McKinsey & Company

McKinsey agreed to pay $650 million to resolve federal criminal and civil investigations into its consulting work advising Purdue Pharma on strategies to turbocharge OxyContin sales between 2004-2019. The firm advised on targeting high-volume prescribers and communities already hard-hit by opioids, and recommended cash prizes to boost sales. This marked the first time a management consulting firm was held criminally responsible for advice resulting in client crime. McKinsey also paid $573M to 47 states in a separate 2021 settlement.

A House Oversight Committee investigation found that at least 22 McKinsey consultants were staffed at both the FDA and opioid manufacturers on related topics, sometimes simultaneously. In 2011, four consultants working on a $1.8M FDA drug safety contract were also working for Purdue Pharma on projects to persuade FDA of opioid safety, including writing scripts for Purdue to use in FDA meetings. McKinsey never disclosed these conflicts despite contractual obligations to do so.

McKinsey performed over $20 million in consulting work for ICE, proposing cuts to food, medical care, and supervision of detainees. Consultants sought ways to accelerate deportations, raising concerns among ICE staff that recommendations risked short-circuiting due process protections. McKinsey staff also ghostwrote a government contracting document defining their own responsibilities and justifying a $2.2M contract extension. The firm ended the contract in July 2018 after media reporting.

As early as May 2017, McKinsey partners discussed keeping documents from being discovered in Purdue lawsuits, including using neutral templates without Purdue logos and showing only hard copies that could be deleted. A senior partner described the benefit: documents would live only on laptops and then could be deleted. A former senior partner was charged with felony obstruction of justice for deleting opioid-related documents. McKinsey terminated two senior partners over the conduct.

McKinsey prepared a December 2016 report measuring public response to Saudi government policy, identifying three Twitter users as key online influencers including Omar Abdulaziz, a close associate of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Following the report, Saudi authorities imprisoned and tortured Abdulaziz's family and associates. Another identified writer was imprisoned, and a third anonymous user disappeared from the internet. Abdulaziz filed a lawsuit alleging McKinsey outed him to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.