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Connecticut Expands Purdue Pharma Lawsuit To Include Sackler Family

Opioid Crisis Survivors
Jessica Hill
/
AP
Christine Gagnon of Southington, Conn., protests with other family and friends who have lost loved ones to OxyContin and opioid overdoses at Purdue Pharma LLP headquarters in Stamford last year.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong has expanded his lawsuit against opioid manufacturer Purdue Pharma and the Sackler Family that owns the company.

“Even though Purdue is in Stamford, Connecticut, and many of the individual defendants and members of the Sackler family reside in our area, I think that means that Connecticut and the Office of the Attorney General has a special responsibility to be aggressive and to hold all wrongdoers accountable.”

Tong says members of the Sackler family made an effort to take opioid profits out of Purdue holdings and put them into private trusts and outside companies.

“We’re gonna fight any attempt by Purdue to declare bankruptcy, or to abuse the bankruptcy court or process and use it as a shield to protect them from liability.”

Purdue Pharma is exploring bankruptcy. This comes ahead of potential settlements of thousands of lawsuits the company faces for its alleged role in stoking the opioid epidemic.

The Sackler Family and Purdue “vigorously deny” the allegations that they call attacks.

Cassandra Basler, a former senior editor at WSHU, came to the station by way of Columbia Journalism School in New York City. When she's not reporting on wealth and poverty, she's writing about food and family.