Attorney General Miyares Announces Historic $650 Million Criminal Resolution with McKinsey & Co.

RICHMOND, VA — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares today announced McKinsey & Co. has agreed to pay $650 million in a deferred prosecution agreement to resolve a federal criminal investigation into its consulting work advising Purdue Pharma on how to increase sales of its addictive opioid drug OxyContin.

This resolution marks the first time a management consulting firm has been held criminally responsible for advice resulting in the commission of a crime by a client.

“By holding McKinsey accountable for its role in enabling Purdue Pharma’s reckless promotion of OxyContin, an addictive opioid that devastated communities across Virginia and the nation, treating innocent lives as mere chemistry experiments, this historic $650 million resolution sends a clear message: no one, not even the world’s largest consulting firm, is above the law,” said Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.

As part of the resolution, McKinsey acknowledges its role in aiding and abetting the misbranding of prescription drugs and obstructing justice by knowingly destroying and concealing records and documents related to the investigation. Additionally, Martin Elling, a former McKinsey senior partner who worked on Purdue matters has been charged with obstruction of justice in federal court in Abingdon, Virginia.

The Virginia Attorney General’s award-winning Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU), in collaboration with the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Western District of Virginia and the District of Massachusetts, conducted an investigation into McKinsey’s role advising opioid manufacturers, including Purdue Pharma. The MFCU hosted and reviewed over 6.5 million pages of evidence, led by its eDiscovery team.

Virginia Senior Assistant Attorneys General Kimberly Bolton and Kristin Gray served as Special Assistant United States Attorneys, prosecuting the case in federal court. Virginia was the only state MFCU engaged in this effort with the Department of Justice.

The Virginia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) continues to build on its successful partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District including the 2007 Purdue Pharma resolution, Abbott Laboratories' Depakote settlements, and the Suboxone resolutions with Reckitt Benckiser and Indivior. This long-running partnership has allowed the MFCU to operate at no cost to Virginia taxpayers since 2007.

The Virginia MFCU is funded through a grant totaling $19,509,524 for Federal Fiscal Year 2025, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-Office of Inspector General. The Federal Share of these funds is 75% totaling $14,632,143. The State Matching Share of these funds is 25% totaling $4,877,381and funded by Virginia.

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