McKinsey & Company—McKinsey paid $650M to settle federal criminal and civil probes over Purdue Pharma opioid consulting
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.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Governance | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -1.180 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (critical ×2) × confidence (0.59)
Evidence (1 signal)
DOJ announced $650M criminal and civil resolution with McKinsey over Purdue Pharma opioid consulting
The U.S. Department of Justice announced McKinsey agreed to pay $650 million to resolve criminal and civil investigations into its consulting work with Purdue Pharma. The resolution pertains to McKinsey's advice to turbocharge OxyContin sales. This marked the first time a management consulting firm was held criminally responsible for advice resulting in the commission of a crime by a client.