A lawyer for some of the Sacklers, Daniel S. Connolly, said in a statement that the family had used the $10.7 billion appropriately and legally. “This filing reflects the fact that more than half was paid in taxes and reinvested in businesses that will be sold as part of the proposed settlement, ” the statement said.
Mr. Connolly said about 90 percent of the tax distributions did go toward tax payments.
Some tax bills were paid on the Sackler family’s behalf. Purdue directed nearly $2.3 billion to the United States treasury for the Sacklers, and also made payments to a number of states, including nearly $97 million to New Jersey.
The Sacklers have said they will submit a report early next year to the bankruptcy court containing further information about their finances. But unlike this filing, it is expected to be confidential.
The Alix Partners report also offers a rare glimpse into other aspects of the financial relationship between Purdue and the Sackler heirs, who, over the years, have served as the company’s senior executives and board members. In addition to the cash disbursements, it details additional expenses the company covered for family members, including $17 million for their legal fees from 2018 to part of this year, as lawsuits escalated against family members. In that time, one law firm, Debevoise and Plimpton, billed $11.4 million for representing one branch of the family.
By early 2019, by mutual agreement, Purdue stopped paying the Sacklers’ legal bills.
The report shows that Purdue also paid comparatively modest salaries to some of the Sacklers, including several members of younger generations who worked as summer interns for the company.
It also describes how, over the last 18 months, as the Sacklers left Purdue’s board and stopped taking distributions, the new executive team sought to distance the company from the family, as it readied Purdue for restructuring. The executives asked family members to reimburse the company for $313 million in loans and $1 million in expenses, including $477,351 in cellphone bills, which the family did.
Source : Nytimes
