Magnificent work by New York Times reporters, led by three-time Pulitzer Prize winner Walt Boganich, whose 2013 and 2017 page one articles and eight inside pages told the world about the coverup of the September 2, 2010 homicide of Ms. Michelle O'Connell during the maladministration of Sheriff DAVID SHOAR, who legally changed his name from ""HOAR" in 1994. sHOAR is now an investigator for a law firm in which County Commissioner ISAAC HENRY DEAN and the father of the St. Augustine Beach Mayor are "Of Counsel." From the New York Times:
McKinsey Is Under Criminal Investigation for Its Opioid Work
Federal prosecutors are examining the consulting company’s role in helping “turbocharge” the sale of painkillers like OxyContin.
Glenn Thrush, Michael Forsythe and
Glenn Thrush covers the Justice Department for The Times. Michael Forsythe and Walt Bogdanich, authors of “When McKinsey Comes to Town,” have been reporting on the consulting firm for years.
The Justice Department is investigating McKinsey & Company, the international consulting giant, for its role in helping drug companies maximize their sale of opioids.
The investigation is led by the U.S. attorneys’ offices in Massachusetts and the Western District of Virginia in coordination with the department’s civil division in Washington, according to two officials familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Since 2021, McKinsey has agreed to pay about $1 billion to settle investigations and lawsuits across the United States related to the firm’s work with opioid makers, principally Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. McKinsey recommended that Purdue “turbocharge” its sales of the drug in the midst of the opioid crisis, which has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. McKinsey has not admitted any wrongdoing.
News of the criminal investigation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.
The investigation has been underway for several years. Endo, a pharmaceutical company that hired McKinsey to advise on the sale of the opioid Opana, said in a regulatory filing that it received a subpoena in December 2020 from the Western District of Virginia seeking information about McKinsey. The New York Times reported on the existence of that subpoena in 2022. Last year another opioid maker, Mallinckrodt, said it received a grand jury subpoena from the same U.S. attorney’s office but did not mention any connection to McKinsey.
Federal prosecutors are also looking into whether McKinsey obstructed justice in its handling of records, according to The Journal.
By 2018, senior McKinsey consultants were growing increasingly worried that they might be held to account for their opioid work. On July 4 of that year, Martin Elling, a leader in the firm’s pharmaceutical practice, made a decision he would later regret. He sent an email to Arnab Ghatak, a senior partner, asking whether they should eliminate documents and emails connected to opioids.
Mr. Ghatak replied: “Thanks for the heads up. Will do.”
Both men were fired after The Times reported in 2020 about the existence of the emails.
It isn’t unusual for criminal investigations like this to go on for many years, especially ones involving two U.S. attorneys’ offices, the Justice Department and possibly state agencies as well, Rick Mountcastle, a former federal prosecutor, said.
He led a criminal investigation into Purdue Pharma that resulted in the company’s guilty plea in 2007 to having misled regulators, doctors and patients about the dangers of OxyContin. “It is a huge monster bureaucracy that moves at a very slow pace,” said Mr. Mountcastle, who was not a source confirming the existence of the investigation.
McKinsey made about $86 million over many years advising Purdue Pharma. The bulk of that work took place after Purdue’s guilty plea. In 2019, McKinsey said it would no longer advise clients on opioid-related business.
Ramiro Prudencio, a spokesman for McKinsey, declined to comment. A spokesman for the Justice Department had no comment on the case.
Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice. He joined The Times in 2017 after working for Politico, Newsday, Bloomberg News, The New York Daily News, The Birmingham Post-Herald and City Limits. More about Glenn Thrush
Michael Forsythe a reporter on the investigations team at The Times, based in New York. He has written extensively about, and from, China. More about Michael Forsythe
Walt Bogdanich joined The Times in 2001 as investigative editor for the Business desk. Since 2003, he has worked as an investigative reporter. He has won three Pulitzer Prizes. More about Walt Bogdanich
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