A U.S. District Court judge dealt a crushing blow to a corrupt doctor yesterday, sentencing Ndubuisi Joseph Okafor, 65, of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, to 18 years in prison for operating a brazen pill mill from his Northwest Washington D.C. medical practice.
Okafor was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances outside the course of professional practice, maintaining a drug-involved premises, and 22 counts of unlawful distribution of controlled substances, including oxycodone and promethazine with codeine.
The investigation, led by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, revealed that Okafor was the sole practitioner and owner of Okafor Medical Associates, an internal medicine clinic in Northwest, Washington, D.C. He would prescribe opioids to numerous individuals using false identities, knowing they would divert the medication.
Between February 18, 2022, and November 30, 2022, the FBI sent confidential sources and undercover agents into Okafor’s medical practice for walk-in appointments. Each individual was prescribed opioids by Okafor after minimal examination. Further investigation revealed that Okafor’s conduct spanned at least 45 states and resulted in hundreds of thousands of units of oxycodone and promethazine with codeine liquid prescribed nationwide.
Okafor’s scheme was brought to a halt after the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the HHS-OIG, and FBI began investigating him for illegal distribution of controlled substances after receiving information from law enforcement agencies nationwide. The investigation also resulted in the suspension of Okafor’s DEA registration number in September 2023, as he was deemed to be a threat to public health and safety.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro announced the sentencing, which also included a three-year supervised release and a special assessment. Okafor was ordered to forfeit $213,173.97. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Meredith Mayer-Dempsey, Trial Attorney Kathryn Furtado and paralegals Rebecca Walton, Dillon Clark, and Matthew McClarnon of the Justice Department’s Fraud Section.
The investigation was a collaborative effort involving the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, and the District of Columbia Office of the Inspector General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, with valuable assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Washington Division.
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Key Facts
- State: Washington DC
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes|Violent Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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