U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan

WASHINGTON – Monday, U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) joined her colleagues in urging the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to reject Purdue Pharma’s recent motion requesting $34.7 million in employee bonuses, including $5.4 million for its top executives, as part of Purdue’s Chapter 11 reorganization plan.

In a letter to Judge Robert D. Drain, the Senators pointed out that under the proposed plan, approximately 500 eligible Purdue employees could receive a bonus of up to $67,000, while, “Purdue’s proposed bankruptcy reorganization plan will cap payouts to individual claimants at $48,000, but only in cases where an individual was prescribed OxyContin and died as a direct result. Most victims and their families will receive far less.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there were nearly 500,000 deaths between 1999 and 2019, and 93,000 deaths in 2020 alone involving opioid and prescription overdoses, of which Purdue greatly contributed to. Even with the company having pled guilty to multiple federal crimes and facing thousands of lawsuits, the company has continued to handsomely reward its top executives.

“It would be contrary to public policy and public health – and a miscarriage of justice – to provide those running an alleged ‘criminal enterprise’ with upwards of $35 million in bonuses, including $5.4 million for top executives,” the Senators wrote. “As such, we request the funds currently proposed for executive and employee incentive and retention plans instead be made available to victims, their families, and communities.”

Hassan is leading efforts to hold Purdue Pharma and its owners, the Sackler family, accountable as the company goes through federal bankruptcy. Senator Hassan previously joined the same group of Senators in urging the same judge, Judge Drain, to reject Purdue Pharma’s proposal to pay President and CEO Craig Landau a bonus of up to $3.5 million. Additionally, Senator Hassan and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) sent a letter to the Department of Justice last year highlighting the Department of Justice’s past failure to proceed with serious criminal charges laid out in a 2006 memo by federal prosecutors and expressed their concern that “the Department will once again let connected lawyers obtain a settlement that does not adequately address the harms caused by the company.” Senators Hassan and Whitehouse also have repeatedly asked the Department for the 2006 prosecution memo and related information about the choice not to proceed with stronger action against Purdue and the Sacklers, which the Senators have still not received.