USA v. Rattini, et al.

  1. June 27, 2023

    Supreme Court's Opioid Edict Spawns 'Troubling' Divisions

    Against long odds, two doctors facing decades in prison implored the U.S. Supreme Court to harmonize jury instructions in opioid crisis prosecutions, insisting that innocence in one circuit could be guilt in another. They ultimately prevailed, but one year later, the circuit split surprisingly appears even starker, as one of the doctors eyes freedom, and the other still might live out his life behind bars.

  2. September 09, 2022

    Inside The Collapse Of A Pioneering Opioid Case For DOJ

    The U.S. Department of Justice launched a "terribly flawed" criminal case against a drug distributor and several individuals amid pressure to alleviate Appalachia's opioid crisis, and a newly confirmed U.S. attorney displayed "courage and guts" by ending the case last month, defense counsel told Law360 in an expansive interview.

  3. August 12, 2022

    Appalachia Opioid Charges Dropped After High Court Ruling

    The U.S. Department of Justice has dropped its charges against the remaining defendants in a case accusing a defunct drug distributor, two of its executives and two pharmacists of colluding to flood small towns in Appalachia with highly addictive painkillers, after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling made such cases harder to prove.

  4. December 15, 2021

    Defunct Opioid Distributor's Compliance Manager Takes Plea

    The former compliance manager for a defunct drug distributor pled guilty on Wednesday to hiding his knowledge of the company's conspiracy to flood Appalachia with opioids as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors, according to his case in Ohio federal court.

  5. March 09, 2021

    Opioid Distributor, Execs Can't Escape DOJ Indictments

    An Ohio federal judge has refused to toss allegations that a defunct drug distributor and two former executives conspired to flood Appalachia with opioids, saying they mischaracterized the accusations against them.

  6. October 21, 2020

    Where DOJ's Opioid Blitz Stands After Purdue's Criminal Case

    The U.S. Department of Justice's multibillion-dollar felony case blaming Purdue Pharma for "a national tragedy of addiction and deaths" involving narcotic painkillers is just one part of the DOJ's fast-growing criminal crackdown on the drug industry's opioid-crisis profiteering.

  7. June 01, 2020

    Drug Co. Wants 'Free Pass' For Shady Opioid Sales, DOJ Says

    A drug distributor and two executives indicted for allegedly conspiring to flood Appalachia with opioids are brazenly arguing they had "carte blanche" to sell highly addictive painkillers without a legitimate medical need, the U.S. Department of Justice told an Ohio federal court Monday.

  8. May 29, 2020

    Feds Fight Pharmacists' Bid To Ax Opioid Indictment

    Federal prosecutors have defended the indictment of two pharmacists accused of conspiring with drug distributor Miami-Luken Inc. to flood rural towns with addictive painkillers, telling an Ohio federal judge that evidence at trial will show how they and the defunct company profited from the opioid addiction epidemic.

  9. April 30, 2020

    DOJ Opioid Indictment Unconstitutional, Drug Distributor Says

    An indictment accusing drug distributor Miami-Luken Inc. of inundating Appalachia with addictive painkillers is an unconstitutional overreach, the company told an Ohio federal judge Thursday in a direct attack on stronger opioid-crisis enforcement by the U.S. Department of Justice.

  10. July 18, 2019

    DOJ Indicts Opioid Distributor, Execs Over Painkiller Sales

    Drug distributor Miami-Luken Inc. flooded rural towns with painkillers to profit off an epidemic of opioid addiction, the U.S. Department of Justice said in an indictment unsealed Thursday that targets the company and two of its executives.