A Tale of Two Fraudsters: John Kapoor and The Sacklers

It’s the season finale of Fraudsters, and we’re reluctantly exploring the grim origins of America’s opioid crisis. From the Sackler family’s OxyContin empire, built on shameless marketing, fake science, and philanthropy-as-image-laundering, to John Kapoor’s Insys Pharmaceuticals, a scrappy underdog peddling fentanyl sprays, we unravel the fraud that fueled this epidemic. With half a million deaths, shattered communities, and contrasting fates for these corporate villains, it’s a class war in a pill bottle. Who paid the price—and who walked free?

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Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/13/meet-the-sacklers-the-family-feuding-over-blame-for-the-opioid-crisis

https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/01/business/01sackler.html

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a12775932/sackler-family-oxycontin/

https://theconversation.com/a-dangerous-method-in-defence-of-freuds-psychoanalysis-5989#:~:text=According to Freud's theory%2C mental,caused by early childhood trauma.

https://www.bmj.com/content/suppl/2005/07/18/331.7509.DC1

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/12-napp-pharmaceutical-holdings-rhmq8hnpfgx

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sackler-family-oxycontin-opioid-drug-scandal-british-connection-q3wd30s35

https://lithub.com/on-terminal-pain-and-the-origins-of-the-end-of-life-movement/

https://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/27/obituaries/dr-arthur-sackler-dies-at-73-philanthropist-and-art-patron.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/business/raymond-sackler-dead-of-purdue-pharma.html

al-health-data/

https://casetext.com/case/kottayil-v-insys-therapeutics-inc/

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1516479/000143774915019892/R12.htm

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/page/file/947866/dl?inline

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/page/file/1010246/dl?inline

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/10/health/insys-opioid-bankruptcy.html?searchResultPosition=6

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/14/business/doubts-raised-about-off-label-use-of-subsys-a-strong-painkiller.html?action=click&module=RelatedCoverage&pgtype=Article&region=Footer

Links to clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaxlJXpwkzs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTR3R2jYw4Q&t=1127s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkeQifzvSNE&t=80s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtwFZwjCSTE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w327H5VNT9A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s8kybr-YFU

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