McKinsey & Company

McKinsey worked with Purdue Pharma from approximately 2004 to 2019, advising the company on how to maximize OxyContin sales as the opioid epidemic mounted. Internal documents showed McKinsey recommended targeting "pill mill" physicians with intensified sales visits, and proposed paying insurance companies rebates of up to $14,000 per patient who became addicted or overdosed. Former Senior Partner Martin Elling pled guilty to obstruction of justice in 2024 for destroying Purdue-related documents from his laptop during the DOJ investigation. Total settlements: $573 million (47-state multistate, 2021) plus $650 million (DOJ criminal and civil, 2024). McKinsey's consulting work spanned the years when prescription opioid deaths accelerated toward 80,000 per year.

• —McKinsey's "Evolve to Excellence" initiative (2013–2015) was described internally as aimed at "turbocharging" OxyContin sales.
• —McKinsey proposed secret rebate payments to insurers of up to $14,000 per overdose event linked to Purdue opioids — documented in internal work product.
• —Former Senior Partner Martin Elling pled guilty to felony obstruction of justice for deleting Purdue files from his laptop during the DOJ investigation.
• —22 McKinsey consultants simultaneously worked for both FDA and opioid manufacturers on related assignments. McKinsey held $140M+ in FDA contracts, including from CDER, the opioid oversight division.
• —No disclosure of the Purdue relationship was made to FDA despite federal conflict-of-interest regulations.
• —$573M: 47-state multistate settlement, February 4, 2021, led by California AG Becerra.
• —$650M: DOJ criminal and civil resolution, December 2024, including Elling's guilty plea.
• —(Editorial): McKinsey's work product was the architecture of a sales strategy that killed people. The settlements name this. The guilty plea confirms the firm's awareness of its own exposure.

Source:California AG settlement (Feb 2021); DOJ press release (Dec 2024); NPR reporting on DOJ resolution

Between 2012 and 2016, McKinsey Africa paid bribes to secure consulting contracts with Eskom (South Africa's state power utility) and Transnet (state freight rail), working through connected firms Regiments Capital and Trillian — part of the "state capture" network around President Jacob Zuma and the Gupta family that looted South African public institutions. McKinsey netted approximately $85 million from these arrangements. In December 2024, the firm reached criminal resolutions in both jurisdictions: $123 million to the DOJ (FCPA conspiracy) and approximately $60M to the South African National Prosecuting Authority. Former Senior Partner Vikas Sagar pled guilty to FCPA conspiracy.

• —South Africa's Zondo Commission found McKinsey, alongside Bain & Company and Bell Pottinger, "facilitated the capture of key institutions and state-owned entities."
• —McKinsey worked through Regiments Capital and Trillian — firms connected to the Gupta family's state capture network — to secure contracts at Eskom and Transnet.
• —McKinsey netted approximately $85 million in profits from these state capture engagements.
• —$123M: DOJ FCPA settlement (McKinsey Africa), December 2024.
• —R1.1 billion (~$60M USD): South African NPA settlement into Criminal Assets Recovery Account.
• —Former Senior Partner Vikas Sagar pled guilty to FCPA conspiracy. McKinsey agreed to a 3-year deferred prosecution agreement.
• —McKinsey had separately repaid R1 billion (~$55M) to Eskom in 2017 after early parliamentary admissions, before the full criminal resolution a decade later.

Source:CNBC: McKinsey $123M FCPA settlement (Dec 2024); Mail & Guardian: Zondo Commission findings (April 2022)

McKinsey held over $20 million in ICE and Customs and Border Protection consulting contracts and recommended operational cost-cutting that targeted food, medical care, and facility maintenance for detained migrants. Internal ICE documents and participant interviews documented by ProPublica showed McKinsey proposed routing detainees to cheaper rural county jails regardless of safety standards, and designed staffing efficiency plans to accelerate the deportation pipeline. Career ICE staff pushed back in "heated meetings." McKinsey ended its ICE contract in July 2018 following internal employee protests — then signed an $8.4 million CBP contract one week later, running through September 2020.

• —An ICE supervisor's email documented that McKinsey was "looking for ways to cut or reduce standards because they are too costly."
• —McKinsey proposed routing migrants to "low cost beds" — cheaper rural county jails — before more expensive facilities, without documented consideration of safety conditions.
• —Recommendations included cuts to detention facility food, medical, and maintenance budgets.
• —The most aggressive proposals were reportedly rejected by ICE career officials. Some cost-cutting was implemented.
• —McKinsey ended its ICE engagement in July 2018 after employees circulated an internal protest letter.
• —One week later, McKinsey signed a $2M CBP contract. A subsequent $8.4M CBP contract ran through September 2020.
• —No criminal charges have been filed. No settlement. McKinsey denied ProPublica's reporting; ProPublica documented the denial and repeated its findings.

Source:ProPublica: How McKinsey Helped the Trump Administration Implement Its Immigration Policies (2019)

A 2016 McKinsey report analyzing social media responses to Saudi Arabia's austerity program identified three Twitter accounts posting negative commentary on royal policy as "key influencers." One was Omar Abdulaziz — a close associate of Jamal Khashoggi living in Canada and therefore beyond Saudi reach. The other two were inside Saudi Arabia. Following Khashoggi's assassination in October 2018, Abdulaziz alleged in a lawsuit that all critics named in the McKinsey report had subsequently been imprisoned. McKinsey acknowledged the report's existence and said it consisted of "publicly available information" and "was never commissioned by the Saudi government." Abdulaziz's lawsuit was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds — not on the merits. McKinsey's Saudi Arabia revenues grew following Khashoggi's killing, through Vision 2030 mega-project engagements.

• —The McKinsey report identified three critics of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's economic program by Twitter handle and follower count.
• —Omar Abdulaziz — a close associate of Khashoggi and Canadian resident — was one of the three named.
• —Abdulaziz alleged all critics named in the report who were inside Saudi Arabia were subsequently imprisoned.
• —McKinsey stated the document "was never commissioned by the Saudi government" and "was intended for internal use only."
• —McKinsey did not deny the report existed, or that it had reached Saudi authorities.
• —Abdulaziz's 2022 lawsuit was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds. The merits were not adjudicated.
• —McKinsey revenues from Saudi Arabia — including Vision 2030 consulting — grew in the years after Khashoggi's killing.

Source:Newsweek: Exiled Saudi dissident sues McKinsey (2022); Bloomberg Law: case dismissal

McKinsey served the tobacco industry from approximately 1956 to 2021 — 66 years. Its clients included Philip Morris International, Altria (Philip Morris USA), British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International, and RJ Reynolds. Between 2018 and 2020 alone, McKinsey earned at least $45 million from tobacco clients. Work during this period included designing a Marlboro smartphone app (2016) engineered to retain smokers and encourage higher consumption, and developing customer loyalty programs for cigarette brands. During the same period, McKinsey held FDA consulting contracts relevant to the agency's tobacco oversight function, and also consulted for JUUL during the period FDA was investigating the vaping epidemic. McKinsey publicly ended its tobacco relationships in 2021 — sixty-five years after the link between cigarettes and lung cancer was established as scientific consensus.

• —66-year relationship with the tobacco industry: approximately 1956–2021.
• —Clients included Philip Morris International, Altria, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco International, RJ Reynolds, Rothmans, Lorillard, Brown & Williamson.
• —At least $45M in tobacco revenue between 2018 and 2020; at least $30M from Altria alone.
• —McKinsey designed a Marlboro smartphone app (2016) for customer retention and increased consumption.
• —McKinsey simultaneously held FDA contracts including work relevant to tobacco oversight; also consulted for JUUL during the FDA vaping investigation.
• —McKinsey announced it was ending tobacco consulting in 2021 — the same year its opioid settlements became public.
• —(Editorial): 66 years. The industry killed 8 million people per year globally by the time McKinsey stopped serving it.

Source:Tobacco Tactics: McKinsey tobacco history; NPR: McKinsey consulting both companies and regulators

McKinsey's business model is predicated on client confidentiality and institutional prestige. Across opioid marketing, ICE detention cost-cutting, Saudi dissident mapping, tobacco brand building, and foreign bribery, the pattern is consistent: McKinsey provides the intellectual architecture; clients execute; when exposure comes, the firm settles or cooperates, the partners move on, and the prestige remains intact. The firm simultaneously advised opioid manufacturers and the FDA office that oversaw them. It simultaneously advised Purdue to sell more OxyContin and collected money from the government agency that was supposed to regulate Purdue. Two partners have now pled guilty to federal crimes. The firm has not been charged. It remains the world's most prestigious consulting firm. That is the structure McKinsey's business model requires: too embedded in power to disrupt, too useful to punish.

• —McKinsey simultaneously held FDA contracts and Purdue Pharma contracts without disclosure. The House Oversight Committee documented this in 2022.
• —Two McKinsey senior partners have pled guilty to federal crimes (Elling: obstruction; Sagar: FCPA conspiracy). No firm-level criminal charges have been filed.
• —McKinsey's "client confidentiality" doctrine means its internal work product is never disclosed unless compelled by litigation. Settlement agreements include NDAs that cap public accountability.
• —Advising Purdue, advising ICE, advising Saudi Crown Prince, advising tobacco companies: the through-line is not ideology. It is the willingness to advise anyone who can pay, with the prestige that launders their conduct.
• —(Editorial): McKinsey is not uniquely evil. It is uniquely powerful. The distinction matters because power without accountability is the condition under which all of these outcomes became possible.

Source:House Oversight Committee report on McKinsey/FDA conflicts (April 2022)