Matthew Justin Sykes, Illegally Distributing Prescription Drugs, Virginia 2023

Abingdon Nurse Practitioner Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Illegally Prescribe Prescription Drugs

Abingdon, VIRGINIA – United States Attorney Thomas T. Cullen announced today that an Abingdon, Virginia, nurse practitioner pleaded guilty to charges related to the illegal distribution of opiates and other prescription drugs.

Matthew Justin Sykes, 43, pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia to one count of conspiring to (a) misbrand a drug in interstate commerce by causing prescription drugs to be dispensed without a valid prescription and (b) illegally distribute Schedule III and IV controlled substances.

In addition, he pleaded guilty to eight counts of distributing oxycodone, a Schedule II opiate, one count of distributing alprazolam, a Schedule IV benzodiazepine, and one count of using the United States Postal Service in committing, causing or facilitating a felony drug trafficking offense.

Sykes was employed by Watauga Recovery Center from March 2012 until April 2017, a practice that holds itself out as a substance abuse treatment program. Watauga Recovery Center has locations in Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina. Sykes worked primarily at Watauga Recovery Center’s Duffield, Virginia, office. Sykes was also employed by E & C Counseling, another practice holding itself out as a substance abuse treatment center, located in Abingdon, Virginia.

Sykes pleaded guilty to conspiring with other health care providers and employees at Watauga Recovery Centers, a cash payment practice, to regularly prescribe a combination of buprenorphine, clonazepam, and gabapentin, without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice. This included issuing prescriptions to patients knowing there was no legitimate reason to do so, and prescribing three dosage units of buprenorphine per day to patients, knowing that at least one of the three doses would be diverted and sold.

In addition, Sykes and his co-conspirators would cause prescriptions to be issued in the name of a prescriber who had not examined the patient.

This case is part of an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration-Office of Criminal Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Virginia State Police, and the Virginia Office of the Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit.

Special Assistant United States Attorney/Virginia Assistant Attorney General Janine Myatt and Assistant United States Attorney Randy Ramseyer are prosecuting the case.

Defendant/respondent: Matthew Justin Sykes, 43, nurse practitioner.

Criminal charges: One count of conspiring to misbrand a drug in interstate commerce by causing prescription drugs to be dispensed without a valid prescription and illegally distribute Schedule III and IV controlled substances, eight counts of distributing oxycodone, a Schedule II opiate, one count of distributing alprazolam, a Schedule IV benzodiazepine, and one count of using the United States Postal Service in committing, causing or facilitating a felony drug trafficking offense.

City and state: Abingdon, Virginia.

Exact date: Not specified.

Sentence or outcome: Pleaded guilty.

Dollar amounts: None specified.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdva/pr/abingdon-nurse-practitioner-pleads-guilty-conspiring-illegally-prescribe-buprenorphine