The Sackler family is one of the richest families in America. They made billions upon billions of dollars selling drugs to Americans through their pharmaceutical outfit, Perdue Pharma. Their OxyContin, the synthetic heroin-like painkiller—which they pushed and lied about—is the foundational drug that has led to our country’s opioid health crisis. With all of their money, the Sacklers have been able to buy candidates and politicians’ souls while also funding anti-democracy voter suppression initiatives. Just ask Republican bottom-feeder Sen. Susan Collins of Maine about the Sacklers if you want the company line repeated back at you.

On Wednesday, the Sackler empire made it over what some are calling a “major hurdle” in their attempts to use the bankruptcy courts of our country to protect their fortunes from thousands of lawsuits. Perdue Pharmaceuticals filed for bankruptcy back in 2019 and not unlike fellow death purveyor the NRA, the move was a clear attempt to create immunity from developing legal problems. On Wednesday, NPR reports, “Federal Judge Robert Drain in White Plains, N.Y., moved the controversial deal forward despite objections from dozens of state attorneys general, setting the stage for a final vote by the company’s creditors expected this summer.”

This comes after attorneys general in 21 states rejected a reported $18 billion settlement offer from the pharmaceutical giant because that price was far too low, considering that conservative estimates of the financial cost of the opioid crisis in our country are a quarter of a trillion dollars. (That’s trillion with a “T.”) Wednesday’s decision is a step forward in the bankruptcy process that could extend immunity to “dozens of family members, more than 160 financial trusts, and at least 170 companies, consultants and other entities associated with the Sacklers.”

This is why Melissa Jacoby, a bankruptcy law expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told Ars Technica back in 2019 that the Sacklers were to get “the benefit of bankruptcy without the burdens of bankruptcy.” Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey told NPR last month that if this deal ends up finalized, it would truly be a case of the rich buying their own justice. “The bankruptcy system should not be allowed to shield non-bankrupt billionaires. It would set a terrible precedent. If the Sacklers are allowed to use bankruptcy to escape the consequences of their actions, it would be a roadmap for other powerful bad actors.”

The general estimate on what the Sacklers have personally pulled in off of OxyContin over the decades comes to about $35 billion. The proposed settlement of $10-$12 billion that Perdue Pharma would put into a public trust (to settle the over 2,000 lawsuits they are facing) would reportedly force the Sackler outfit to part with $4 billion. Depending on where you look, the 20-member Sackler clan is estimated to have a total net worth of between $11 billion and $13 billion.

To put that into language we can understand, imagine I walked into your house and trashed it to the tune of $25,000 in damages. Part of those damages included me taking your television and your computer back to my place so I could have a new television and computer. Then I offered you $100 dollars to shut up and leave me alone. Oh, no—I keep the television and the computer. It is mine, if you haven’t forgotten. I worked hard to trash your place and get my hands on those electronics.

Between 1999 and 2017, the U.S. government estimates that just under half a million people have died due to opioid-related addiction. In a brief filed with the court in April before this decision to move forward with the Sackler family proposal was put forward, opponents of the parameters of the deal wrote:

Over the next few weeks, hundreds of thousands of people, numerous companies, and dozens of states and governments will vote on the package that just cleared on Wednesday. Considering the power of the Sacklers and the billions in resources they could use to tie up the courts for years to come, it is believed the package will pass. The final confirmation hearing is set for Aug. 9.