The Sacklers: $7.4 Billion Settlement, Guilty Plea, and Purdue’s End

The Sacklers are the family that owned Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, and directed the marketing campaign widely blamed for igniting the U.S. opioid crisis. No individual member of the family has ever been charged with a crime.¹ On May 1, 2026, a $7.4 billion settlement between the Sacklers, Purdue Pharma, and all 50 states became legally effective, sending money to addiction treatment and recovery programs and ending Purdue as an operating company.²

How the Family Came to Own Purdue

Brothers Arthur, Mortimer, and Raymond Sackler bought Purdue Frederick, a small patent-medicine company in Greenwich Village, in 1952.³ Arthur died in 1987, and his heirs sold his stake to Mortimer and Raymond for more than $22 million. The company was renamed Purdue Pharma in 1991 and turned toward opioid-based pain relievers. Raymond ran the company until 1999, when his son Richard took over.⁴

At its peak, eight family members held Purdue board seats, including Richard, Kathe (a Mortimer daughter who was also a vice president), Jonathan and Beverly (Raymond’s son and widow), and David (Raymond’s grandson). As lawsuits mounted, every family member had left the board by the start of 2019.⁵

OxyContin and What the Company Told Doctors

The FDA approved OxyContin, a controlled-release oxycodone tablet, in December 1995. The agency accepted Purdue’s argument that the slow-release formula would carry less abuse potential because it would not produce an immediate rush.⁶ The original label stated that addiction from legitimate medical use was “very rare.”⁷ Approval rested on a single two-week clinical trial in osteoarthritis patients, and the indication the FDA granted was broad enough that Purdue could pitch the drug for common complaints like low-back pain and fibromyalgia.⁸

Purdue trained its sales representatives to tell doctors the risk of addiction was “less than one percent,” citing studies that did not actually measure the risk of long-term daily use. Reps used data profiles to find the highest-prescribing doctors in the country, including the least discriminating among them. The bonus structure was extraordinary. In 2001 alone, Purdue paid $40 million in sales incentive bonuses; individual bonuses averaged $71,500 and reached nearly $240,000, against base salaries of about $55,000.⁷

The company also promoted “pseudoaddiction,” the claim that behaviors typical of addiction, like doctor-shopping or seeking higher doses, actually meant a patient’s pain was undertreated and required more opioids.⁹ Between 1996 and 2001, Purdue hosted more than 40 all-expenses-paid symposia for over 5,000 physicians, pharmacists, and nurses.⁷ According to the House Oversight Committee, OxyContin generated more than $35 billion in revenue after its launch.¹⁰

What the Emails Showed

Internal messages produced in litigation put family members close to the sales strategy. In a 1996 email, Richard Sackler wrote that OxyContin “has outperformed our expectations, market research and fondest dreams.” Three years later he told an executive, “You won’t believe how committed I am to make OxyContin a huge success. It is almost that I dedicated my life to it.”¹¹

In a May 1997 email, Purdue’s head of sales and marketing, Michael Friedman, told Sackler that doctors falsely believed OxyContin was weaker than morphine and that correcting this misconception would be “extremely dangerous at this early stage in the life of the product” because it was boosting prescriptions. Sackler replied, “I agree with you.”¹¹ In 2009, Richard emailed the board that reversing a sales decline and hitting 5% growth would be worth about $243 million, and noted the margin on incremental sales was roughly 80%.¹²

In 2013, Richard, David, Mortimer D.A., Kathe, and Jonathan Sackler all took part in approving a McKinsey-developed program called “Evolve to Excellence,” which targeted high-volume prescribers already writing 25 times as many OxyContin prescriptions as their peers.¹³

Why the Company Pleaded Guilty but No Sackler Did

Purdue itself has now pleaded guilty twice. On May 10, 2007, Purdue Frederick and three executives pleaded guilty to misbranding OxyContin as less addictive and less prone to abuse than other opioids; the company paid $634 million in fines.⁷ On November 24, 2020, Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty in federal court to three felonies: conspiracy to defraud the United States and violate the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, plus two counts of conspiring to violate the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. The company admitted that from 2007 to 2017 it had misled the DEA while marketing opioids to more than 100 healthcare providers it knew were likely diverting them, and that it had paid doctors through a speaker program to boost prescribing.¹⁴

Total penalties in 2020 came to roughly $8.3 billion: a $3.544 billion criminal fine, $2 billion in criminal forfeiture, and a $2.8 billion civil settlement. Because Purdue was already in bankruptcy, the full amount was unlikely to be collected.¹⁵ Sackler family members agreed separately to pay $225 million to resolve federal civil False Claims Act liability. The resolution expressly did not include any criminal release for individual family members.¹³

Even so, no individual has been indicted. Family members say they did nothing wrong.¹ The 2020 DOJ deal reserved the right to bring individual criminal charges, but as of 2026 none has been filed.¹³ In February 2022, a group of Senate Democrats led by Richard Blumenthal urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to open a personal criminal investigation, arguing that punishing the company while sparing its owners amounted to “dissimilar treatment for similar—or even the same—unlawful conduct.” The Sacklers have maintained that they and the company were “blameless” because the FDA approved OxyContin.¹⁶

On December 17, 2020, David and Kathe Sackler testified under oath before the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Kathe told the committee she was “so terribly sorry” for the pain of affected families, but said she could find nothing she would have done differently. David expressed “deep sadness” but said OxyContin “has helped, and continues to help, millions of Americans.”¹⁷ Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney presented evidence suggesting the family had drained billions from Purdue after the 2007 settlement to keep the money away from future victims.¹⁰

The $7.4 Billion Settlement

Purdue filed for bankruptcy in 2019. The first reorganization plan would have paid roughly $4.3 billion from the Sacklers in exchange for a permanent injunction shielding them from all opioid-related civil suits, even though no family member had filed for personal bankruptcy. Critics noted the Sacklers had already withdrawn about $11 billion from Purdue, more than 75% of its assets.¹⁸

On June 27, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court struck the deal down 5-4. In Harrington v. Purdue Pharma, Justice Gorsuch wrote for the majority that federal bankruptcy law does not authorize discharging claims against a nondebtor without the affected claimants’ consent, emphasizing that the Sacklers had not filed for bankruptcy and had not placed substantially all their assets on the table.¹⁹ Justice Kavanaugh, in dissent, called the ruling “wrong on the law and devastating for more than 100,000 opioid victims.”²⁰

The parties went back to the table. Attorneys general reached a settlement in principle in January 2025 worth $7.4 billion, about $1.4 billion more than the rejected agreement.²¹ All 55 eligible attorneys general, covering every state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories, signed on.²² U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane confirmed the plan on November 18, 2025, and it took effect on May 1, 2026.²³

The critical change from the rejected deal: creditors are not forced to give up their right to sue the Sacklers. Anyone who does not opt in to the releases can still take legal action.²⁴ Alongside that, the deal creates a legal fund of up to $800 million to cover the Sacklers’ costs if new opioid suits are filed, meaning those defense costs would come from the fund rather than from family members’ own accounts.²⁵

The Payment Schedule

The Sacklers’ roughly $6.5 billion share is being paid on a frontloaded schedule:²

May 2026: more than $1.5 billion (the initial payment, now made)
May 2027: approximately $500 million
May 2028: approximately $500 million
May 2029: approximately $400 million

Purdue Pharma itself contributed about $900 million at the effective date.² The full amount is delivered over 15 years, with the majority scheduled in the first three.²⁶

Money goes to state and local governments, Native American tribes, and individual victims. About $850 million is set aside for individuals, including children born with opioid withdrawal, with payments starting in 2026 and estimated at roughly $8,000 or $16,000 depending on the length of prescription and number of qualifying claimants.²⁷²²²⁸²⁹ All funds are dedicated to opioid prevention, harm reduction, addiction treatment, and recovery.²⁶

What the Family Keeps

A forensic audit done during the bankruptcy found the Sacklers had withdrawn more than $10.7 billion from Purdue Pharma into family trusts and overseas holding companies, more than eight times what the family took out during the 13 years after OxyContin’s 1995 approval. The transfers accelerated between 2008 and 2017, as legal scrutiny grew.³⁰ A lawyer for one branch of the family said more than half the money had been “paid in taxes and reinvested in businesses.”³¹

In April 2021, the House Oversight Committee put the family’s combined net assets at roughly $11 billion, including more than $2.9 billion in securities and hedge funds, over $1 billion in international drug companies, over $1 billion in real estate, and more than $250 million in art and collectibles.³² By February 2024, Forbes estimated the family’s net worth at $5.2 billion, down from $10.8 billion in 2020.³³ Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the $7.4 billion settlement “would not bring the family financial ruin.” A significant portion of the family’s wealth remains in offshore accounts that could be difficult for plaintiffs to reach.³⁴

Purdue’s End and a New Successor

Purdue Pharma permanently ceased operations on May 1, 2026. Its manufacturing moved to Knoa Pharma LLC, a new company wholly owned by the Knoa Foundation, a 501(c)(4) not-for-profit. Knoa is run by independent boards with no prior Purdue ties, operates under an injunction with an independent monitor, is barred from marketing opioids, and provides overdose reversal medications and opioid use disorder treatments at or below production cost.³⁵ The Sacklers are permanently barred from selling opioids in the United States and have no role in Knoa.²³

As a condition of the settlement, the family and the company must make more than 30 million internal opioid-related documents public. The papers go to the Opioid Industry Documents Archive at the University of California, San Francisco, with monthly releases scheduled through 2027.²⁹³⁶

The Name Comes Down

For decades the Sackler name was tied to arts philanthropy, carved into galleries and wings at some of the world’s biggest cultural institutions. That began to change in 2017, when photographer Nan Goldin, who had struggled with OxyContin addiction, founded the activist group P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now).³⁷ Modeled on ACT UP, the group staged die-ins across the U.S. and Europe, dropping fake prescription bottles into the Guggenheim’s atrium and unfurling a “400,000 Dead” banner at the Met.³⁸

At least 20 institutions have since removed the Sackler name, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Louvre, the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the Serpentine Galleries, the University of Oxford, Tufts University, Yale University, and the Dia Art Foundation. Others, including Columbia University and the American Museum of Natural History, stopped taking Sackler money.³⁹ Under the bankruptcy settlement, the Sacklers have agreed not to have their name placed on institutions in exchange for their contributions.²⁷

1
NPR. Purdue Pharma Sentenced in Criminal Opioid Case While Company Leaders Avoid Charges
2
Pennsylvania Attorney General. Purdue Sackler $7.4 Billion National Opioid Settlement Goes Into Effect
3
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4
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5
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6
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8
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11
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13
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14
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15
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16
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17
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18
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19
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20
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21
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22
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23
New York Attorney General. Attorney General James Secures Approval of Purdue Bankruptcy Plan
24
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25
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26
Massachusetts Attorney General. $7.4 Billion Settlement Goes Into Effect
27
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28
Illinois Attorney General. Attorney General Raoul Helps Secure $7.5 Billion From Purdue Pharma
29
Minnesota Attorney General. Opioid Settlement
30
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31
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32
U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform. Committee Releases Documents Showing Sackler Family Wealth Totals $11 Billion
33
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34
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Knoa Pharma. Knoa Pharma Begins Operations
36
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37
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38
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39
Semafor. 20 Institutions Drop Sackler Name