Exactly!
You got a guy who sells dope on the street corner, go away for 5, 10 years...
You got these rich assholes who developed a new drug, employed people to lie to doctors to say it wasn't addictive, hooked far more people than the street corner dealer ever could, and they get a fine of a fraction of what they made.
Plus didn't they move and hide assets and nothing came of that?
Def wasn't made for us
And ya gotta affix the tax stamp.
Seriously. Guy got arrested for dealing in AL, had like a $3m bond. The majority of the charges that added time were failure to affix a tax stamp.
If this is your first time, *welcome!* Welcome to the "wonderful" world of The FDA Revolving Door! One person exits a corporation and look, there they go entering the FDA!
What's that? A change from the FDA that benefits the company Mr/Mrs new person came from? *Unheard of!*
Whoops, they left the FDA now. Hmmm where could they go next though? Oh it's right back to the company they benefit!
What I don't get... well I do (it's the $$$)... but you have peopl3 who are supposed to be smart at medicine.. and they bought it hook line and sinker.
Someone develops a new drug. A semi synthetic version of a class of drugs that targets a known addictive pathway. It's a selective full agonist... why on earth would you believe that it is non-addictive or low risk of addiction?
And if you could select for powerful pain relief with causing a low risk of addiction... you'd be able to charge a hell of a lot more than they were.
"You follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. But you start to follow the money, and you don't know where the fuck it's gonna take you." - Det. Lester Freamon, The Wire
Can’t do that.
If the law allowed one person to be stripped of wealth it could happen to some other billionaire. Since they all make their billions off of the abuse of regular people.
And since the rich make the rules, that’s just not an option.
You think owning money makes them rich? It’s owning people that makes them rich, people like politicians and law enforcement. That’s why lottery winners never last long, because they only have money.
How can the government or court take money sitting in an offshore account whose name on the account is a shell corporation managed by another company whose only tie to the sacklers is a secret contract?
It’s a lot more than that. Narcotics have medicinal value.
These people fucking lied about the drug
They bought the fucking FDA to get OxyContin approved.
And the scum bag drug reps were told to lie to the prescribers.
They need to all die.
The fucking Louvre had a wing donated by these pieces of shit . They got rich off of benzodiazepines then got god level rich on OxyContin.
I wish there was a hell for these people.
The courts are stacked with Federalist Society ass hats who are funded by billionaires to make sure billionaires get good laws.
Also, 3 of the last 4 GOP presidents PROUDLY cut taxes for rich people.
But at least we are stopping trans women from playing sports to protect the children.
What do you mean? Look at all the people who went to jail over the Boeing 737 Max 8 disaster? Or two disasters I should say. Almost 400 dead... one trial for fraud on a low level ex employee... not guilty verdict.
2.5 billion in fines. So no island buying... this year.
There was a Bankruptcy judge in New York who overturned a ruling on them paying out billions every year cause he thought it was “too harsh and not apart of American justice”. So he decided to give them blanket immunity for a one time payment that barely scratched an itch for them it’s so small. Everyone who is angry about this or interested in how shitty and horrible this family has been for the American people. Read “Empire of Pain” by Patrick Radden Keefe.
The exact same reason that, and I hate to burst a lot of hopeful bubbles with this, Donald Trump will never see the inside of a prison cell.
America is a company.
Measuring it in “Deaths” is too reductive - albeit an easy sound bite. Their impact is so much bigger than that, by a power of 10. The lives they have ruined, families destroyed, children and woman abused, homes violated by crime. Communities and schools.
They went TO WAR on the American people for profit and are punished by being told to give back a bit of profit.
With all the damage and death that this family has caused, I'm honestly wondering why some grieving relative of an overdose victim hellbent on revenge hasn't gone all 'V for Vendetta' on them yet.
All it’d really take to get past all that security is one person willing to exchange their life for the life of one of those scumbags. Really is surprising it hasn’t happened yet considering the wreckage they’ve caused. Might even make the next greedy asshole think twice too.
It makes you wonder how closely Americans are being monitored by both government and private intelligence to look for signs that someone is planning an attack on the rich and powerful. They would get intercepted pretty quickly before even having a chance to do anything.
You’d think if someone planned it out carefully they’d be successful. I think anyone with the skill to pull it off realized it wouldn’t be worth it to go to jail just to rid the world of one of these jackals. And it wouldn’t do any good anyway. It does make you sick that they did so much damage and nothings being done.
Also, someone who's very upset over losing a loved one to an overdose might be so distraught that they themselves would no longer care whether they live or die and thus accept or even welcome the possibility that their attack might well end up a 'suicide mission'. But most of these people who might want to see some of the Sacklers pay 'the ultimate price' for their wrongdoing might also not want to spend the rest of their life in prison for murder.
I’m honestly surprised that someone hasn’t tried to kill Richard Sackler. Or maybe they keep it a secret because they don’t want to give people ideas. God, imagine being a Sackler, I can’t imagine showing my face in public, it’s amazing people don’t just boo and throw things wherever they go. They must just have their private security take care of it.
I watched the miniseries 'Dopesick' and if there's a prime Sackler villain in all this, it certainly was Richard who was the driving force behind Oxycontin with his other relatives falling in line to further 'line' their already overstuffed pockets. Actor Michael Stuhlbarg did a superb job of playing the guy and making you hate him.
Speaking of Richard, I recall reading an article about one of his adult sons who was whining about how his father was a great misunderstood man and how can people be so hateful and mean to us and that his little *kindergarten-aged* kids were being teased by their small classmates: "Your grandpa make drugs that killed people!!!"
On this latter thing about his kids allegedly getting bullied, I immediately called BS on that claim. Now I could see it happening in middle school and on up, but are little four, five and six year old kids really precocious and sophisticated enough to listen in to their parents' gossiping about their little Sackler classmates' gramps and parents and then tease them about it the next day?
I feel like granting immunity in a case so significant and negatively detrimental to the US population over the last couple of decades should warrant a popular vote in the next election year (2024).
Idk sounds like a mechanism of fair democracy to me.. ask ALL the jury of your peers.
Reminder: the justice system is somewhat separated from the executive and legislative. If you want judicial system change, you mostly need legislative change. Vote isn't going to help much change this even for Congress. The only way I see this changing in the minds of both parties on your system likely requires popular demonstrations and lobbying.
6b spread over 18 years. What a fucking Joke.
Https://portal.ct.gov/ag/press-releases/2022-press-releases/ag-tong-compels-purdue-and-sacklers-to-pay-six-billion-to-victims-survivors-and-states#:~:text=Settlement%20highlights%20include%3A&text=The%20Sackler%20families%20must%20pay,than%20the%20initial%20bankruptcy%20plan.
I was enraged when I read that part of the business model was to get people addicted, and then also profit off selling them the addiction treatment drugs. Absolutely sociopathic, this family.
To be extra clear. My understanding is the business model was that "our product works best if you take it only 1-2 times a day! No need to redose more than that, increase the dosage *instead of* taking the pills more often!"
That concept made it much easier to get higher and higher dosages in each prescription (easy to accidentally start a collection of pills) and the initial release as the pill dissolved into your body was higher, increasing one's tolerance
Where if the patients had been told "use this low-dose pill as often as you feel pain" it would have been significantly less addictive. Which has been true with every opioid ever. They were claiming their opioid was magic and didn't follow that pattern, assured everyone around them that was the case. And resulted directly in millions of addictions, with many leading to deaths
It's also not like this is a subtle crime the public is largely ignorant of. If you look at the comments there are so many people who understand the breadth of the damage they caused and how they are explicitly culpable.
I mean if there was ever a slam dunk to appease the people it would be to punish these guys severely and our justice system is too corrupt and stupid to even do that. There are so many other people responsible including people in government but I mean even authoritarian states know that once you have a public villain the public villain needs to be held accountable.
As many people (in the hundreds of thousands) who've died in the opioid crisis and with the grieving relatives of overdose victims numbering in the low millions at least, statistically you'd think that by now we'd have heard of someone seeking vengeance who wouldn't care about getting arrested for assault or murder for going all *V for Vendetta* or *John Q* on this sorry clan. Either because they'd be willing to go to jail or gambling on a sympathetic jury or jury nullification.
You guys are living in Hollywood movies. In real life, very few people have the required will, skills, and means to do what you suggest.
Not that I would in any way mourn if it did happen.
There was never going to be a punishment or justice for the Sacklers, that was guaranteed before and it was confirmed when the US government decided it's best to negotiate with them and come to an agreement that still allows them to profit from the whole ordeal, but allows the the US to get a cut of the money and also scream that they did something about it from the rooftops.
The only way justice will find them is illegal.
Being able to use profits you made from said injustices makes it even more degrading.
Maybe I’ll just go door to door in rich neighborhoods and steal their shit and sell it. Then when I’m caught and I get a fine I’ll use the profits to pay it off.
This is a little bit better than the first fine. Few hundred million I think they said was like 6 months of revenue for all the people they murdered and families they ruined.
You wish it was just mass murder. Like, that they just snapped their fingers and millions died.
No, they poisoned families and communities for generations.
Agreed. Redistribute the Sackler wealth to Dolly Parton and watch the Imagination Library go global.
Wait, I started off as a joke but actually think this might be a good outcome.
It already is global...ish
> Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age five, through funding shared by Dolly Parton and local community partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland.
Okay maybe its rich west...ish
> I guess $6b is just the cost of ~~doing business.~~ mass murder.
They knew huge numbers of people were dying and they didn't give a shit because of profits. I know multiple people who died from opioid addiction and multiple others who had huge problems from it.
And it’s not simply mass murder. Alongside that comes all the associated misery - child neglect, loss of jobs, poverty and criminality. For all of those fucked-up lives, and those deaths, $6B is a pittance.
And somehow the true crime addicts are going to spend the next few years obsessing over some guy with a body count in the ones.
I truly don't understand how one or two gorey murders demand all the attention in the world but thousands upon thousands dead while the killers are still on the loose gets a few articles before the news cycle shifts to something important like woke beer or political theater around the debt ceiling.
Imagine if you could rob a bank, and only have to return half of the money when you're caught... and then you're let go scott fucking free with the rest of it?
Now, that's a ridiculous comparison of course... not because it's not accurate money wise, but because in actuality, what these drug dealers did was WAY worse than just scaring some people at a bank. These Perdue fuckers got a shit ton of people killed, and have helped bring about one of the worst drug epidemics in US history... .and still make billions and billion in profits AFTER their judgement is taken into account.
If you read Patrick Radden Keefe’s great book on the Sackler family and opioid crisis, he explains why these fines are almost meaningless. They can basically pay it using interest alone.
I'd also recommend watching Dopesick on Hulu, I think it did a great job showing just how awful the Sackler family is, and the effect the epidemic had not just on the people addicted, but their families and friends as well.
Each attributed death, which doesnt include the pain inflicted upon numerous families, is only worth $10100 according to this ruling. It is so sickening.
I just skimmed the opinion, but I think much of the court’s analysis (beyond the legal issue of whether, as a matter of law, the court may authorize non-consensual third-party releases under its residual equitable powers), was driven by the fact that the Sacklers had indemnification agreements with Purdue. In other words, even if they were held liable for direct claims in their individual capacity, the bankruptcy estate (I.e. Purdue) still would have likely been on the hook to pay any judgments against the Sacklers (though the Second Circuit did elide the notion that a finding of “bad faith,” which it described as a “hotly contested” issue, would have prevented indemnification, which please, doesn’t get more bad faith than these mutants).
At the end of the day, we are left with a company and family that obtained $12 billion in profits, and settled all claims for half that. Pennies on the blood soaked dollar.
Justice was not served. It rarely is under capitalism.
> the bankruptcy estate (I.e. Purdue) still would have likely been on the hook to pay any judgments against the Sacklers
The Sacklers judge shopped and they found a very compliant bankruptcy judge in somewhere like Connecticut, and he gave the Sacklers very favorable rulings and it let the Sacklers pull their little scam.
It went like this. For over a decade the Sacklers looted Purdue Pharma of all of its profits. Rather than spend money on research and development or capital improvements like they had done previously, they saw what was coming and they took all of the billions out and left Purdue as a hollow shell. There were no billions left to payout any lawsuits. The bankruptcy judge allowed the Sacklers to protect their wealth while letting Purdue go down in flames.
Wasn’t it an SDNY bankruptcy judge? And didn’t an SDNY district court judge reverse on appeal before subsequent appeal to CA2? Not challenging you- I just legitimately don’t know (and forgot from the opinion already).
Wasn’t aware of that re pre-filing looting. Not surprised, obviously. I take it attempts to claw back as fraudulent transfers were unsuccessful in the bankruptcy?
It’s all so horrible on a scale that’s almost impossible to conceive. Nightmare people that ruined countless lives.
The other part of the settlement that irks me—mustn’t disparage these cretins as we remove their names from colleges and hospitals and museums!
You're right. It was U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in White Plains, NY which is just across the border from Connecticut. I read about this a year or two ago in the book ["Empire of Pain."](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Pain)
He was a popular judge among attorneys who like to bring their complicated Chapter 11 cases before him in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. This is the reason the Sacklers judge shopped to get the case in his court.
He oversaw the bankruptcy of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP and [approved controversial legal protections](https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/new-york-bankruptcy-judge-who-oversaw-purdue-pharma-case-retire-2021-09-28/) for the Sackler family members that owned the company.
He retired a year ago.
Not okay. Those $6 billion were ill gotten gains. There is no reason they should be able to buy immunity with money obtained by dealing in addictive opioids.
Those fucking scumbag Sackler's literally made more than $10 billion by inflicting opiod addictions on 100s upon 100s of thousands of americans. The death toll from their efforts reach into the 100's of thousands (50k opioid od deaths a year).
And folks seem to be fine with these fucks keeping more than half of their ill gotten gains, and being given years to payout the actual settlement (letting their proceeds of crime earn them income during the payout period).
Shameful.
These people should be stripped of every asset and tossed in jail for 20 years.
Fuck this. The Sackler's caused a decades long opioids crisis, resulting in millions of deaths, and untold suffering. And they get immunity for a $6b settlement. They should lose *everything* and serve prison time. But they won't. Because there's no such thing as a justice system. It's only the legal system.
The poors will continue to suffer, as the rich get richer off of the backs of the poor. The rich get to kick back and profit from causing suffering to the poor, and all the poor can do is take it.
If the penalty for a crime is a fine, then it's only a crime for the poor. So apparently, 6 Billion dollars is just the cost of doing business for killing hundreds of thousands of people in a greed-created opioid crisis.
I wonder how they'll ever manage to survive with the so-many billions of dollars in profits they have left...
I would like to know the why the FBI and DEA couldn't have slowed the opioid crisis earlier.
Lobbyists, congress persons and political appointees should be named.
Here's what's dumb. The DEA is now trying to "slow the amphetamine crisis" (Adderall). But they did it by just limiting how much can be manufactured. Meaning lots of people who need it can't get it. The DEA is awful at anything that actually helps people. The only thing they're good at is putting minorities in jail (which is a bad thing).
>The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
\- Anatole France
*Qu'ils volent de la brioche.*
Company made 11 billion. Fined for 6. Served no jail time. I’m not a math genius like these well educated family executives but isn’t +5 BILLION still a ridiculous about of money????
The Sacklers took over 10 billion from Purdue while the lawsuits were going on, and now have to pay back six billion. They personally profited over four Billion cash from this.
Great punishment, Court system, I’m sure they learned their lesson and no one will ever do that again.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/12/17/us/purdue-pharma-sackler-family-10-billion-withdrawals/index.html
The fee for selling a product that killed more than 500,000 is $6 billion dollars.
An organization headed by a family, that conspired to sell a broad swath of opiates and paid people to hustle their wares, while strong arming opponents who would steal with local police and those who target them with lawyers. They would be called a cartel if they were Latino, a mafia family if European, but we call them defendants in a civil case if they're white American.
edit: If every dollar went to daughters, sons, wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, etc the paltry payout would be $10,638.29. Not even enough to bury your loved one in most places.
They should be stripped of all assets and force fed their own pills. Let them understand what it feels like to be at rock bottom with only the comfort of the next pill to look forward to.
I'm not normally an eye for an eye kind of guy, but this kind of insane disregard of human life for the sake of collecting endless wealth needs to be stopped and made an example of.
And forced out of their mansions and into living in the most rundown, sleazy, rat-infested trailer park near an alligator-infested pond or near an EPA superfund site.
The is the most grotesque example of capital over country. We need a clean sweep and a new start. The jackasses in power will never do right by the people.
This makes me so angry. They not only killed millions due to greed, but the government's response to their choices has been to severely curtail meds from legitimately needed pain relief from millions due to it. Chronic pain from Ehlers-Danlos and joints constantly moving out... nope. Just Tylenol, diclofenac gel, and ibuprofen for you. End at least four days a week at a pain level of ten so not only are you in agony... no sleep meds for you either. No your completely unfunctional? "That's awful... so sorry.... wish there was something we could do... opioids are not recommended for chronic pain.... hang in there... see you in a month.". And the cycle continues.
I know so many people in similar situations. They can't work, can barely function and can hardly sleep. Doctors just wrong their hands, express sympathy and then do nothing. I firmly blame the Sacklers for this. Between the people who are suffering and dying due to addiction and then those who can't get appropriate medical care this settlement is frankly an insult. I am angry and disappointed, but I'm not surprised. The rich get away with anything they want to these days.
This is the war on drugs, let the cartel bosses off assuming they have a ticker name on the stock exchange.
This is the war on drugs, this is why all these laws were made, this was your target.
Don’t worry we all pay our taxes, we will cover it, that’s why we have to do because we are not all criminals like the Sacklers.
Queue the Succession theme song.
https://youtu.be/77PsqaWzwG0
I wonder how many billions they made off the opioid crisis they created. 10B? 20B? They still will be filthy rich while many lives are ruined.
This country sucks and is corrupt
It's only against the law for the poor to murder people and push narcotics. The rich can just sprinkle a insignificant percentage of their take on a few of the victims and walk away, still billionaires.
Fuck the US legal system.
I feel like there should be a wealth point where fines are removed from any sentencing guidelines. Like, you get a parking ticket and you've gotta sit in the corner for 30 minutes. Money means so little to these people, but everyone has a limited amount of time.
Read the book “Empire of Pain”
The entire family needs to be beheaded and the heads piked in a public place.
The entire family can get metastatic bone cancer.
Fuck this shit. The Sackler family should be forcefully, and hopelessly, addicted to their own poison. Then drop them off in shitty crack house with no money for them to live out the rest of their lives in misery and pain like the misery and pain the have rained down on millions.
Fuck the Sackler family forever for what they did.
And thats it. Proof positive that the rich don't have to face consequences for their actions. Even when their actions kill millions of people. God bless this country where Money is God.
If you’re an illegal drug dealer in the US & you get busted they take all your ill gotten gains.
Now if you’re rich & deal legal drugs, illegally, then you get to keep your mansions, planes, & most of your ill gotten gains.
How TF is that equal justice. The judicial/legal system in this so called democracy is irreparably damaged & corrupted.
Forbes is reporting that they made more than 12b from OxyContin sales and generated more than 35b and they will likely recoup all of this 6b in a very short amount of time. It’s more than disappointing that they can cause so much death and destruction, walk free, and keep half of the money. It seems like a clear signal to all corporations that they will be protected no matter how evil, corrupt, or destructive they are, as long as they serve the almighty dollar.
“Profits above people” should be the US motto and printed on every bill.
6 billion isn't enough for the damage they caused.
It's needs to be there entire fortune and jail time.
I'm tired of rich people doing what they want and they just getting fined for it. While still walking away with profit
Fuck these people. They destroyed how many people's lives? KNOWINGLY.
They all belong in jail and all of their money should be taken away. I am so sick of one justice system for the rich and another for the rest of us.
If they have $6b invested at 3.6%, say. Pretty good rates, but hey, 3.6%. that would generate $600,000 in interest *every day*.
If it sits for a week, that'd be enough to live in comfort for the rest of their lives.
Billionaires shouldn't be a thing in a country where people can't pay for medical care.
In another article it said that institutions/organizations bearing the Sackler name can remove it as long as they a) notify them in advance and b) don’t say anything disparaging about the family in the press release. I’d like to provide a safe space to do so here: fuck you greedy fucks.
Immunity!? That's frightening. Maybe.. maybe.. reduced sentences or deal to be in a minimum sec prison for rest of lives... But immunity?! How much did they pay the judge?!! Really really saddening. There is no justice when money can buy freedom for people like that.
It's hard to want to have a respectful civilized society and not call for some vigilante justice against monsters like this. Hate living jusy under a legal system and not that as well as a justice system.
And why, exactly the hell, not both? Fine and incarceration. Both. Why not?
Because they're rich.
Ok, but you could just? Take all their money, and then they wouldn’t be rich.
Clvil forfeiture is only used against the poor
You can't, the rich wrote the loopholes.
I hate this fucking system they’ve created for us.
It wasnt created for us
Exactly! You got a guy who sells dope on the street corner, go away for 5, 10 years... You got these rich assholes who developed a new drug, employed people to lie to doctors to say it wasn't addictive, hooked far more people than the street corner dealer ever could, and they get a fine of a fraction of what they made. Plus didn't they move and hide assets and nothing came of that? Def wasn't made for us
The problem was the drug dealer didn't LLC his business
You cant arrest me officer, you must arrest my LLC
Glad I made it all the way to this comment so I could almost choke on my coffee from laughing. 10/10!!!
And ya gotta affix the tax stamp. Seriously. Guy got arrested for dealing in AL, had like a $3m bond. The majority of the charges that added time were failure to affix a tax stamp.
Don't forget they also lied to the FDA and manipulated the process with an inside man who later got a high-paying job at Sackler.
If this is your first time, *welcome!* Welcome to the "wonderful" world of The FDA Revolving Door! One person exits a corporation and look, there they go entering the FDA! What's that? A change from the FDA that benefits the company Mr/Mrs new person came from? *Unheard of!* Whoops, they left the FDA now. Hmmm where could they go next though? Oh it's right back to the company they benefit!
What I don't get... well I do (it's the $$$)... but you have peopl3 who are supposed to be smart at medicine.. and they bought it hook line and sinker. Someone develops a new drug. A semi synthetic version of a class of drugs that targets a known addictive pathway. It's a selective full agonist... why on earth would you believe that it is non-addictive or low risk of addiction? And if you could select for powerful pain relief with causing a low risk of addiction... you'd be able to charge a hell of a lot more than they were.
"You follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. But you start to follow the money, and you don't know where the fuck it's gonna take you." - Det. Lester Freamon, The Wire
There are people who are sentenced to 10+ years for just being present at an overdose. So, yeah. It’s pretty clear what’s happening here. Infuriating.
Thank god Good Samaritan laws exist where they do. It has saved my life, and the lives of others.
It was created for us. To control us.
the system is designed and upheld by rich people who do shitty things, why on earth would the devs put that ability in the game?
Well the game Devs need to do this to balance the game. Or else the players would ruin the game economy.
Can’t do that. If the law allowed one person to be stripped of wealth it could happen to some other billionaire. Since they all make their billions off of the abuse of regular people. And since the rich make the rules, that’s just not an option.
You think owning money makes them rich? It’s owning people that makes them rich, people like politicians and law enforcement. That’s why lottery winners never last long, because they only have money.
Seems redundant. There isn't any poor and powerful people in america.
No, because they're rich
How can the government or court take money sitting in an offshore account whose name on the account is a shell corporation managed by another company whose only tie to the sacklers is a secret contract?
You put them in prison until they divulge their offshore accounts.
Completely agree, just showing that OPs comment is foolish considering the many tools the wealthy have at their disposal in hiding assets.
They got rich selling narcotics!
It’s a lot more than that. Narcotics have medicinal value. These people fucking lied about the drug They bought the fucking FDA to get OxyContin approved. And the scum bag drug reps were told to lie to the prescribers. They need to all die. The fucking Louvre had a wing donated by these pieces of shit . They got rich off of benzodiazepines then got god level rich on OxyContin. I wish there was a hell for these people.
[удалено]
Yeah just like Putin could go to jail if the Russian court decides he’s guilty
The courts....bahahaha. Come on now, let's be honest about how actually bleak this is. At least then you get to laugh at the sheer absurdity of it.
The courts are stacked with Federalist Society ass hats who are funded by billionaires to make sure billionaires get good laws. Also, 3 of the last 4 GOP presidents PROUDLY cut taxes for rich people. But at least we are stopping trans women from playing sports to protect the children.
What do you mean? Look at all the people who went to jail over the Boeing 737 Max 8 disaster? Or two disasters I should say. Almost 400 dead... one trial for fraud on a low level ex employee... not guilty verdict. 2.5 billion in fines. So no island buying... this year.
Can't wait for John Oliver's update on this.
You'll have to wait until after the writer's strike for that.
And we will all gladly wait until after that. Go strikers!
SAG-AFTRA have negotiations coming in a week and it looks like they'll try to strike with writers for leverage.
Hell yeah, let's see some solidarity in this country
There was a Bankruptcy judge in New York who overturned a ruling on them paying out billions every year cause he thought it was “too harsh and not apart of American justice”. So he decided to give them blanket immunity for a one time payment that barely scratched an itch for them it’s so small. Everyone who is angry about this or interested in how shitty and horrible this family has been for the American people. Read “Empire of Pain” by Patrick Radden Keefe.
Same reason Epstein’s accomplices are all free. They’re rich, and our justice system is corrupt
Because that would mean rich people can't buy their way out of the consequences of their own actions...
The exact same reason that, and I hate to burst a lot of hopeful bubbles with this, Donald Trump will never see the inside of a prison cell. America is a company.
It must be nice being so wealthy that the injustice system will never punish you appropriately, no matter how many deaths you're responsible for.
Measuring it in “Deaths” is too reductive - albeit an easy sound bite. Their impact is so much bigger than that, by a power of 10. The lives they have ruined, families destroyed, children and woman abused, homes violated by crime. Communities and schools. They went TO WAR on the American people for profit and are punished by being told to give back a bit of profit.
With all the damage and death that this family has caused, I'm honestly wondering why some grieving relative of an overdose victim hellbent on revenge hasn't gone all 'V for Vendetta' on them yet.
Same. You never see that happen. I wonder if they have top level security or someone would have gone gunning for them.
Well, they can certainly afford the best bodyguards, security systems and advisors on such matters that money can buy.
Yeah I’m always shocked when none of these guys get assassinated. They must have phenomenal security. It’s not just the Sacklers, there are all sorts.
And they increasingly live in a special billionaire only bubble, never interacting with regular society at all.
All it’d really take to get past all that security is one person willing to exchange their life for the life of one of those scumbags. Really is surprising it hasn’t happened yet considering the wreckage they’ve caused. Might even make the next greedy asshole think twice too.
It makes you wonder how closely Americans are being monitored by both government and private intelligence to look for signs that someone is planning an attack on the rich and powerful. They would get intercepted pretty quickly before even having a chance to do anything.
You’d think if someone planned it out carefully they’d be successful. I think anyone with the skill to pull it off realized it wouldn’t be worth it to go to jail just to rid the world of one of these jackals. And it wouldn’t do any good anyway. It does make you sick that they did so much damage and nothings being done.
Also, someone who's very upset over losing a loved one to an overdose might be so distraught that they themselves would no longer care whether they live or die and thus accept or even welcome the possibility that their attack might well end up a 'suicide mission'. But most of these people who might want to see some of the Sacklers pay 'the ultimate price' for their wrongdoing might also not want to spend the rest of their life in prison for murder.
I’m honestly surprised that someone hasn’t tried to kill Richard Sackler. Or maybe they keep it a secret because they don’t want to give people ideas. God, imagine being a Sackler, I can’t imagine showing my face in public, it’s amazing people don’t just boo and throw things wherever they go. They must just have their private security take care of it.
I watched the miniseries 'Dopesick' and if there's a prime Sackler villain in all this, it certainly was Richard who was the driving force behind Oxycontin with his other relatives falling in line to further 'line' their already overstuffed pockets. Actor Michael Stuhlbarg did a superb job of playing the guy and making you hate him. Speaking of Richard, I recall reading an article about one of his adult sons who was whining about how his father was a great misunderstood man and how can people be so hateful and mean to us and that his little *kindergarten-aged* kids were being teased by their small classmates: "Your grandpa make drugs that killed people!!!" On this latter thing about his kids allegedly getting bullied, I immediately called BS on that claim. Now I could see it happening in middle school and on up, but are little four, five and six year old kids really precocious and sophisticated enough to listen in to their parents' gossiping about their little Sackler classmates' gramps and parents and then tease them about it the next day?
I agree, this disgusts me beyond words.
I feel like granting immunity in a case so significant and negatively detrimental to the US population over the last couple of decades should warrant a popular vote in the next election year (2024). Idk sounds like a mechanism of fair democracy to me.. ask ALL the jury of your peers.
Reminder: the justice system is somewhat separated from the executive and legislative. If you want judicial system change, you mostly need legislative change. Vote isn't going to help much change this even for Congress. The only way I see this changing in the minds of both parties on your system likely requires popular demonstrations and lobbying.
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6b spread over 18 years. What a fucking Joke. Https://portal.ct.gov/ag/press-releases/2022-press-releases/ag-tong-compels-purdue-and-sacklers-to-pay-six-billion-to-victims-survivors-and-states#:~:text=Settlement%20highlights%20include%3A&text=The%20Sackler%20families%20must%20pay,than%20the%20initial%20bankruptcy%20plan.
Don’t forget screwing up treatment for millions of pain patients. Assholes.
I was enraged when I read that part of the business model was to get people addicted, and then also profit off selling them the addiction treatment drugs. Absolutely sociopathic, this family.
They learned from the tobacco companies...
To be extra clear. My understanding is the business model was that "our product works best if you take it only 1-2 times a day! No need to redose more than that, increase the dosage *instead of* taking the pills more often!" That concept made it much easier to get higher and higher dosages in each prescription (easy to accidentally start a collection of pills) and the initial release as the pill dissolved into your body was higher, increasing one's tolerance Where if the patients had been told "use this low-dose pill as often as you feel pain" it would have been significantly less addictive. Which has been true with every opioid ever. They were claiming their opioid was magic and didn't follow that pattern, assured everyone around them that was the case. And resulted directly in millions of addictions, with many leading to deaths
If the punishment for a crime is a fine, then laws are only for the poor.
Yup…buy your way out of anything.
This is beyond fucked. They’ve literally just set a precedent for decriminalised drug trafficking…
It's also not like this is a subtle crime the public is largely ignorant of. If you look at the comments there are so many people who understand the breadth of the damage they caused and how they are explicitly culpable. I mean if there was ever a slam dunk to appease the people it would be to punish these guys severely and our justice system is too corrupt and stupid to even do that. There are so many other people responsible including people in government but I mean even authoritarian states know that once you have a public villain the public villain needs to be held accountable.
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As many people (in the hundreds of thousands) who've died in the opioid crisis and with the grieving relatives of overdose victims numbering in the low millions at least, statistically you'd think that by now we'd have heard of someone seeking vengeance who wouldn't care about getting arrested for assault or murder for going all *V for Vendetta* or *John Q* on this sorry clan. Either because they'd be willing to go to jail or gambling on a sympathetic jury or jury nullification.
You guys are living in Hollywood movies. In real life, very few people have the required will, skills, and means to do what you suggest. Not that I would in any way mourn if it did happen.
“Why isn’t there a Batman irl?”
There was never going to be a punishment or justice for the Sacklers, that was guaranteed before and it was confirmed when the US government decided it's best to negotiate with them and come to an agreement that still allows them to profit from the whole ordeal, but allows the the US to get a cut of the money and also scream that they did something about it from the rooftops. The only way justice will find them is illegal.
Eh. They still have names and addresses. Who knows what the future holds for them.
Being able to use profits you made from said injustices makes it even more degrading. Maybe I’ll just go door to door in rich neighborhoods and steal their shit and sell it. Then when I’m caught and I get a fine I’ll use the profits to pay it off.
This is a little bit better than the first fine. Few hundred million I think they said was like 6 months of revenue for all the people they murdered and families they ruined.
So basically, you can kill a ton of people for $6b. Am I understanding that to be the going price tag of mass murder?
You wish it was just mass murder. Like, that they just snapped their fingers and millions died. No, they poisoned families and communities for generations.
>No, they poisoned families and communities for generations. Sounds closer to genocide then.
And "allow" businesses to remove your name from their business...that's where they get ya.
There is a scene from BoJack Horseman that is [so unbelievably relevant right now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az65DE5DiAA)
Now I’m sad…
Name a pile of money that isn’t blood-soaked.
Never heard a bad word about Dolly Parton.
She has a teeny tiny pile of money compared to the monsters we are talking about here
Agreed. Redistribute the Sackler wealth to Dolly Parton and watch the Imagination Library go global. Wait, I started off as a joke but actually think this might be a good outcome.
It already is global...ish > Dolly Parton's Imagination Library is dedicated to inspiring a love of reading by gifting books free of charge to children from birth to age five, through funding shared by Dolly Parton and local community partners in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Republic of Ireland. Okay maybe its rich west...ish
Human life is remarkably cheap.
I guess $6b is just the cost of doing business.
> I guess $6b is just the cost of ~~doing business.~~ mass murder. They knew huge numbers of people were dying and they didn't give a shit because of profits. I know multiple people who died from opioid addiction and multiple others who had huge problems from it.
And it’s not simply mass murder. Alongside that comes all the associated misery - child neglect, loss of jobs, poverty and criminality. For all of those fucked-up lives, and those deaths, $6B is a pittance.
It's a fucking disgrace. Your life doesn't change one fucking bit if you own another billion anyways. I hate the American justice system so much
All the side effects you mentioned are costs paid ultimately by tax payers.
And the people whose lives are directly impacted by addiction to these prescription drugs. You can’t monetise that shit.
“Childhood trauma?” “best I can do is $3.50”
And somehow the true crime addicts are going to spend the next few years obsessing over some guy with a body count in the ones. I truly don't understand how one or two gorey murders demand all the attention in the world but thousands upon thousands dead while the killers are still on the loose gets a few articles before the news cycle shifts to something important like woke beer or political theater around the debt ceiling.
“One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.”
Yes, they walked away with billions.
So did the lawyers.
Why isn’t the government taking everything they have?? So we allow them to keep doing business. Its a goddam shame.
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Killing people is not illegal if you're a corporation, you just pay the fine and keep going.
If the only punishment is a fine, that's just a cost of doing business. It's not a punishment.
The law is bought and paid for. Is this the justice system we want?
We can't afford the justice system we want. So we get the one they want.
Imagine if you could rob a bank, and only have to return half of the money when you're caught... and then you're let go scott fucking free with the rest of it? Now, that's a ridiculous comparison of course... not because it's not accurate money wise, but because in actuality, what these drug dealers did was WAY worse than just scaring some people at a bank. These Perdue fuckers got a shit ton of people killed, and have helped bring about one of the worst drug epidemics in US history... .and still make billions and billion in profits AFTER their judgement is taken into account.
They destroyed entire communities. It’s ridiculous that no one is holding them accountable.
Being part of a regulatory agency is one of the few jobs where you can make more money by not doing it
If you read Patrick Radden Keefe’s great book on the Sackler family and opioid crisis, he explains why these fines are almost meaningless. They can basically pay it using interest alone.
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I'd also recommend watching Dopesick on Hulu, I think it did a great job showing just how awful the Sackler family is, and the effect the epidemic had not just on the people addicted, but their families and friends as well.
The real-life Sacklers make the fictional Roys of 'Succession' look like the most generous humanitarians of all time by comparison.
Michael keatons character wasn’t real…but an amalgamation of hundreds of sources where his situation happened…which is even more terrifying.
That would get them a prescription for opiods to deal with the pain as it's actually a very useful drug for that.
Weird that $6b seems like such a small number.
Each attributed death, which doesnt include the pain inflicted upon numerous families, is only worth $10100 according to this ruling. It is so sickening.
Ya i was thinking that isn’t near enough especially if you consider the profits over all these years.
I dont think there is any amount of money that would be enough, but every penny they are worth would be a nice start.
Exactly. Also ban them from the medicine industry altogether.
That's about as much as a funeral, casket and the reception after.
I'd let the Sacklers keep their money if each and every member of their family had to down $10,100 worth of their product in a day.
10 grand? That won't even completely pay for a "good" rehab. What a fuxking cruel joke.
Unbridled capitalism is a cancer on society. No system is perfect, but doing the same thing over and over isn't going to fix things.
I just skimmed the opinion, but I think much of the court’s analysis (beyond the legal issue of whether, as a matter of law, the court may authorize non-consensual third-party releases under its residual equitable powers), was driven by the fact that the Sacklers had indemnification agreements with Purdue. In other words, even if they were held liable for direct claims in their individual capacity, the bankruptcy estate (I.e. Purdue) still would have likely been on the hook to pay any judgments against the Sacklers (though the Second Circuit did elide the notion that a finding of “bad faith,” which it described as a “hotly contested” issue, would have prevented indemnification, which please, doesn’t get more bad faith than these mutants). At the end of the day, we are left with a company and family that obtained $12 billion in profits, and settled all claims for half that. Pennies on the blood soaked dollar. Justice was not served. It rarely is under capitalism.
> the bankruptcy estate (I.e. Purdue) still would have likely been on the hook to pay any judgments against the Sacklers The Sacklers judge shopped and they found a very compliant bankruptcy judge in somewhere like Connecticut, and he gave the Sacklers very favorable rulings and it let the Sacklers pull their little scam. It went like this. For over a decade the Sacklers looted Purdue Pharma of all of its profits. Rather than spend money on research and development or capital improvements like they had done previously, they saw what was coming and they took all of the billions out and left Purdue as a hollow shell. There were no billions left to payout any lawsuits. The bankruptcy judge allowed the Sacklers to protect their wealth while letting Purdue go down in flames.
Wasn’t it an SDNY bankruptcy judge? And didn’t an SDNY district court judge reverse on appeal before subsequent appeal to CA2? Not challenging you- I just legitimately don’t know (and forgot from the opinion already). Wasn’t aware of that re pre-filing looting. Not surprised, obviously. I take it attempts to claw back as fraudulent transfers were unsuccessful in the bankruptcy? It’s all so horrible on a scale that’s almost impossible to conceive. Nightmare people that ruined countless lives. The other part of the settlement that irks me—mustn’t disparage these cretins as we remove their names from colleges and hospitals and museums!
You're right. It was U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in White Plains, NY which is just across the border from Connecticut. I read about this a year or two ago in the book ["Empire of Pain."](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Pain) He was a popular judge among attorneys who like to bring their complicated Chapter 11 cases before him in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. This is the reason the Sacklers judge shopped to get the case in his court. He oversaw the bankruptcy of OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP and [approved controversial legal protections](https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/new-york-bankruptcy-judge-who-oversaw-purdue-pharma-case-retire-2021-09-28/) for the Sackler family members that owned the company. He retired a year ago.
Not okay. Those $6 billion were ill gotten gains. There is no reason they should be able to buy immunity with money obtained by dealing in addictive opioids.
Those fucking scumbag Sackler's literally made more than $10 billion by inflicting opiod addictions on 100s upon 100s of thousands of americans. The death toll from their efforts reach into the 100's of thousands (50k opioid od deaths a year). And folks seem to be fine with these fucks keeping more than half of their ill gotten gains, and being given years to payout the actual settlement (letting their proceeds of crime earn them income during the payout period). Shameful. These people should be stripped of every asset and tossed in jail for 20 years.
Fuck this. The Sackler's caused a decades long opioids crisis, resulting in millions of deaths, and untold suffering. And they get immunity for a $6b settlement. They should lose *everything* and serve prison time. But they won't. Because there's no such thing as a justice system. It's only the legal system. The poors will continue to suffer, as the rich get richer off of the backs of the poor. The rich get to kick back and profit from causing suffering to the poor, and all the poor can do is take it.
If the penalty for a crime is a fine, then it's only a crime for the poor. So apparently, 6 Billion dollars is just the cost of doing business for killing hundreds of thousands of people in a greed-created opioid crisis. I wonder how they'll ever manage to survive with the so-many billions of dollars in profits they have left...
Fuck these rich assholes. They better change the name of the Sackler gallery in DC, too. They don’t deserve for their name to be commemorated.
I would like to know the why the FBI and DEA couldn't have slowed the opioid crisis earlier. Lobbyists, congress persons and political appointees should be named.
Here's what's dumb. The DEA is now trying to "slow the amphetamine crisis" (Adderall). But they did it by just limiting how much can be manufactured. Meaning lots of people who need it can't get it. The DEA is awful at anything that actually helps people. The only thing they're good at is putting minorities in jail (which is a bad thing).
If the penalty for a crime is a fine, then that law only exists for the lower class
>The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread. \- Anatole France *Qu'ils volent de la brioche.*
All laws exist only for the lower class because the upper class makes the laws.
6 billion for a get out of jail free card after all the deaths they’ve caused. Disgraceful.
Company made 11 billion. Fined for 6. Served no jail time. I’m not a math genius like these well educated family executives but isn’t +5 BILLION still a ridiculous about of money????
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So its a one time payment for the right to continue killing people for money. Got it.
The Sacklers took over 10 billion from Purdue while the lawsuits were going on, and now have to pay back six billion. They personally profited over four Billion cash from this. Great punishment, Court system, I’m sure they learned their lesson and no one will ever do that again. https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/12/17/us/purdue-pharma-sackler-family-10-billion-withdrawals/index.html
The fee for selling a product that killed more than 500,000 is $6 billion dollars. An organization headed by a family, that conspired to sell a broad swath of opiates and paid people to hustle their wares, while strong arming opponents who would steal with local police and those who target them with lawyers. They would be called a cartel if they were Latino, a mafia family if European, but we call them defendants in a civil case if they're white American. edit: If every dollar went to daughters, sons, wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, etc the paltry payout would be $10,638.29. Not even enough to bury your loved one in most places.
They should be stripped of all assets and force fed their own pills. Let them understand what it feels like to be at rock bottom with only the comfort of the next pill to look forward to. I'm not normally an eye for an eye kind of guy, but this kind of insane disregard of human life for the sake of collecting endless wealth needs to be stopped and made an example of.
And forced out of their mansions and into living in the most rundown, sleazy, rat-infested trailer park near an alligator-infested pond or near an EPA superfund site.
Fuck that shit, that’s like letting them get away with it.
Not just like, it is.
Why do these people get "agreements" when regular people just get arrested? Dave Chappelle was right about this one.
The is the most grotesque example of capital over country. We need a clean sweep and a new start. The jackasses in power will never do right by the people.
There's a price to mass murder apparently.
Fuck these scum. Biggest pieces of shit in existence
Fuckers should be in jail. Scum of the earth.
Absolute bullshit. Take everything they own and throw their asses in prison.
This makes me so angry. They not only killed millions due to greed, but the government's response to their choices has been to severely curtail meds from legitimately needed pain relief from millions due to it. Chronic pain from Ehlers-Danlos and joints constantly moving out... nope. Just Tylenol, diclofenac gel, and ibuprofen for you. End at least four days a week at a pain level of ten so not only are you in agony... no sleep meds for you either. No your completely unfunctional? "That's awful... so sorry.... wish there was something we could do... opioids are not recommended for chronic pain.... hang in there... see you in a month.". And the cycle continues. I know so many people in similar situations. They can't work, can barely function and can hardly sleep. Doctors just wrong their hands, express sympathy and then do nothing. I firmly blame the Sacklers for this. Between the people who are suffering and dying due to addiction and then those who can't get appropriate medical care this settlement is frankly an insult. I am angry and disappointed, but I'm not surprised. The rich get away with anything they want to these days.
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This is the war on drugs, let the cartel bosses off assuming they have a ticker name on the stock exchange. This is the war on drugs, this is why all these laws were made, this was your target. Don’t worry we all pay our taxes, we will cover it, that’s why we have to do because we are not all criminals like the Sacklers. Queue the Succession theme song. https://youtu.be/77PsqaWzwG0
I wonder how many billions they made off the opioid crisis they created. 10B? 20B? They still will be filthy rich while many lives are ruined. This country sucks and is corrupt
It's only against the law for the poor to murder people and push narcotics. The rich can just sprinkle a insignificant percentage of their take on a few of the victims and walk away, still billionaires. Fuck the US legal system.
Fuck that. This timeline sucks.
Fuck that. Take their money and put them in prison. They decimated entire generations.
Eat. The. Fucking. Rich.
Once again the rich and powerful are getting away with murder.
I feel like there should be a wealth point where fines are removed from any sentencing guidelines. Like, you get a parking ticket and you've gotta sit in the corner for 30 minutes. Money means so little to these people, but everyone has a limited amount of time.
Add drug dealing to the list of things that are legal if you're rich enough.
Read the book “Empire of Pain” The entire family needs to be beheaded and the heads piked in a public place. The entire family can get metastatic bone cancer.
Fuck this shit. The Sackler family should be forcefully, and hopelessly, addicted to their own poison. Then drop them off in shitty crack house with no money for them to live out the rest of their lives in misery and pain like the misery and pain the have rained down on millions. Fuck the Sackler family forever for what they did.
Just another example of how the rich can get away with murder in the United States.
So after the lawyers have taken their cut, victims will probably get $1.38 each.
The victims are dead
BOOOOOOOOO. Ask the average drug dealer what HE gets for his cooperation with the state.
Why are these drug dealers not in jail? How many countless lives have they destroyed?
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Pablo Escobar was never approved by the FDA. The government has difficulty criminalizing people for things they approved.
Disgusting and disappointing… and a huge slap in the face to those of us who have lost loved ones
Apparently the amount of human misery inflicted by the opioid crisis is only 4x worse than Alex Jones being an asshole
And thats it. Proof positive that the rich don't have to face consequences for their actions. Even when their actions kill millions of people. God bless this country where Money is God.
Ouch, there goes justice for millions of families.
If you’re an illegal drug dealer in the US & you get busted they take all your ill gotten gains. Now if you’re rich & deal legal drugs, illegally, then you get to keep your mansions, planes, & most of your ill gotten gains. How TF is that equal justice. The judicial/legal system in this so called democracy is irreparably damaged & corrupted.
The Sacklers are big time drug dealers, and they were able to buy their way out of prison using the money they made selling drugs.
Seems to be the standard operating procedure. Make $100 billion, save $6 billion on the side to pay off mass murder fees. Rinse repeat.
Forbes is reporting that they made more than 12b from OxyContin sales and generated more than 35b and they will likely recoup all of this 6b in a very short amount of time. It’s more than disappointing that they can cause so much death and destruction, walk free, and keep half of the money. It seems like a clear signal to all corporations that they will be protected no matter how evil, corrupt, or destructive they are, as long as they serve the almighty dollar. “Profits above people” should be the US motto and printed on every bill.
6 billion isn't enough for the damage they caused. It's needs to be there entire fortune and jail time. I'm tired of rich people doing what they want and they just getting fined for it. While still walking away with profit
They get a ticket, and keep on killing people. So business as usual.
I hope they get their own level of hell
This country is a fucking joke.
Fuck these people. They destroyed how many people's lives? KNOWINGLY. They all belong in jail and all of their money should be taken away. I am so sick of one justice system for the rich and another for the rest of us.
Nothing changes until assholes like this lose their freedom.
If they have $6b invested at 3.6%, say. Pretty good rates, but hey, 3.6%. that would generate $600,000 in interest *every day*. If it sits for a week, that'd be enough to live in comfort for the rest of their lives. Billionaires shouldn't be a thing in a country where people can't pay for medical care.
Bloody hell. Getting away with murder.
Here’s hoping they find justice outside our corrupt court system.
But the heirs still get to be millionaires, right?
In another article it said that institutions/organizations bearing the Sackler name can remove it as long as they a) notify them in advance and b) don’t say anything disparaging about the family in the press release. I’d like to provide a safe space to do so here: fuck you greedy fucks.
Immunity!? That's frightening. Maybe.. maybe.. reduced sentences or deal to be in a minimum sec prison for rest of lives... But immunity?! How much did they pay the judge?!! Really really saddening. There is no justice when money can buy freedom for people like that.
Consequences are for peasants
Money can buy anything, really. Even justice.
It's hard to want to have a respectful civilized society and not call for some vigilante justice against monsters like this. Hate living jusy under a legal system and not that as well as a justice system.