By Dietrich Knauth
NEW YORK, April 21 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday delayed the planned criminal sentencing of Purdue Pharma by one week, saying she wanted to allow more public participation before concluding a criminal case over the company's marketing of addictive opioid drugs.
U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo was expected to accept Purdue's 2020 guilty plea at a court hearing in Newark, New Jersey, which would have imposed a $3.5 billion criminal fine and $2 billion in criminal forfeiture
against the company for its role in fueling an opioid epidemic that has claimed more than 1 million lives in the U.S. since 2000.
Arleo initially scheduled the hearing to occur on Zoom, but changed course during the proceedings and delayed it until April 28 after protesters and members of the public showed up at court to participate in the sentencing hearing. One woman who joined the hearing remotely shouted, "This is not justice!" while the judge was speaking.
"In this plea, the single most important people that should be heard are the victims," Arleo said. "If the public and victims wish to be heard in person, I'm going to accommodate that."
Purdue did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the delay.
The sentencing is one of the last steps before Purdue can complete a bankruptcy settlement that would dissolve the company and use its assets to pay $7.4 billion to those harmed by the opioid crisis.
Eight victims of the opioid crisis were scheduled to speak at the hearing, sharing their personal stories of suffering, loss and addiction. Some of the statements that were filed in court urged the judge to reject a plea deal that let company owners and executives escape prosecution.
Purdue reached the plea deal in 2020. Purdue admitted to charges that it aggressively marketed its products to doctors who were diverting the drugs for illegal use, defrauding the government by avoiding controls meant to reduce illegal opioid use, and paying kickbacks to doctors to boost its opioid sales. The company previously pleaded guilty to criminal charges in 2007, admitting that it misled doctors and federal regulators about OxyContin's risk of addiction and misuse.
Most of the criminal fines will go unpaid under an agreement with the Justice Department that allows Purdue to direct its remaining assets to repaying creditors, mostly state and local governments, which were left to deal with the cost and consequences of the opioid epidemic.
The federal government waived its right to repayment for all but $225 million of the fines and penalties to allow Purdue to devote its assets to paying other opioid creditors, in the deal the Justice Department reached with Purdue after the company filed for bankruptcy in 2019.
Most of the Purdue settlement money will go to states and local governments, which have agreed to use the money for opioid abatement efforts such as addiction treatment. Purdue's owners, members of the Sackler family, are contributing at least $6.5 billion to fund the bankruptcy settlement.
Purdue is one of many drug manufacturers, distributors, pharmacy operators and others who have collectively in recent years agreed to pay about $57 billion to resolve lawsuits and investigations by states and local governments accusing them of helping fuel a deadly opioid addiction epidemic in the U.S.
(Reporting by Dietrich Knauth; Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Lisa Shumaker)
