It's a loss of ~1/2 of their net worth. That's significant.
They are now likely to pay much less by settling smaller individual cases, which will take significantly longer and cost claimants significantly more to pursue.
When they die (which will be soon, most of them are 75+) it'll become even more difficult to get anything.
The deal that was overruled was certainly not justice, but reality will likely be worse. There's no outcome that will render them not billionaires within their lifetimes.
predictably, the end of a long campaign of bad pr, and government pressure (which is now fairly deflated)
the settlement was also in the interest of the government, which may now end up with tens of thousands of separate suits to manage and $6bn less to help manage the crisis
don't get me wrong, the sacklers could end up worse off... but it's a big if and will take much much longer
> It's a loss of ~1/2 of their net worth. That's significant.
It's a gain of billions of dollars that everyone agrees they should not have had in the first place. That's significant.
It's pretty telling that literally nobody says that the Sackler family should actually have this money, just varying degrees of it being hard to claw back from them.
There's no strong legal structure to allow it, the US justice system strongly favors the rich and corporations. Loose consensus isn't enough if there's no legal mechanism to do so.
The deal was pragmatic in the absence of a clear path for actual consequences.
It would be easier to rally an angry mob at this point.
It sounds like you agree with me, since this is exactly a variation of it being hard to claw back, which is annoyingly analogous to letting rich people get away with whatever they want including theft and murder because trying is hard.
They are now likely to pay much less by settling smaller individual cases, which will take significantly longer and cost claimants significantly more to pursue.
When they die (which will be soon, most of them are 75+) it'll become even more difficult to get anything.
The deal that was overruled was certainly not justice, but reality will likely be worse. There's no outcome that will render them not billionaires within their lifetimes.
reply