New York Uncovers $1 Billion in Sackler Family Wire Transfers

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: New York Times



The New York attorney general’s office said Friday that it had tracked about $1 billion in wire transfers by the Sackler family, including through Swiss bank accounts, suggesting that the family tried to shield wealth as it faced a raft of litigation over its role in the opioid crisis.

Earlier this week, thousands of municipal governments and nearly two dozen states tentatively reached a settlement with the Sackler family and the company it owns, Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin. But the attorneys general of a majority of states, including New York and Massachusetts, are balking at the proposed deal, contending that the Sackler family has siphoned off company profits that should be used to pay for the billions of dollars in damage caused by opioids.

The wire transfers are part of a lawsuit against Purdue and individual Sacklers in New York. Letitia James, now the state’s attorney general, had issued subpoenas last month to 33 financial institutions and investment advisers with ties to the Sacklers in an effort to trace the full measure of the family’s wealth. “While the Sacklers continue to lowball victims and skirt a responsible settlement, we refuse to allow the family to misuse the courts in an effort to shield their financial misconduct,” Ms. James said in a statement. “Records from one financial institution alone have shown approximately $1 billion in wire transfers between the Sacklers, entities they control, and different financial institutions, including those that have funneled funds into Swiss bank accounts,” she added.


Forbes has estimated that the family fortune is worth $13 billion, a figure the family has not disputed, but many state attorneys general believe that the family has far more hidden away, as a safeguard against the cascade of litigation.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/13/health/sacklers-purdue-opioids.html

[TeamPooka]

1. The French Revolution had the right idea for rich pricks like them. nt

[mitch96]

4. Madam La Guillotine!!! Off with your head!

?itemid=12604431

[paleotn]

14. Seems that's the only thing that gets their attention...

Even when paying half of the poor to kill the other half stops working.

[RainCaster]

2. The Sackler family needs to be as broke and homeless as their customers

Take all their money and more. Put the fuckers in prison, and let them out after our nation has recovered from their drug pushing.

Two or three generations should do it.

[Mosby]

11. Their customers were doctors, the folks who wrote the scripts.

Lots of doctors should be in jail.

[Sherman A1]

21. That is likely

Being charitable. They need to clean up the mess they made using every dime of their assets.

[NBachers]

3. Harvesting peoples' lives, and putting them in their own pockets.

[OMGWTF]

5. Lying, Theiving, Murderous Sacklers of Sh!t

[Delmette2.0]

6. 13 Billion or more!

Good gawd, when is it enough money? Their future generations would likely just fuck themselves up with so much money.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. The "Swiss bank account" mention caught my attention

because 10 years ago, there was an announcement by the IRS that they would seek a list of 4000+ Americans who held money in "secret" Swiss bank accounts (through UBS) to evade taxes. At some point well after that, I remember seeing articles indicating that the list had been compiled and a spreadsheet with the names had been published. In retrospect, I am wondering if they had been on it or whether they paid top dollar to keep their money "hidden" (e.g., through some of the smaller banks) -

Names Deal Cracks Swiss Bank Secrecy

By LYNNLEY BROWNING AUG. 19, 2009

n the latest setback to Switzerland’s tradition of banking secrecy, UBS, one of the nation’s largest banks, agreed on Wednesday to turn over information on more than 4,400 American clients suspected by the Internal Revenue Service of using Swiss accounts for tax evasion. The agreement is likely to unnerve American customers of UBS who do not know if their names will be divulged, and could deter others from opening Swiss accounts in the future.

Whether the deal will change the Swiss banking industry’s culture of secrecy remains to be seen. Smaller Swiss banks say they are confident that they can blunt its effects and continue to profit by finding new, more elaborate ways to protect the privacy of clients. But American authorities have made clear that their pursuit of tax evaders will not stop at UBS.

The 4,450 accounts at UBS that are covered under the new agreement held over $18 billion at one point, according to the I.R.S. commissioner, Douglas Shulman, who called the deal “a major step forward in piercing the veil of bank secrecy.”

UBS will give the names to the Swiss tax authority, which will forward them to the I.R.S. Under a new tax treaty with Switzerland, it could take more than a year for most of the names to be disclosed. In coming weeks the bank will start to notify clients, who can appeal the disclosure in Swiss courts. It is not clear how UBS will decide which clients to unmask, though American officials have said that they are interested only in the biggest accounts — some containing hundreds of millions of dollars — and accounts that made use of offshore entities and sham corporations.

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/20/business/global/20ubs.html

[Delmette2.0]

12. I hope the Attorney's General have checked the Panama Papers.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Me too

They got a lot of work ahead of them!

[AllaN01Bear]

22. hihowdi, was just thinking that and you beat me to it.:)

[CanonRay]

7. Prison is too good for these monsters

[Mosby]

10. How many prescriptions did they write?

[PhoenixDem]

8. Freeze their assets

Let's use that money for the victims

[moonseller66]

13. Golly Gee, Beav, this must be very painfull for the Sacklers...

maybe they should all be put on a 1 to 5 year, daily dose of the opioids they sold to help ease their pain?

[RobinA]

16. I'm Missing Something

Is this not their money? Seems to me they’re can bury it in the backyard if they want. This is a very dangerous direction we’re headed.

[Bradical79]

18. What's so dangerous?

You're not making sense. Investigating if someone is hiding company profits overseas to protect their vast wealth from litigation (and avoid taxes) is not dangerous.

[Eugene]

19. They are defendants in a lawsuit in which they may be (and should be) personally liable.

They are hiding assets that may be taken to pay out damage claims.

No, that money is not necessarily theirs.

P.S. Two more points:

1. They may have siphoned that $1b out of the company. The AP is reporting this.

2. In a bankruptcy, principals' assets may up for grabs. The Sacklers are trying to cut their losses at $12b, the supposed value of Perdue Pharma if they aren't cooking the books.

[ck4829]

25. They can also burn it if they want... but they're not doing that

We're already in the dangerous direction with the Sackler family period.

[FakeNoose]

17. They've been hiding away their wealth since 2007 when the first lawsuits hit

How much dough do you think they've hidden in the last 12 years? I don't know but I'm sure it's way more than the profits they show on their Purdue Pharmaceuticals profit-and-loss statements. The US government has literally no idea how much money the Sacklers have hidden.

Subpoena their lawyers and accountants, see if anybody talks.

[Aussie105]

20. Isn't that what you do?

If the ship is going down, you pack all your valuables and head for the life rafts.

I imagine in 1 or 2 years time, they will be in Europe somewhere, living off their backup Swiss bank funds, while the OxyContin dead remain dead and those going through painful withdrawal will still be in pain.

Bankrupting the company doesn't seem to fit the crime. Also, doctors who acted like the local Candyman need pursuing too. Then there is the doctor shopping possibility, get multiple scrips, sell on the black market, and profit.

[pwb]

23. I love New York.

.

[ck4829]

24. K&R