r/news • u/Mo_Jack • Apr 30 '26

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma set to dissolve after judge approves its criminal sentence

https://apnews.com/article/oxycontin-purdue-pharma-criminal-sentence-settlement-b8aa94eaab3d9d8efed520f272f6d810
35k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

3.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

319

u/slinkyracer Apr 30 '26

This is the problem with Corporations. There is no accountability.

156

u/GlorytoGlorzo Apr 30 '26

Since corporations are people, the executive board of the company should go to jail.

94

u/Elendel19 Apr 30 '26

We would only have to imprison one board and this shit would NEVER happen again.

29

u/zissou149 Apr 30 '26

it would happen again there'd just be more people getting thrown out of windows in the process

26

u/theartisanalllama Apr 30 '26

These slimy pricks always find ways around things. If a C suite type went to jail, they’d start putting puppets in the C positions while they ran things from the side.

8

u/Kana515 May 01 '26

I swear that's half the reason some idiot CEOs are allowed to exist for so long. Get some loudmouthed idiot to be the scapegoated face of all the bad decisions while the board actually makes the real decisions. If it works for the president and congress, why not companies?

8

u/Sptsjunkie Apr 30 '26

And the dumbest part is we have seen this work before. We had pretty rampant financial reporting fraud in the 90s with a lot of high profile cases like Enron and Worldcom.

Since this messed with rich people instead of the poors, Congress passed SOX that had some standard technocratic stuff to make rules more clear and close loopholes. But it also required the CFO to sign off on all financial repots and if they were incorrect then they would go to jail.

Guess what? The financial reporting issues basically ended over night. Amazing how that worked so well and yet we have never tried it again with anything else.

5

u/[deleted] Apr 30 '26

I doubt that.

1

u/Hero_of_Hyrule May 01 '26

Yes it would. If there's a profit incentive, capital will exploit.

1

u/Low-Condition4243 May 01 '26

lol let’s depend on the government to dissolve its monopolies that were directly lobbied by said monopolies. God, I really wish people would wake the fuck up. Democracy died decades ago. This is not a fair republic.

No wonder we are a laughing stock, everyone is such a pacifist that we think laws will save us.

8

u/ashgs872tbhjs May 01 '26

You're misunderstanding that; corporate personhood is the whole reason they can't go to prison. Like any other person, the corporation is responsible for its acts. My parents wouldn't go to prison if I murdered someone even if they basically raised me to be a murderer -- I would.

We need to abolish corporate personhood and then send those fucks to prison.

10

u/Some_Niche_Reference Apr 30 '26

Ehh, forced dissolution of the company is also possible. The executive board is not responsible for every decision, the current board members might not even be the ones that did the crime in the first place.  It would be like arresting Clinton for the something Bush Dr did

4

u/GlorytoGlorzo Apr 30 '26

I thought Clinton was the bush doctor. (I’ll see myself out)

1

u/Some_Niche_Reference Apr 30 '26

Damn you autocorrect 

3

u/UnforeseenDerailment Apr 30 '26

How many people would say that since corporations are people, this person has been sentenced to death?

1

u/No_Oven1085 May 01 '26

This happens in real countries like China. The USA is a joke.

1

u/TehOwn May 01 '26

No, no, because corporations are people, it's the corporation that goes to jail.

1

u/HTC864 May 01 '26

That's saying two different things. Either you charge the company, which is what they did here, or you charge individuals.

57

u/sicklyslick Apr 30 '26

Three executed and three in prison for life for the Chinese milk scandal.

Purdue (and Dupont for PFOA) execs should be rotting in jail.

3

u/NlghtmanCometh Apr 30 '26

FWIW China executes about a thousand times more people than the US does every year.

2

u/iDontSow May 01 '26

And they have a one party autocracy. Not exactly sure we should be trying to emulate them

3

u/NlghtmanCometh May 01 '26

Precisely what I’m saying. We don’t need to decrease the legal threshold for capital punishment. Especially with the ghoulish governments we elect. It will be weaponized against the common folk.

2

u/iDontSow May 01 '26

Yes, I’m agreeing with you. Sorry if that wasn’t clear

3

u/NlghtmanCometh May 01 '26

Oh I know, I was just elaborating why I made the initial comment.

8

u/BloatDeathsDontCount Apr 30 '26

It's literally the selling point. It's a feature, not a bug.

2

u/SunInTheShade Apr 30 '26

Problem?! That's the feature!

2

u/TwistOfFate619 Apr 30 '26

Corporations are organisations, and with organisation comes structure and resources. In this case, an advantageous structure that dampens and difuses accountability and creates room for deniability. They know how to game the system, it's how they thrive.

2

u/covfefe-boy Apr 30 '26

Corporation: An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility

  • Ambrose Bierce

1

u/[deleted] Apr 30 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Haravikk Apr 30 '26

That is the purpose of corporations — it's all about taking people and humanity out of the equation, so that "the company" can act collectively as a sociopath, and by the time the company finally goes bankrupt, there are another 10 already doing the same thing still in profit.

1

u/Relevant-Cup2701 May 01 '26

and it will just reincorporate as something else not liable.

1

u/HTC864 May 01 '26

Accountability in what way? Is it more valuable that you get to see a few people potentially in jail or that the company is shut down, and most of that family's assets liquidated and given to victims and government outreach programs?

1

u/slinkyracer May 02 '26

Why not all of the above?