Dep. Atty. Gen. Rosen good morning. I am jeff rosen, and i am pleased to be joined today by vermonts u. S. Attorney, christina nolan, new jerseys First Assistant u. S. Attorney, dep. Atty. Gen. Rosen ok, good morning. I am jeff rosen, and i am pleased to be joined today by vermonts u. S. Attorney, christina nolan, new jerseys First Assistant u. S. Attorney, rachael honig, our acting assistant attorney general for the Civil Division, jeff clark, and the eastern texas u. S. Attorney, steve cox. This morning, subject to court approval, the department of justice is announcing a global resolution of our criminal and civil investigations into the opioid manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, as well as a civil resolution with members of the Sackler Family, who comprise the shareholders of the company. H members of the Sackler Family, who comprise the shareholders of the company. Before we address the specific terms, i want to provide some context of how todays announcement fits into dojs wider efforts to address the opioids crisis. The doj obviously has many longstanding and ongoing Drug Enforcement activities. But during this administration, we have augmented those with a series of new initiatives, targeted at both illicit opioids, like heroin or synthetic fentanyl and we have targeted abuse of prescription opioids as well. These are shown on the chart we have today, where we show jcode and operation sos, on the illicit side of things, and we show the pil task force, arpo, ofadu, and the Health Care Fraud strike forces, all on the prescription side. By all of these efforts, we have targeted unlawful activity involving opioids at every level of the supply chains. Its very different supply chains on the elicit side and on the prescription side. On the prescription side, this means unlawful actions by manufacturers, distributors, pharmacy dispensers, or physician prescribers, for example. So todays announcement involves one of the most important participants in the supply chain of prescription opioids at the manufacturer level. And a resolution which, if approved by the court, will redress past wrongs and will also provide extraordinary new resources for treatment and care of those affected by opioids addiction. The global settlement announced today involves the company pleading guilty to three felony counts for defrauding the United States and violating the antikickback statute from 2009 to 2017. In addition to the company having agreed to plead guilty to these three felony counts, the company has agreed to a 3. 544 billion criminal fine and a 2 billion criminal forfeiture amount. Further, to resolve its civil liability, Purdue Pharma has agreed to 2. 8 billion in damages to the United States. The company is in bankruptcy, so the corporate resolution is subject to the Bankruptcy Courts approval. If it is approved this will be a , corporate settlement in total of more than 8. 3 billion. Additionally, members of the Sackler Family have agreed to pay 225 million in a civil settlement that will provide civil releases only. It is important to note that this resolution does not prohibit future criminal or Civil Penalties against Purdue Pharmas executives or employees. Now, this resolution must be understood against two larger contexts. First, the companys bankruptcy, and, second, as ive referenced, the departments overarching work addressing the opioids crisis. Take the first one first, the bankruptcy. The companys bankruptcy in the Southern District of new york involves many creditors. From some private creditors to federal, state, and local creditors. In general, the creditors are aiming to ensure that nearly all of the proceeds of the bankruptcy go to Opioid Abatement programs, and the department of justice supports that goal. Towards the end, a key piece of todays resolution is based on the future of the company that was Purdue Pharma. The agreed resolution, if approved by the court will , require that the company be dissolved and no longer exist in its present form. It would require that the sacklers must relinquish all ownership and control of the company and its successors, and be companys assets would transferred to a new Public Benefit company or pbc owned by a trust for the benefit the american public. The pbc would be charged with providing its medicines in a manner as safe as possible, without diversions, while providing millions of doses of medicines to treat opioids addiction and reverse overdoses and otherwise taking into account longterm Public Health interests. And, to be clear, the Sackler Family will have no role in creating or controlling the pbc. If the Bankruptcy Court approves this, the department will credit the company for the value conferred through the pbc against the criminal forfeiture amount except for 225 million that will be paid to the United States on the bankruptcy effective date. The criminal fines and civil damages would not be affected by this. This global resolution builds on the departments other recent opioid successes. Just as the department prosecutes illicit drug traffickers, the department is committed to doing the same with respect to the abuse and diversion of prescription opioids. We have prosecuted medical professionals and Overdose Deaths run pill mills, or defrauded the federal Governments Health care programs. We have also prosecuted opioid distributors like mckesson, miamiluken, and Rochester Drug cooperative. We reached substantial settlement resolutions with other manufacturers, such as rb group and indivior, as well as insys. These are all examples of the departments unwavering commitment to turn the tide of the Opioid Crisis ravaging this country. Todays announcement focuses on the problems from wrongful activities in the prescription opioids realm, so let me note that our efforts there appear to be making a difference. The cdc reports that since 2017, prescription opioid Overdose Deaths have decreased by more than 18 in the first two years. And there has been a 47 decline in prescription opioids being dispensed. But we will continue all of our efforts, including building on the record of more than opioids 8000 prosecutions in 2019. Not only through enforcement. For example, the Departments Office of Justice Programs awarded grants totaling more than 341 million to help fight the addiction crisis looming over the United States. Let me also say todays announcement is very much a Success Story in the close coordination between the u. S. Attorneys office in new jersey, the u. S. Attorneys office in vermont, the Civil Divisions Consumer Protection branch and its civil frauds section, and i also want to thank the important contributions of Law Enforcement, including the fbi, dea and the health and Human Services office of the inspector general, all of whom would normally be with us but because of the pandemic weve limited , the number of people on the stage today. I want to thank this entire team for their relentless work in bringing about this investigation and bringing it to a successful resolution. Todays announcement is particularly timely given that october is National Substance abuse prevention month, and a few days from now on is deas october 24 National Prescription drug take back day, which allows for a safe, convenient, and responsible means for disposing of unneeded prescription drugs that are sitting in medicine cabinets at homes. Keeping the American People safe is the department of justices highest priority. As todays announcement reaffirms, the department will not relent in our efforts to combat the opioids problem. At this point, my colleagues will tell you more about these cases and about the specific terms of the global resolution. Colleague,t with my u. S. Attorney from vermont, christina nolan. Good morning, everyone. Want to begin by thanking my colleagues at maine justice. As well as everyone on the civil team that was involved in this case led by assistant attorney jeffrey clark. I want to thank First Assistant u. S. Attorney rachel hoehn a of the u. S. Attorneys office in new jersey and her team. So many of them are here today. I want to thank you, deputy general. I want to thank everybody involved in this case for their partnership, support and leadership. Urdue will resolve its liability with a kickback it paid to practice fusion, which is an Electronic Medical records vendor. My Office Conducted the investigation into purdues liability and to the kickback statute. Pleaes expected guilty will mark the first of its kind in the history of our country, a milestone to combat correction in the Health Industry and the Opioid Crisis in america. Purdue negotiated with practice fusion to create a series of alerts designed to influence doctors to prescribe more of purdues very addictive opioids. Many of those ensuing prescriptions were paid for by federal Health Care Programs. The Fusion Software accomplished the goal of increasing prescriptions through Software Problems that influenced doctors to focus more on pain and suggested they select er owes as treatment when it was not medically necessary or appropriate to do so. Purdueember in 2015, agreed to pay practice fusion nearly 1 million in exchange for embedding alerts in the software for one year. Purdue recognize the power of the alerts to influence prescribing decisions. Document in 2016, purdue described the emr alerts as a marketing tactic that would eroe ero demand and grow prescriptions. Purdues marketing employees helped design the alerts. A thumb on the scale. At precisely the moment doctors were making critical decisions about patient health. The purdue financed emr alerts triggered in exam rooms across the country from july 2016 through april 2019. They were discontinued only when my Office Discovered the crime and raised concerns with practice fusion. Unfortunately, that was not until after the alerts fired more than 230 million times. Scheme putl dangers profits over people by seeking to increase scripts for addictive er owes even when they were not medically appropriate and at the height of the u. S. Opioid crisis. A time when in vermont where i am from and across the country, people were suffering under opioid prescriptions that sometimes ended in death and so many of those addition stories began with oxycontin. It is wrong and we hope perdues guilty plea will send a message that the department of justice will not allow big pharma and big tech to engage in illegal. Ontact illegal conduct i want to recognize those who did the groundbreaking work in the vermont investigation. The u. S. Attorneys office in vermont is small. We are a small state, but we punch above our weight. Teamt to thank the vermont. Two of the finest assistant u. S. Attorneys in the country. I would also like to thank our talented Health Care Fraud investigator. Lastly, thanks to our outstanding federal Law Enforcement partners, the fbi and health and Human Services officer of the inspector general. They did tremendous work on behalf of the public and i am thankful for their partnership. Thank you. Good morning. Honig. Is rachel my office and the Consumer Protection branch of the Civil Division of the department of justice led the criminal investigation into purdue for its conduct into selling opioids to providers who had good reason to believe were diverting them to abusers. My office worked jointly on the civil investigation. Our criminal investigation in this case revealed that purdue placed profits over Public Safety in three major respects. First, purdue marketed and sold addictive and dangerous opioids including oxycontin to Health Care Providers that it had good reason to believe were diverting them. It made misrepresentations to the dea about the effectiveness of its program to detect and prevent such diversion. These, purdue passed off so the dea as legitimate to attain a higher quota from the dea. Finally, purdue used its Speaker Program to pay kickbacks to providers to incentivize them to prescribe even more of purdues products. And it pleads guiltys to pleads guilty to and is sentenced for its conduct, purdue will accept responsibility for this behavior. This resolution does not provide anybody with a path on the criminal side. Purdue is pleading guilty to three felonies and faces a substantial forfeiture. Judgment this resolution does not provide a criminal release or not to prosecute any individual. Our criminal investigation to prosecute individuals is ongoing. I want to express my offices gratitude for the ordinary cooperation in this case among several different components from the department of justice and or agency partners. My office has been working thisinhand in a thi case. We are very thankful for their partnership and their director. Team, theney nolans m have beenions Team Tremendous partners throughout this process. U. S. Attorney steve coxs leadership and guidance was invaluable. As u. S. Cy partners attorney nolan mentioned have been with us every step of the way. That includes fbi, hhs, and the dea. We expect they will continue to do so as the investigation continues. I thank them for their partnership and support. I want to recognize my own team who work incredibly hard to bring this resolution to this stage. On the criminal side, that includes deputy chief of Criminal Division nicholas grupo, an assistant and on the civil side, it includes the Health Care Fraud chief and assistant u. S. Attorneys. This was a huge team effort across the board. I want to thank everyone and congratulate them for their hard work. Thanks very much. Good morning. I am jeff clark. I am head of the Civil Division. I wanted to start out by thanking the Deputy Attorney general for his leadership and my u. S. Attorney counterparts and partners for a tremendous team effort. Begin that i want to echoing the Deputy Attorney generals thanks for that you met us work that went into this case. Majors a, schmidt is a oil stone to combat the Opioid Crisis by Holding Accountable those who feel it. The Opioid Epidemic is exacerbated when companies and individuals put profit above the wellbeing of patients. The Civil Division remains committed to using all of the tools at its disposal to investigate and prosecute such crimes. We have both Civil Authority and criminal authority in our division. These tools include not only pursuing the type of criminal violations discussed by the Deputy Attorney general and my colleagues from the u. S. Attorneys offices but also civil remedies, which is what i am here to focus on including under the false claims act designed to protect wondered programs protect taxpayer programs from fraud and abuse. The company violated the false claims act of engaging in Marketing Campaign that caused providers to prescribe opioids from medically unnecessary uses paid for by the federal Health Care Programs and system. This civil resolution be announced today provides the United States with a general unsecured bankruptcy claim in the amount of 2. 8 billion as part of the 8. 3 billion resolution announced today. Noted, the department has reached a 225 million settlement with the Sackler Family which owns purdue to resolve their role. Todays resolution should serve as a reminder to the pharmaceutical industry the department is very serious about its commitment to combating health care prod Health Care Fraud, particularly as it relates to the abuse of opioids. The department will continue to work closely with its federal, state and local partners to safeguard the integrity of government Health Care Programs and to combat the ongoing Opioid Crisis. I want to thank all of the public servants, attorneys and investigators and support staff from the commercial Litigation Branch and Consumer Protection french protection branch. Federal bureau of investigation, the department of health and human are services, personnel of management on these matters to achieve these tremendous results. I would like to give a special shout out to the efforts of my two deputies. Thank you. Ok. At this juncture, what we do is open it up for questions. Will call on folks as needed, but i will try to mediate. Whenever the questions are ready. We will know big and the questionandanswer session. Task a question, you may ask star then one on your touchstone phone touch tone phone. To withdraw your question, please press star, then two. We asked you limit yourself to one question. We will pause momentarily to assemble the roster. Our first question today will come from susanna with politico. Please go ahead. A twopart question. The first was timing wise, when did doj start this probe into peru into purdue . Could describe the timing of that. You have any response . I know last week, 25 state attorneys general rejected the idea of a Public Benefit company with some criticism of taxpayers being a part of that. Could you address those criticisms . There are two parts. Public benefit company in just a second. In terms of when the investigation started, it has been going on for several years. Do you want to take that one . Come on up. For the vermont investigation, it began in august of 2018. The unlawful alerts that were the result of the kickback were removed in the spring of 2019. We had an agreement in principle with practice fusion by august of 2019 with the announcement of that settlement in january of 2020. Thank you. The new jersey and Consumer Protection side, our criminal investigation as well as a civil investigation we conducted jointly has been ongoing for several years fitting back to at least 2070. Dating back to at least 2017. With regards to the investigation, it has gone on for several years and started coming to a conclusion this year. There was a process in the Bankruptcy Court process where the Bankruptcy Court had set a proof for claims in july and then the first of august. That have a Significant Impact on some of the timing of the negotiation process. On the other half of the there is some differences in opinion among state attorney generals as i understand it. Some who are very supportive and others who are not. I think our judgment was that to have the resources of the company be put towards the abatement and treatment of opioids and towards the development of new treatments, medically assisted treatments and of pharmaceuticals that could help reverse the effects of overdoses was a very desirable outcome. That this was a was aleutian that would divest the existing shareholders, which are Sackler Family members of any holdings or involvement and ensure these resources would be put to positive uses if approved by the court would be a positive development. Thiss also our judgment on that while prescription opioids can be abused, diverted, misused in very harmful ways, it is a prescription pharmaceutical that does have some positive uses and that maintaining the supply of those is itself something that could be beneficial. We have entered into this global resolution supportive of the concept of the pbc. That will ultimately be up to the court in the seven district of new york to assess. Next question. Our next question will come from luke with abc news. Please go ahead. Hi, mr. Deputy attorney general. I appreciate you taking the question today. I have a question about the criminal aspect of it. 2016 of family in 13 billion. You have a fine of 225 million 225 billion. If there were charges against the Sackler Family, will you seek more money in fines as well as any criminal remedy . Theet me say first i think resolution that was achieved on the civil side with the shareholders and the global resolution with the company are very favorable not just for the United States but for other creditors including the state governments and other local governments and entities that are involved. Part of the thing to keep in mind as i alluded to in the bankruptcy context, there are a of other participants and one of the things we wanted to do was ensure that with regard to some of these other claims, resources would be made available for treatment abatement kinds of efforts. I think it is important to keep in mind there are other participants also negotiating with both the company and the shareholders here so that the ultimate resolution in bankruptcy will not be the United States claims we have outlined here and the additional resources. We are generally supportive of resources being applied to opioids resolution or treatments in abatement. Treatments and abatement. I do not want to get into hypotheticals as to what could happen next with regard to the unit it states. I went to stay with to the United States. I want to stay with the fact that we see this resolution is a positive development for americans generally and for creditors in the bankruptcy widely including the United States but not only the United States. Next question. Our next question will come from the financial times. Please go ahead. Thank you for taking my call. This is a question for Deputy Attorney general rosen. Family profited. They took 10 billion out of the company over the decade until 2018. You are requiring them to pay 225 million. That is a little over 2 of the 10 billion they took out. Why have you let them keep all that money . That is not the right it to look at those because is Purdue Pharma the company that was charged both criminally and civilly here and the shareholders are a part of the resolution. I think it is wrong to say anybody was quote, allowed to keep things. The resolution here is very significant. It involves for the Company Three felony guilty pleas. For both the company and the shareholders, it involves very sizable amounts of money. That important to remember the issues involved are the abuse, misuse diversion of opioids. But there are legitimate uses of opioids. We have to separate the misconduct from what i will call ordinary business. The resolution that is achieved here today is very substantial, very significant. With regard to the shareholders and the sackler shareholders is what i am referencing, in terms of what they quote, got to keep, they lost control and ownership of a company that was worth very significant amount of money. They will have no future involvement with that company if the Bankruptcy Court approves this resolution. Instead of being the owners of a major pharmaceutical company, they will have no stake in that company. Instead, it will be a Public Benefits company with no dissipation or involvement by them. Mayink some of the premises be an erroneous way to look at it because both the company and the shareholders are paying a very steep price for what occurred here. Question will come from jeff with bloomberg news. I wanted to ask deputy ag rosen while you guys decided not to pursue criminal charges against any members of the settlement isvil just that, a spittle a civil settlement. This was a criminal investigation. Did you guys not decide to proceed with prosecution of some of the members of the Sackler Family who are involved deeply in the operations of the company . Im going to stick to the terms of the revolution the resolution, which are civil and do not include releases of any other kinds of liability and say that the resolution we have reached is the resolution we have disclosed today. It is neither predictive of or preclusive of other or future resolutions of things that were not covered today. I thought that i would just amplify on the civil side that as the Deputy Attorney general said, the penalty for the sacklers in conjunction with this conduct that is alleged is steep. We are talking about running an illegal marketing scheme and in light of that, a scheme that was called in evolved excellent, it had that fancy name for it. It was chicanery nonetheless. This is a substantial penalty for that conduct. The attorney general has made the points about the fact that this is not something that is preclusive of other potential remedies. We in all cases proceed on the basis of the facts as the investigation reveals in the proper application of the law. That is the basis for how we proceed. Our next question will come from hannah with the financial times. Thanks for taking the question. I just wanted to follow up on the 10 billion the Sackler Family has tried to take out of this company. I wanted to know, did you ever try to pursue that money . Im going to go back to what twove said before because things. In the bankruptcy proceeding, there are multiple creditors in addition to the United States and or other negotiations that preceded in the district of ohio. In terms of the resources of either the company or the shareholders of the company, there are multiple different types of claims going on and they are all part of the larger negotiation. ,he other thing i would say really building off the prior question and answer, is the way to dealworks is we have with specific acts of wrongdoing that we have investigated and determined what the exposure and liability is for that. There is no law that says if you have done something wrong, we should simply strip somebody of all of their assets in existence. That is not how it works. It has to be that we are looking at specific acts of wrongdoing and then having a proportionate response to what the world of those acts is. Context those that we reached the resolutions we have. By any measure, a resolution of the company that involves criminal and civil resolutions in excess of 8 billion, that involves the felony guilty pleas, that involves financial contributions from the shareholders on the civil side and that involves divesting the shareholders of any ownership or future involvement with the company that they had owned for many years, those are extremely significant and serious measures, but they are part of this resolution as proposed to the court. Next question. At this time, i am seeing no further questions. Then we will thank everybody. I understand that some of our folks will be available for additional background to the extent that is helpful. Thanks very much. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the formal press conference. We remind participants testy to please stay in the lane for the backgrounder. If you would like to enter the queue, we ask you press star, then one. If you would like to remove yourself, you can press star then two. Cspans washington journal. Every day, we are taking your calls live on the air on the news of the day and we will discuss policy issues that impact you. Scott up this morning, hodge on the president ial candidates [indiscernible] then senator bob casey examines the Upcoming Senate vote on judge Amy Coney Barretts confirmation to the supreme court. Live washington journal at 7 00 eastern this morning. And be sure to watch washington journal saturday morning as we host the two leading thirdParty Candidates for president , the Green Party Candidate howie hawkins, than the libertarian Party Candidate jo jordgensen at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Cspan, yourtching unfiltered view of government. Created by americas Cable Television companies has a Public Service and brought to you by your television provider. Health and Human Services secretary alex azar, and centers for Disease Control and prevention director dr. 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