New York Lawsuit Claims Sackler Family Illegally Profited From Opioid Epidemic

New York state Attorney General Letitia James leveled the fiercest legal broadside yet against the Sackler family, owners of the privately-held Purdue Pharma which makes the powerful prescription painkiller Oxycontin.

A civil suit filed Thursday accuses eight members of the family of personally contributing to the deadly opioid epidemic, which has killed more than 200,000 Americans over the last two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

At a press conference, James described the Sacklers as "masterminds" of an illegal scheme that "literally profited off of the suffering and death" of New Yorkers and others around the U.S.