There was a dark absurdity in the spectacle of Judge Drain and all of these bankruptcy lawyers arguing self-seriously about how to divvy up what was left of Purdue Pharma—which now amounted to cash and assets of roughly $1 billion—when the Sacklers were looking on from the sidelines, apparently untouchable, and holding on to so much more. According to deposition testimony by one of Purdue’s own experts, the family had taken as much as $13 billion out of the company.
