November 21, 2007 (LPAC)--Purdue Frederick Co. (also known as Purdue Pharma) pleaded guilty on May 10, 2007, to federal charges of misrepresenting the addictive nature of its narcotic, Oxycontin. Abuse of the drug has led to many deaths, and many crimes by desperate addicts. The company and three of its top executives were ordered to pay a total of $634,515,475 in fines. Evidence presented at the trial showed that the company's own internal research reports warned about the "abuse potential," but the firm attempted to play down or cover up the problem.

In May, 2002, when the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Food and Drug Administration began probing overdose deaths attributed to Oxycontin, Purdue hired Giuliani Partners, the private lobbying firm of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, to run interference on the matter. At that time Giuliani, publicly praised the firm, saying "Purdue has demonstrated its commitment to fighting this problem" of Oxycontin abuse.

Giluiani met repeatedly with US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) leaders, including DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson. Giuliani raised thousands of dollars for a new DEA Museum, and posed for photographs with Hutchinson and others at the museum's ribbon-cutting ceremony. According to the 2006 book Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, Giuliani also got himself onto a panel created by the DEA to decide whether to allow only physicians specializing in pain control to prescribe Oxycontin, and that the DEA decided, in favor of Giuliani's client, NOT to restrict the drug.

Rudy Giuliani's partner, former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, also met with DEA chief Hutchinson while lobbying for Oxycontin. Kerik was assigned to security for Oxycontin manufacturing, as federal investigators found Purdue was not following record-keeping laws designed to prevent leakage to dope trafickers. Kerik left Giuliani Partners in 2005 when he came under criminal investigation, and was indicted Nov. 8, 2007 on federal charges of tax fraud, obstruction of justice, and lying to government officials checking his background.

In addition to lobbying for Purdue Pharma, Rudy Giuliani also became the firm's chief attorney and spokesman: he was hired by Purdue's Bush-connected Texas law firm, Bracewell and Patterson, which changed its name to Bracewell and Giuliani. Rudy Giluiani led Purdue's negotiations with federal prosecutors, resulting in a plea bargain and the fines.