Jazeera
Prosecutors say McKinsey provided Purdue advice on measures it could take to ‘turbocharge’ OxyContin sales.
Consulting firm McKinsey & Company has agreed to pay $650m to resolve a United States Department of Justice investigation into the consulting firm’s work advising opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma on how to boost OxyContin sales.
McKinsey has entered into a five-year deferred prosecution agreement filed on Friday in federal court in Abingdon, Virginia, to resolve criminal charges brought as part of a rare corporate prosecution concerning the marketing of addictive painkillers that helped fuel the deadly US opioid epidemic.
Prosecutors said McKinsey provided Stamford, Connecticut-based Purdue advice on measures it could take to “turbocharge” OxyContin sales. It was charged with conspiring to misbrand a drug and obstruction of justice.
A former senior partner at McKinsey, Martin Elling, has also agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice for destroying records related to McKinsey’s work for Purdue, according to court papers. He is scheduled to enter his plea on January 10.
Elling deleted documents related to his work for Purdue from his company laptop, sending himself emails to remind himself to do so, according to court papers.
