McKinsey & Co. is in the final stages of negotiating a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve a U.S. criminal investigation into the consulting firm's work that helped boost sales for opioid manufacturers that are said to have contributed to a deadly addiction epidemic. Officials have revealed that there are.
McKinsey & Co. is in talks to pay more than $600 million to resolve a years-long U.S. Justice Department investigation that also included findings of civil violations, the people said.
The settlement, expected to be announced by the end of the year, will require prosecutors to drop criminal charges against McKinsey after a set period of time, as long as McKinsey complies with the terms of the agreement.
According to people familiar with the matter, talks are ongoing and the details of the settlement and the timing of disclosure of the agreement are subject to change. McKinsey and the Department of Justice declined to comment.
As part of the investigation, prosecutors are also looking into whether McKinsey & Co. obstructed justice in connection with its work advising opioid manufacturers, according to people familiar with the matter. In 2021, McKinsey announced it had fired two partners who contacted them about document deletions.
McKinsey previously announced a deal totaling nearly $1 billion to resolve wide-ranging lawsuits and other legal claims alleging that the company fueled the opioid epidemic through advice to OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and other drug companies. An agreement had been reached.
The settlement included all 50 states, the District of Columbia, U.S. territories, various local governments, school districts, Native American tribes, and health insurance companies.
In 2019, McKinsey announced it would no longer advise clients on opioid-related businesses. The company maintains that the settlement does not include any admission of liability or wrongdoing.
Purdue pled guilty in 2020 to criminal charges surrounding widespread fraud in its handling of prescription painkillers, including conspiring to defraud U.S. officials and pay illegal kickbacks to both doctors and electronic medical records vendors.
Purdue is currently participating in court-ordered mediation over a multibillion-dollar settlement reached in a bankruptcy case that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Prosecutors in Boston and Roanoke, Virginia, are involved in the McKinsey investigation, along with officials from the Justice Department's headquarters in Washington.
