Sackler owners of Purdue propose up to $6 billion in opioid settlements By Dietrich Knauth and Tom Hals -The Sackler family owners of Purdue Pharma LP have proposed a new and larger settlement worth up to $6 billion to resolve allegations that the OxyContin maker and its owners contributed to the deadly U.S. opioid epidemic seeking to reinstate legal protections for the family members. Oral arguments in that appeal are scheduled for April 25. The size of the Sackler contribution was a source of controversy throughout Purdue's bankruptcy case. Sackler family members took out more than $10 billion from the company in the decade before it filed for bankruptcy has been overseeing talks between Sackler family members and eight states and the District of Columbia. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon in December blocked an earlier $4.33 billion proposed settlement that would have legally shielded the family members filed for bankruptcy in 2019 in the face of thousands of lawsuits accusing it and Sackler family members of fueling the opioid epidemic through deceptive marketing. The company pleaded guilty to misbranding and fraud charges related to its marketing of OxyContin in 2007 and 2020. Sackler family members have denied wrongdoing. McMahon ruled in December that the bankruptcy court lacked the authority to approve sweeping legal protections to shield the Sacklers from the opioid lawsuits. Purdue and Sackler family members have appealed McMahon's decision to the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals a decision that threatened to upend Purdue's bankruptcy reorganization. The Sackler family members are trying to win support for a new settlement that could allow Stamford Connecticut-based Purdue to emerge from bankruptcy. The proposed framework would add at least $1.175 billion in cash the mediator revealed the framework under discussion for the first time on Friday. All of the funds would be directed toward abatement of the opioid crisis a mediator's report showed on Friday. The mediator and they had a net worth of $14 billion in 2015 U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Shelley Chapman
