Ownership and control of Purdue Pharma L.P.

analysisAt the 2019 petition date Purdue Pharma L.P. had a general partner that managed it and a single holder of its ownership interests. The general partner was Purdue Pharma Inc. (PPI), a New York corporation whose board of directors managed the partnership, as the District Court recorded in its decision of 16 December 2021. In the board resolutions of 15 September 2019 that authorised the bankruptcy filings, PPI also recited that it was general partner or managing general partner of the other partnerships listed in a schedule, and that Purdue Pharma L.P. was a limited partner or partner of each of them except Rhodes Pharmaceuticals L.P., Rhodes Technologies and UDF L.P. The debtors' consolidated ownership statement filed with the petitions records that Pharmaceutical Research Associates L.P. (PRA), formerly Purdue Holdings L.P. and not itself a debtor, owned 100% of the ownership interests of Purdue Pharma L.P., and that to the debtors' knowledge no other person or entity owned 10% or more directly or indirectly. ^{1 2 3}

analysisAbove PRA the same statement records three further steps. PLP Associates Holdings L.P. directly owned approximately 99.5061% of PRA, without the holder of the rest being named; BR Holdings Associates L.P. owned all of PLP Associates Holdings L.P.; and Beacon Company and Rosebay Medical Company L.P. each owned 50% of BR Holdings Associates L.P. The District Court summarised this in 2021 as PRA being 99.5% owned, in equal parts, by Beacon, a Delaware general partnership, and Rosebay, a Delaware limited partnership, both owned by trusts established for the benefit of the Sackler families; it called Beacon the partnership of Side A, which it defined as the Mortimer D. Sackler family, and Rosebay that of Side B, the Raymond R. Sackler family. ^{1 2}

analysisBoth partnerships end in trusts. According to the same statement, Heatheridge Trust Company Limited, as trustee under a Settlement dated 31 December 1993, owned 100% of Beacon Company; the United States' settlement of October 2020 with members of the family lists that trustee among the released "Purdue Parent Entities" and describes the Settlement as for the benefit of "the issue of Mortimer D. Sackler M.D., Theresa E. Sackler and certain charitable objects". Richard S. Sackler and Jonathan D. Sackler, as trustees under a Trust Agreement dated 5 November 1974, owned 98% of Rosebay Medical Company L.P. The related parties covered by the later bankruptcy injunction, as listed in the District Court's decision of 26 November 2024 on the injunction's extensions, include Beverly, Richard and Jonathan Sackler as trustees under that Trust Agreement, whereas the debtors' ownership statement names only Richard and Jonathan. ^{1 3 4}

analysisPurdue Pharma Inc. had owners of its own. According to the debtors' 2019 statement, Banela Corporation owned 50% of PPI and Linarite Holdings LLC and Perthlite Holdings LLC 25% each, with no other holder of 10% or more. Millborne Trust Company Limited, as trustee of the Hercules Trust under a Declaration of Trust of 2 March 1999, owned all of Banela; the 2020 federal settlement describes that trust as for the benefit of Theresa E. Sackler, the issue of Mortimer D. Sackler and certain charitable objects. Data LLC owned all of Linarite and Cornice Fiduciary Management LLC all of Perthlite, each as trustee under a Trust Agreement dated 23 December 1989. The 2020 settlement lists Data LLC as trustee of the Raymond R. Sackler Trusts 1 and 1B of that date and Cornice as trustee of the Raymond R. Sackler Trusts 2 and 2B and of the AJ Irrevocable Trust, without saying which trust holds which company. ^{1 2}

analysisPPI also served as general partner within the debtor group. The debtors' Disclosure Statement of July 2025 says that before the 2019 petition date all general-partner relationships between debtor and non-debtor entities were ended: PPI was removed as general partner of certain non-debtor entities and replaced non-debtor general partners of Purdue Pharmaceutical Products L.P. and Purdue Neuroscience Company, so that PPI effectively managed all of Purdue Pharma L.P.'s subsidiaries, and officers who also served the family's independent associated companies gave up one of the two posts. The non-debtor entities are not named, and the passage's description of Purdue Pharmaceutical Products L.P. as formerly Avrio Health L.P. conflicts with the Disclosure Statement's own debtor list and the Confirmation Order, in which Avrio Health L.P. became Purdue Products L.P. Earlier, in October 2003, Stuart D. Baker signed Purdue Pharma L.P.'s Florida qualification papers for PPI as its executive vice president, counsel to the board and secretary; an undated aggregator listing also names him as an executive vice president of PPI. ^{3 1 4 5}

analysisThe courts and the debtors divide the owners into two sides. The District Court defined the Sackler family as the Mortimer D. Sackler family (Side A) and the Raymond R. Sackler family (Side B); in the Second Circuit the Mortimer side said that its covered persons include Theresa Sackler, Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, Kathe Sackler and Mortimer D.A. Sackler, the trusts of which they are beneficiaries and their trustees, and Beacon Company, and the Raymond side described itself as the descendants of Raymond R. Sackler and their current and former spouses. Justice Kavanaugh's 2024 dissent, citing the Bankruptcy Court, called the Sacklers a large family divided into two sides with eight "pods" of members, whose assets are spread across trusts likely beyond the jurisdiction of United States courts. The debtors' Disclosure Statement adds that the family's independent associated companies are owned equally by the two sides, that B-Side wealth is concentrated in trusts and companies in the United States and A-Side wealth overwhelmingly in foreign jurisdictions, and that Richard, Jonathan and David Sackler were among the B-Side's historical members of the board of Purdue Pharma Inc., while Theresa, Kathe, Mortimer D.A. and Ilene Sackler and Samantha Hunt of the A-Side took part in Purdue's governance. ^{1 2 3}

analysisExhibit X to the plan's shareholder settlement, the list of "Certain Shareholder Released Parties" filed on the bankruptcy docket as part of Doc 9132, sorts the family's entities by side. It defines a "II-way entity" as one owned, directly or indirectly, by persons or trusts associated with both the Raymond Sackler (RRS) and the Mortimer Sackler (MDS) families with equal interests, and an "I-way entity" as one owned by persons or trusts of only one of them. In Purdue Pharma L.P.'s ownership chain it classes BR Holdings Associates Inc. and L.P., PLP Associates Holdings Inc. and L.P. and PRA as II-way entities, and Moonstone Holdings LLC, Linarite Holdings LLC, Perthlite Holdings LLC, Roselite Holdings LLC and the two Rosebay entities as RRS Family I-way entities. It describes five Raymond Sackler family trusts as "indirectly owning Purdue": the Trust U/A 11/5/74 fbo Beverly Sackler and the Raymond R. Sackler Trusts 1, 1B, 2 and 2B of 23 December 1989. ⁴

analysisExhibit X also says, in general terms, who served the chain entities. Raymond R. Sackler, Beverly Sackler and Jonathan D. Sackler (each listed with their estates), Richard S. Sackler and David A. Sackler are described as family members, trust beneficiaries and current or former directors, managers or officers of a II-way entity in the chain; Richard and Jonathan are also described as current or former directors, managers or officers of an RRS I-way chain entity and of a trust company. Stuart D. Baker and Anthony M. Roncalli, as well as Philip C. Strassburger, Edward B. Mahony, Peter Boer, Paulo Costa, Ralph Snyderman and William Loomis, are described as current or former directors, managers or officers of a II-way entity in the chain, and Stephen A. Ives and Leslie J. Schreyer as holding such posts at an RRS I-way chain entity and at a trust company. Exhibit X names neither the entities nor the periods, so these descriptions cannot be tied to a particular company. ⁴

analysisOn the A side, Exhibit X lists Joerg Fischer, Jonathan G. White, Leslie J. Schreyer, Jeffrey A. Robins, Stuart D. Baker, Anthony M. Roncalli, Charles G. Lubar and Christopher B. Mitchell among the trusts and trust companies under the heading "Trusts, Trustees and Protectors", without stating their capacity; Baker, Roncalli, Schreyer and Robins appear among the B-side parties as well. Both the 2020 federal settlement and Exhibit X release a group of "Purdue Parent Entities": Exhibit X's A-side list names Banela Corporation, Beacon Company, the BR Holdings and PLP Associates Holdings entities, PRA, Stanhope Gate Corp. and the trustees Heatheridge and Millborne, and the 2020 list also includes Purdue Pharma Inc., Linarite, Perthlite, Moonstone, Roselite, the Rosebay entities and the trustees Cedar Cliff, Cornice and Data LLC, among others. Exhibit X also classes Coventry Technologies L.P. as a II-way entity; the United States' proof of claim lists Purdue's equity in Coventry, valued in Purdue's records at $52,328,000 with an estimated date of 1 January 2008, among the assets Purdue transferred to its parent PRA. ^{4 5 6}

analysisProspectuses of companies in which Beacon and Rosebay held shares show who had voting and investment control over those shareholdings. A Novelos Therapeutics, Inc. prospectus of 3 May 2010 places voting and investment control over Beacon Company's holdings with Jonathan G. White, Joerg Fischer and Steven Meiklejohn as directors of Stanhope Gate Corp., Beacon's managing general partner, and with White, Fischer, Stuart D. Baker, Christopher B. Mitchell, Leslie J. Schreyer and Charles G. Lubar as directors of Beacon Trust Company Ltd., trustee of the Beacon Trust, which is Beacon's general partner. A Celldex Therapeutics, Inc. prospectus of 13 February 2017 names Fischer, White and Philip J. Le Cornu as the board of Stanhope Gate Corp., with power to vote or dispose of Beacon's securities. ^{1 2}

analysisAccording to both prospectuses, Rosebay Medical Company L.P.'s general partner was Rosebay Medical Company, Inc. The 2010 prospectus places voting and investment control over the partnership's holdings with Richard S. Sackler, Jonathan D. Sackler and Stephen A. Ives as directors and/or officers of that company, and the 2017 prospectus names Richard S. Sackler and Jonathan D. Sackler as its board, with power to vote or dispose of the partnership's securities. ^{1 2}

analysisExhibit X classes the corporate trustees on the Raymond Sackler side as family entities: Data LLC, Cornice Fiduciary Management LLC and Cedar Cliff Fiduciary Management Inc., all organised in Wyoming, are listed as RRS Family I-way entities and as current or former trustees. In a record retrieved in October 2026, Wyoming's Secretary of State shows Cedar Cliff as a domestic profit corporation first filed on 11 October 2019, active and in good standing, with its latest annual report filed on 5 August 2026 and tax delinquency notices recorded in 2020 and 2022; the registry does not show its owners. Cornice took over one trusteeship on 20 November 2018: an amended Schedule 13D on Amtech Systems, Inc. shares reports that Leslie J. Schreyer resigned that day as trustee of the trust under a Trust Agreement dated 23 December 1989 for the issue of Jonathan D. Sackler and that Cornice, whose officers were Schreyer and Jeffrey Robins of Norton Rose Fulbright (US) LLP, succeeded him. The filings do not say whether this is the trust that holds Perthlite under an agreement of the same date. ^{1 2 3 4}

analysisOther SEC filings show the Raymond side's investment vehicles and family office. A Form 4 of April 2015 on Key Technology, Inc. shares states that M3C Holdings LLC is wholly owned by a trust of 15 January 2004 whose sole beneficiary is Jonathan D. Sackler's wife and whose trustees are she and Richard S. Sackler, and that M3C reports holdings jointly with Leslie J. Schreyer as trustee of the 1989 trust for the issue of Jonathan D. Sackler. The 2018 Amtech filing describes Kokino LLC, at 201 Tresser Boulevard in Stamford, the street address of the debtors' headquarters, as a single-family office managing investments only for its family clients, among them that trust (whose trustee by then was Cornice), M3C and Piton Capital Partners LLC, which Kokino manages through Piton Capital Management LLC; Stephen A. Ives signed as vice president for M3C and for Kokino. Exhibit X classes M3C, Kokino and North Bay Associates, North Bay Eagle LLC and North Bay Trust Company Inc. as RRS Family I-way entities. North Bay Associates in Oklahoma City was Rosebay's care-of address in 2010, and the 2020 federal settlement lists North Bay Trust Company, as trustee of The 1974 Irrevocable Investment Trust, among the released Purdue Parent Entities. ^{5 1 3 6 7 8}

analysisIn the recitals of their settlement of 21 October 2020, the United States and Richard, David, Mortimer D.A. and Kathe Sackler and the estate of Jonathan Sackler (the "Named Sacklers") state that the Named Sacklers are beneficiaries of trusts that indirectly own Purdue Pharma L.P. Addendum A to that agreement, which sets out the conduct on which the United States based its civil claims, goes further: it states that Purdue was owned through trusts and controlled by the Sackler family, and that from at least 1996 to 2018 family members, as directors, officers, consultants and employees, directed and oversaw Purdue's opioid business. Ownership through trusts is not disputed elsewhere in the record; control and direction are the United States' allegations. The agreement is neither an admission of liability by the Named Sacklers nor a concession by the United States, and the Named Sacklers expressly deny the allegations. They agreed to pay $225,000,000 plus interest, which the Justice Department described as resolving their civil False Claims Act liability without any criminal release, and which the debtors record as paid directly to the Justice Department outside the plan. ^{1 2 3}

analysisIn its proof of claim of 30 July 2020 in the bankruptcy, the United States, as a creditor, had already asserted that PRA, the parent of Purdue, is ultimately owned and controlled by entities owned and controlled by or for the benefit of the Sacklers, and that the Sackler family owns and controls PRA and the PLP Associates Holdings and BR Holdings Associates entities. The ownership element matches the debtors' own statement; the assertion of family control was not adjudicated. The Justice Department's announcement of 21 October 2020 set Purdue's own $2.8 billion civil settlement of its False Claims Act liability beside the family's separate $225 million settlement. ^{4 2}

analysisThe State of New York's First Amended Complaint in its Suffolk County opioid case, reproduced as an exhibit to a letter rogatory of 13 September 2019, alleges that Purdue Pharma Inc. is the general partner of, and ultimately controls, Purdue Pharma L.P.; that Purdue Holdings L.P. (now PRA) wholly owns the limited partnership interest; that PLP Associates Holdings L.P., whose partners are PLP Associates Holdings Inc. and BR Holdings Associates L.P., is a limited partner of Purdue Holdings; and that Rosebay, whose general partner's board includes Richard and Jonathan Sackler, and Beacon are ultimately owned by trusts for the family defendants, who, the State pleads, used these entities as vehicles to transfer funds from Purdue to themselves. The ownership descriptions are broadly consistent with the debtors' statement and the SEC filings on Rosebay's general partner; the vehicle allegation was not adjudicated. No answers had been filed when the complaint was reproduced, and none is in the record. The case was not tried: on 11 October 2019, after the bankruptcy filings, the Bankruptcy Court temporarily halted all such litigation and then enjoined actions against Purdue and related parties, including family members and Beverly, Richard and Jonathan Sackler as trustees under the 1974 Trust Agreement, and Exhibit X to the confirmed plan's shareholder settlement lists PRA, the PLP and BR Holdings entities, Beacon and the Rosebay entities among the released parties. ^{1 2 3 4}

analysisThe State of Connecticut's amended complaint of 6 May 2019 alleges that Purdue Pharma Inc. controlled Purdue Pharma L.P. as its general partner and is liable for the partnership's misconduct as a matter of law, that the directors and chief executive of PPI controlled the partnership and the two companies shared the same chief executive, that PPI is also the general partner of Purdue Holdings L.P., which holds the limited partnership interest, and that Purdue Pharma L.P. employed the sales representatives and paid the doctors who promoted Purdue's drugs. Liability was not adjudicated, and the general-partner statement conflicts with the New York letter rogatory, which names BR Holdings Associates, Inc. as PRA's general partner; the record does not resolve the point. Connecticut's suit was halted by the same injunction of October and November 2019, and in 2022 Connecticut was among the eight states and the District of Columbia that, with the debtors and the Sacklers, filed a revised settlement with additional Sackler contributions and withdrew their opposition to the plan, including the shareholder releases. ^{2 5 6}

analysisThe letter rogatory itself, issued by the Suffolk County court at the State's request to obtain documents from Banela Corporation in the British Virgin Islands, describes Banela as sole owner of all Class A shares of Purdue Pharma Inc. for the benefit of Mortimer Sackler's family and as part-owner of BR Holdings Associates, Inc., which it calls PRA's general partner, and of PLP Associates Holdings, Inc., general partner of PLP Associates Holdings L.P. It records the State's belief that Banela, controlled directly or indirectly by the Sackler defendants, served as a conduit of money or an intermediary among the defendants; the court's own finding was only that Banela was likely to hold relevant information. The descriptions were drawn up on the State's application and are not findings on ownership: the Class A description fits the debtors' statement that Banela owns 50% of PPI, which does not mention share classes, and its description of PRA's general partner is contradicted by Connecticut's complaint, a conflict the record does not resolve. No statement by Banela is in the record; the service list names Debevoise & Plimpton LLP as attorneys for Banela together with Stillwater Holdings LLC, Stanhope Gate Corporation, Millborne, Heatheridge and Jonathan G. White. The injunction of 11 October 2019 halted the litigation, and Banela is among the Purdue Parent Entities released from the United States' civil claims in October 2020 and listed in Exhibit X. ^{1 2 7 4 8}

analysisThree points remain unresolved in the available records: the holders of the small remaining interests in PRA and in Rosebay Medical Company L.P. shown above are not identified; PRA's general partner is named differently in the New York and Connecticut pleadings described above; and the United States' 2020 settlement lists Cedar Cliff Fiduciary Management Inc. as trustee of "Trust U/A 11/5/74 fbo Beverly Sackler" (the "74A Trust"), which Exhibit X describes as a Raymond Sackler family trust indirectly owning Purdue: its date matches the 1974 Trust Agreement under which Richard and Jonathan Sackler held 98% of Rosebay at the 2019 petition date, as set out above, but no available record states that it is the same trust or when, if ever, its trusteeship passed to Cedar Cliff. ^{1 2 3}