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A senior partner has also pleaded to obstruction of justice after destroying company documents.
McKinsey & Company has agreed to pay $650 million to settle a Justice Department investigation of its work with the opioid maker Purdue Pharma. A former senior partner, Martin Elling, has also agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice for destroying internal company records in connection with that work.
At the center of the government’s case was McKinsey’s advice that Purdue Pharma should “turbocharge” sales of Purdue’s flagship OxyContin painkiller in the midst of an opioid addiction epidemic that was killing hundreds of thousands of Americans. More than two dozen McKinsey partners consulted for Purdue over roughly 15 years, earning the firm $93 million.
The settlement stemmed from charges brought by the U.S. attorney’s offices in Massachusetts and the Western District of Virginia.
McKinsey has in recent years settled government investigations in this country and overseas by paying hundreds of millions of dollars while not admitting any wrongdoing. That is no longer true.
McKinsey issued a statement on Friday apologizing for its work with the opioid maker
“We are deeply sorry for our past client service to Purdue Pharma and the actions of a former partner who deleted documents related to his work for that client,” the consulting firm wrote. “We should have appreciated the harm opioids were causing in our society and we should not have undertaken sales and marketing work for Purdue Pharma. This terrible public health crisis and our past work for opioid manufacturers will always be a source of profound regret for our firm.”
Mr. Elling’s decision to plead guilty to destroying internal company records follows an announcement this month by federal prosecutors that another former McKinsey senior partner, Vikas Sagar, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with paying bribes to secure South African government contracts for the firm. McKinsey had earlier fired Mr. Sagar.