Well over half-a-billion dollars is the settlement that the international giant management consulting firm McKinsey & Company agreed to in order to avoid federal criminal prosecution. Their website indicates involvement with aspects of factory-built housing. Their reach is vast. As an example, with respect to the case report that will follow in Part I below, Responsible Statecraft stated on 2.3.2023 in an article entitled: “In their new book “When McKinsey Comes to Town,” New York Times reporters Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe reveal how McKinsey’s decision to venture into the public sector at home and abroad created a business model rife with conflicts of interest. Domestically, some of these exploits are well-known, such as McKinsey advising the FDA while also advising pharmaceutical giant Purdue Pharma. Internationally, McKinsey’s work at times appears equally rife with potential conflicts of interest, courting state clients as diverse as the Pentagon, China, and Saudi Arabia.” “But even as McKinsey took up hundreds of millions of dollars in defense contracts, it also advised a cadre of foreign companies and governments. McKinsey’s own website brags about these connections: “We have long-standing relationships with ministries and departments of defense worldwide.” The case on the surface may not seem to have a similarity to issues involving manufactured housing, but Bing’s AI powered Copilot suggested otherwise. “The situation with McKinsey and the opioid crisis does indeed have parallels to other industries where systemic issues and corporate behavior have led to significant legal and financial consequences,” said Copilot. “Regarding the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) and potential collusion among its board members and corporate leaders, there have been allegations and concerns about market manipulation and defrauding their own members. If these allegations were proven, it could potentially lead to state or federal liabilities, similar to how McKinsey faced consequences for their role in the opioid crisis1.” Copilot linked a report about MHI and some of those possible parallels in article found here.
Yahoo Finance noted that “BlackRock, State Street and Vanguard are ‘arguably the most powerful cartel in human history’, Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy” said on
Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has taken aim at some of America’s biggest money managers.
He described BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard as “the most powerful cartel in human history”.
The ‘Big Three’ investment firms hold significant shareholder rights in most S&P 500 companies,
Some state attorney generals and others who are studying a ‘rigged system’ may agree with Ramaswamy.
While now President-Elect Trump won the Republican nomination and campaign, Ramaswamy and centi-billionaire Elon Musk are on point with Trump 2.0 in what has been called DOGE: the “Department of Government Efficiency.”
Going back to what Responsible Statecraft wrote:
The FDA has announced it will no longer issue federal contracts to McKinsey, but the Pentagon remains one of McKinsey’s largest clients. Bogdanich and Forsythe write that perhaps the United States could learn from South Africa, where McKinsey is facing its first criminal charges in the firm’s 96-year history in a corruption scandal over the diversion of public funds into private hands:
“McKinsey had long profited from government contracts without accepting the responsibility to account for how it spent the public’s money. In the United States, its prestige and political connections, as well as the country’s favorable regulatory laws, often insulated the firm from questions about those contracts. It is surprising, then, that it took South Africa, a fragile democracy barely two decades old, to teach McKinsey lessons about accountability that it hadn’t learned in the United States.”
Left-leaning Bing’s AI powered Copilot said the following about McKinsey consulting with HUD on affordable housing, citing McKinsey’s own website.
Yes, McKinsey & Company has worked with various organizations in the housing sector, including HUD. For example, McKinsey has provided insights and recommendations on affordable housing and the Homeowner Assistance Fund program.
The report about the case McKinsey & Company settled is found in Part I, which the firm is said to have remarked that their role in the Purdue Pharma case has been the: ‘Source of profound regret.” MHVille readers can consider the facts and possible parallels themselves. More on that aspect of the possible issues involving manufactured housing are found in the added facts-evidence and analysis (FEA) provided in Part II.
Part I: From the WND News Center to MHProNews is the following.
CONTROLLING THE SUBSTANCES
Firm pays half-billion settlement to avoid criminal prosecution for fueling opioid crisis
International management consulting firm advised Purdue Pharma to ‘turbocharge’ sales of Oxycontin during the height of the drug crisis: ‘Source of profound regret’
By Adam Pack, Daily Caller News Foundation | December 14, 2024
A consulting giant that helped fuel the United States’ deadly opioid epidemic agreed to pay a massive settlement to avoid criminal prosecution, according to court papers filed Friday.
McKinsey & Company, an international management consulting firm that advised Purdue Pharma to “turbocharge” sales of Oxycontin during the height of the opioid crisis, entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) that will require the firm to pay a $650 million settlement over five years.
A former senior McKinsey employee also pleaded guilty to an obstruction of justice charge for destroying records detailing the consulting giant’s work for Purdue.
The McKinsey settlement is the latest in a string of lawsuits seeking accountability from corporations and consulting firms for contributing to the opioid crisis.
The epidemic, created in part from the work of Purdue and McKinsey to market OxyContin to millions of Americans, has taken more than 500,000 lives and left a trail of devastation in its wake, particularly in parts of rural America.
“McKinsey schemed with Purdue Pharma to ‘turbocharge’ OxyContin sales during a raging opioid epidemic — an epidemic that continues to decimate families and communities across the nation,” U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy for the District of Massachusetts, who sued McKinsey alongside an attorney for the Western District of Virginia over the firm’s consulting work for Purdue, wrote following the settlement. “Consulting firms like McKinsey should get the message: if the advice you give to companies in boardrooms and PowerPoint presentations aids and abets criminal activity, we will come after you and we will expose the truth.”
“We are deeply sorry for our past client service to Purdue Pharma and the actions of a former partner who deleted documents related to his work for that client,” the consulting firm wrote in a statement following the settlement. “We should have appreciated the harm opioids were causing in our society and we should not have undertaken sales and marketing work for Purdue Pharma. This terrible public health crisis and our past work for opioid manufacturers will always be a source of profound regret for our firm.”
McKinsey has previously agreed to pay nearly $1 billion to other plaintiffs to end lawsuits tied to the firm’s work with Purdue.
—
Part II – Additional Information with More MHProNews Facts-Evidence-Analysis
1) Regarding the case cited above, left-leaning CNN reported the following.
McKinsey previously reached agreements totaling nearly $1 billion to settle widespread lawsuits and other legal actions alleging the company helped fuel the opioid epidemic through its work advising OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and other drugmakers.
In 2019, McKinsey announced it would no longer advise clients on opioid-related businesses. The company has maintained that none of its settlements contain admissions of liability or wrongdoing.
2) To frame what follows consider the following pull quotes.
“McKinsey schemed with Purdue Pharma to ‘turbocharge’ OxyContin sales during a raging opioid epidemic — an epidemic that continues to decimate families and communities across the nation,” U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy for the District of Massachusetts, who sued McKinsey alongside an attorney for the Western District of Virginia over the firm’s consulting work for Purdue, wrote following the settlement. “Consulting firms like McKinsey should get the message: if the advice you give to companies in boardrooms and PowerPoint presentations aids and abets criminal activity, we will come after you and we will expose the truth.”
3) Copilot when asked about this case said this (bold emphasis added).
“The situation with McKinsey and the opioid crisis does indeed have parallels to other industries where systemic issues and corporate behavior have led to significant legal and financial consequences.”
“Regarding the Manufactured Housing Institute (MHI) and potential collusion among its board members and corporate leaders, there have been allegations and concerns about market manipulation and defrauding their own members. If these allegations were proven, it could potentially lead to state or federal liabilities, similar to how McKinsey faced consequences for their role in the opioid crisis1.”
Copilot linked a report about MHI and some of those possible parallels in article found here and also linked below.
4) Neither too much, nor too little should be made with regard to possible parallels between what occurs in other industries and what happens, or not, in manufactured housing There are obviously many potential connections or parallels.
5) On this date, the McKinsey website has some of the following featured segments/topics.
- World Economic Forum: A preview of Davos 2025
- The industries reshaping our global economy
- McKinsey Global Institute: 2024 in charts
At the base of their home page are statements by the corporation that include their 75-page deferred prosecution agreement. Meaning, if McKinsey fails in some way to live up to that agreement, they could still face criminal charges.
Their full formal corporate statement as shown on their home page on this date is as follows.
Deferred Prosecution Agreement Relating to Our Work for Purdue Pharma
McKinsey & Co. released the following statement after the Department of Justice resolved its investigation into the firm’s past client service to Purdue Pharma.
December 13, 2024 – We are deeply sorry for our past client service to Purdue Pharma and the actions of a former partner who deleted documents related to his work for that client. We should have appreciated the harm opioids were causing in our society and we should not have undertaken sales and marketing work for Purdue Pharma. This terrible public health crisis and our past work for opioid manufacturers will always be a source of profound regret for our firm.
In the deferred prosecution agreement with DOJ, we have agreed to accept responsibility for our conduct and agreed to the facts and allegations underlying the charges against McKinsey U.S. for misdemeanor conspiracy to aid and abet in misbranding and felony obstruction by a now-former senior partner. In addition, McKinsey U.S. has agreed to settle a related civil False Claims Act investigation and to enter into a Corporate Integrity Agreement with the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services. Under the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement, McKinsey will:
- Pay $650 million over the next five years, which includes a $2 million payment to the Virginia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the forfeiture of all fees received from Purdue Pharma;
- Maintain an enhanced compliance program to prevent and detect violations of law;
- Refrain from any work related to the marketing, sale, promotion, or distribution of controlled substances;
- Be subject to contempt proceedings if we violate any provision of the agreement;
- Be subject to DOJ and HHS/OIG oversight of our compliance obligations; and
- Continue to cooperate with the DOJ’s investigation.
Today’s resolution brings closure to this chapter in our firm’s history. Since these issues first arose, we have significantly enhanced our risk management processes to ensure we never find ourselves in this situation again, including by introducing industry-leading client service policies and a revised code of conduct that leaves no doubt about the expectations of every one of our colleagues, alongside a substantial financial investment in our control functions. Though we wish we had taken these steps sooner, we are committed to building on them to ensure that McKinsey sets the standard for accountability and compliance across our profession.
Those same items on the MHProNews website are linked below.
A) McKinsey-Deferred Prosecution Agreement
B) 4 Page U.S. Attorney Information on McKinsey case
C) 71 Page of Agreed Statement of Facts in McKinsey case
Per the 3rd document above: Case 1:24-cr-00046-RSB-PMS is styled as: Criminal No. 1:24CR46 United States District Court Western District of Virginia in United States of America v. McKinsey & Company, Inc. United States. The 71-page agreed statement of facts was filed on 12.13.2024.
6) Other reports that may have some bearing on the possible parallels of concern to MHVille are posted further below. But first, as Luke Goldstein indicated in his own words via the left-leaning The American Prospect (TAP), the public is increasingly concerned with corporate power, which he believed pre-election was at a “crossroads,” regardless of who won. Obviously now, we know the 2024 election was carried by former and future President Donald J. Trump. What is being described by some as Trump 2.0 is beginning to take shape. Several prominent anti-Trump corporate giants, including Meta and Amazon linked firms are donating a million dollars each to the Trump inauguration fund. Note that TAP carried an article by Joe Biden this week, which may or may not be included in a planned article in our wider ranging series on the mainstream media site, Patch.
Despite the $1 Million donation to Trump’s inauguration, no one is buying the patriotic put-on from Mark Zuckerberg.pic.twitter.com/k3CmBZPdoY
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) December 12, 2024
Jeff Bezos’ Amazon Planning $1 Million Donation To Trump Inauguration—Matching Metahttps://t.co/alKbBNqWHn pic.twitter.com/FqQx3mxhve
— Forbes (@Forbes) December 13, 2024
Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman to give $1 million each to Trump inauguration fund | Hannah Nightingale, The Post Millenial
Amazon’s donation to the fund comes as Bezos, the company’s executive chairman, plans to visit Trump next week at Mar-a-Lago.
Silicon Valley tech… pic.twitter.com/xG5Jpfv1Rb
— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) December 14, 2024
7) Other articles of possible interest that can shed light on problematic behavior operating in MHVille are shown below.
This Patch post is one that uses an example from manufactured housing.
Surveys revealed pre-election that increasingly unaffordable housing costs were part of the motivations for the public breaking in favor of Trump-Vance and which gave the Republicans a majority in the U.S. House and Senate. The article with interactrive graphic below is a broader look at housing with some manufactured housing specific insights.
Several of the articles below will offer manufactured housing specific insights on antitrust and competition law, which will include some potential conflicts of interest related topics that could be useful in the context of this report.
8) It is obvious that the future is uncertain. It always has been and will continue to be so. But even some among Democrats or the left are recognizing or acknowledging that a realignment may be occurring as Trump and the MAGA movement connected with more young people, more women, more Blacks and Hispanics, and generally ‘more’ of the public. Trump is the first Republican since 2004 to win the popular vote nationally, as well as the Electoral College by a wide margin. An increasingly common claim is that the MAGA movement is becoming a working-class and middle-class movement. Democrats, which have several ties to McKinsey, is increasingly being seen as the party of big business, big media and the uber wealthy. This writer for MHProNews reported on those developments before and since on this site and in our ongoing series on the mainstream Patch. The known data tells MHProNews that our website attracts multiple times the readers that MHI gets. We also apparently dwarf MHI linked bloggers and trade publications. While this article has considered possible parallels and possible inferences or takeaways from what has occurred with McKinsey, other planned items at this time for the week ahead will be more apparently manufactured housing industry developments. As always, stay tuned, because inquiring minds want to know. According to the DOJ website: “Joshua S. Levy is the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. Mr. Levy was appointed to the position of U.S. Attorney by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland on November 25, 2024, after serving as Acting U.S. Attorney since May 2023.” We’ll close this article on this quote with bold added for emphasis and think about possible MHVille parallels.
U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy for the District of Massachusetts, who sued McKinsey alongside an attorney for the Western District of Virginia over the firm’s consulting work for Purdue, wrote following the settlement. “Consulting firms like McKinsey should get the message: if the advice you give to companies in boardrooms and PowerPoint presentations aids and abets criminal activity, we will come after you and we will expose the truth.”
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By L.A. “Tony” Kovach – for MHProNews.com.
Tony earned a journalism scholarship and earned numerous awards in history and in manufactured housing.
For example, he earned the prestigious Lottinville Award in history from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied history and business management. He’s a managing member and co-founder of LifeStyle Factory Homes, LLC, the parent company to MHProNews, and MHLivingNews.com.
This article reflects the LLC’s and/or the writer’s position and may or may not reflect the views of sponsors or supporters.
Connect on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/latonykovach
Related References:
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