OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma paid its CEO $9 million and its board chairman nearly $4 million in the 12 months before the company's bankruptcy filing last month, according to recently filed financial documents, the Associated Press reported. Five other board members overseeing the private company were paid a combined $3.7 million over that span. Purdue, a privately held company that usually does not disclose detailed financial information, had to make the information public as part of its bankruptcy proceedings. In a statement Wednesday, Purdue said its employees have highly specialized skills that would be hard to replace. The court documents say pay for the company's executives included salary, incentives, retirement plan contributions and an auto allowance, among other things. They were filed on Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y. Purdue sought bankruptcy protection in September in its effort to settle nearly 2,700 lawsuits that seek to hold the company accountable for its role in the nation's opioid epidemic. The company's proposed settlement with state and local governments could be worth up to $12 billion over time.
