Maryland Man Pleads Guilty to Leading Sophisticated Fraud Scheme that Impersonated Dozens of Doctors to Illegally Prescribe Narcotics

LOS ANGELES - A Maryland man pleaded guilty today to leading a long-running scheme in which dozens of medical doctors' personal information was stolen and then used to create fraudulent e-prescribing accounts, which his accomplices then used to issue thousands of fraudulent prescriptions of controlled substances.

Benjamin Jamal Washington, 25, of Hyattsville, Maryland, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. Washington remains in federal custody.

According to his plea agreement, from September 2020 to May 2023, Washington and his co-conspirators obtained personal identifying information (PII) belonging to dozens of doctors, including their names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, National Provider Identification number, and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Registration Numbers.

After obtaining this information, the co-conspirators impersonated the victims by obtaining fake drivers' licenses in their names. They also paid corrupt telephone company employees to perform illegal subscriber identity module (SIM) swaps - fraudulently inducing a phone carrier to reassign a cell phone number from the legitimate subscriber to a phone controlled by the co-conspirators - to gain access to the physicians' phone numbers.

Washington and his co-conspirators then used the fraudulent drivers' licenses and the stolen phone numbers to open fraudulent e-prescribing accounts in the physicians' names. At least one co-conspirator spoke with a pharmacy technician to understand the patterns and practices of physicians submitting e-prescriptions so Washington and his co-conspirators could avoid detection and issue more fraudulent prescriptions.

Once the co-conspirators opened the fraudulent e-prescribing accounts, Washington and others used the accounts to submit at least 5,600 fraudulent prescriptions of controlled substances, including illegal prescriptions of oxycodone and promethazine with codeine.

The co-conspirators then traveled to pharmacies across the United States, including pharmacies within the Los Angeles area, to pick up the illegally prescribed controlled substances, which they sold for a significant profit.

United States District Judge Wesley L. Hsu scheduled a January 13, 2026, sentencing hearing, at which time Washington will face a statutory maximum sentence of 42 years in federal prison, including a mandatory two-year consecutive prison sentence for the aggravated identity theft count.

The FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Ian V. Yanniello of the Terrorism and Export Crimes Section, Elizabeth S.P. Douglas of the Major Frauds Section, and Matthew J. Tako of the Domestic Security and Immigration Crimes Section are prosecuting this case.