Joe Biden’s Justice Department just handed a sweetheart deal to a global consulting firm with deep ties to the Biden administration, letting the firm off the hook for its role in helping “turbocharge” sales of the highly addictive prescription pain pill OxyContin.
The development is one of the Justice Department’s first major moves since adopting a new policy three weeks ago to go even softer on corporate crime, and will allow McKinsey & Company to defer prosecution for its extensive role in fueling the opioid epidemic that has devastated millions of American lives.
The new Justice Department policy is meant to provide leniency to corporations that cooperate with federal investigations and self-report crimes. But now McKinsey is benefiting from the new policy, even though prosecutors said that the consulting firm worked to obstruct their investigation.
The McKinsey settlement comes as federal prosecution of white-collar crimes hits historic lows, signaling that corporate malefactors can likely expect lenient treatment moving forward, no matter the extent and heinousness of their alleged crimes.
Many top Biden officials have previously received paychecks from the consulting firm. WestExec Advisors, a consulting firm founded by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and which employed Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, worked on behalf of McKinsey. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was previously employed by McKinsey, as was Ryan Harper, Biden’s deputy chief of staff and deputy executive secretary at the National Security Council. Additionally, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s husband was a longtime partner at McKinsey.
Although federal contracts with McKinsey for consulting work have shrunk recently, payments to…
Auteur: Freddy Brewster
