Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said Monday that they are backing federal legislation that would block the Sackler family from using bankruptcy law to protect a fortune earned from Purdue Pharma’s manufacture of deadly opioids, the Hartford Courant reported. Blumenthal and Tong said that a bill before Congress would close a loophole in the U.S. Bankruptcy Code which they say the Sackler family has used to evade liability in government lawsuits. Connecticut and other states are still pursuing litigation against Purdue Pharma, which is owned by the Sackler family. The bill, dubbed the SACKLER (“Stop Shielding Assets from Corporate Known Liability by Eliminating Non-Debtor Releases”) Act, would amend bankruptcy law to prevent non-bankrupt individuals from receiving legal protections through a company’s bankruptcy. Speaking at the State Capitol Monday, Blumenthal argued that the Sackler family, which owns Purdue Pharma, has used the company’s bankruptcy proceedings to gain release from liability. Purdue Pharma filed for chapter 11 protection in 2019 in an attempt to settle about 3,000 lawsuits it faced from state and local governments and other entities. The plaintiffs had claimed that the company’s marketing of its painkiller drove a crisis that has resulted in nearly 500,000 deaths across America in the last two decades.
