The McKinsey & Company logo is on display at the 54th Paris International Air Show held at Le Bourget Airport near Paris, France on June 21, 2023.
Benoît Tessier | Reuters
McKinsey & Company The company has agreed to pay $650 million in a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve a federal criminal investigation into its consulting work that advised Purdue Pharma on how to increase sales of the opioid painkiller OxyContin, the company said Friday. This was revealed in a court filing.
Martin Elling, a former top partner at McKinsey & Co., also agreed to plead guilty next month to obstruction of justice charges in an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice, according to filings in U.S. District Court in Abingdon, Virginia.
The criminal complaint, which McKinsey agreed to file with prosecutors, alleges that the consulting giant “knowingly and intentionally” colluded with Purdue Pharma and others to “aid and abet the mislabeling of prescription drugs.”
The document also said McKinsey, through the actions of its then-partner Elling, is accused of “deliberately destroying and concealing records and documents” to obstruct the Justice Department’s investigation. .
According to the deferred prosecution agreement, McKinsey has agreed to pay nearly $1 billion to settle lawsuits brought by state, local and other parties related to its opioid consulting, admitting responsibility for conduct alleged by federal prosecutors.
As part of this agreement, McKinsey will not engage in any marketing, sale, promotion, or distribution of controlled substances.
McKinsey said in a statement to CNBC that it “deeply regrets the actions of our former partner in deleting documents related to our past client service to Purdue Pharma and our work for that client.”
“We should have recognized the harm that opioids are causing our society and should not have taken over Purdue Pharma’s sales and marketing operations,” the company said. “Our past efforts against this horrific public health crisis and opioid manufacturers have always been a source of deep regret for us, and we have reached out to McKinsey for comment.”
In addition to reaching a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice, the company announced that it had “agreed to resolve a related civil False Claims Act investigation and enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.” . ”
