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Dr. Robert Cao, 39, was sentenced in US District Court for the District of Columbia to 15 months in prison on five felony counts of unlawful distribution of a controlled substance outside the scope of his professional practice, federal officials announced.
According to court documents, Cao, who was licensed to practice medicine in the District of Columbia and Virginia wrote multiple prescriptions for the controlled substances at least five times in 2021 to a man identified by federal officials as “V.C.”
Cao would provide the prescriptions to the victim, despite there being no doctor-patient relationship. He also never examined “V.C.,” who reportedly had no diagnosis, treatment plan, or medical prescriptions that would require such medication.
In May 2021, first responders responded to a Fairfax home, where “V.C.’s” girlfriend found him cold and unresponsive. He was pronounced dead under suspicious circumstances at the time.
On the nightstand next to where the victim was located, first responders found prescription bottles, including one containing Percocet pills that had been filled the previous week with Cao as the prescribing doctor.
A subsequent autopsy on “V.C.” determined the exact cause of death as acute combined oxycodone and ethanol poisoning.
During the investigation, prosecutors say that there were also text message exchanges between Cao and the overdose victim in which the two discussed “V.C.” kicking back some of the pills the doctor prescribed to him.
They also spoke the night before the overdose.
“Medical professionals take an oath to do no harm to their patients and public, but in this case, Robert Cao wrote unnecessary prescriptions for highly addictive narcotics,” Special Agent in Charge Wayne A. Jacobs, of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Criminal and Cyber Division stated.
“As demonstrated by this investigation, the risks presented by opioid diversion outside of proper clinical practice are such that even a few illicit prescriptions can prove fatal.”
Following the fatal overdose, prosecutors say that Cao then took elaborate steps in an attempt to avoid being linked to “V.C.”
He advised the victim not to create a paper trail, and to fill the prescriptions at times when they were least likely to be questioned by pharmacies, according to investigators.
Cao also hid the pad that he used to write the man prescriptions, which he took from a District of Columbia cosmetic office where he previously worked, at his home inside a hollowed-out container made to look like a diary.
Once he learned of the untimely death, Cao also created fraudulent backdated medical records to make it appear that he had legitimately prescribed the pills.
“It’s outrageous that someone who had a duty to ‘do no harm’ would turn around and prescribe a medically unnecessary, dangerous drug,” US Attorney Matthew Graves, said. “People in our country are dying by the thousands from drug overdoses.
“(Cao) was better positioned than most people to know the potential consequences of illegal distribution, yet he nevertheless decided to unlawfully prescribe a drug, regardless of the life-threatening consequences.”
Cao pleaded guilty in November 2022. In addition to his prison term, Cao was also ordered to serve 36 months of supervised release, 100 hours of community service, and will not be permitted to work in a position that gives him access to controlled substances.
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