San Jose doctor found guilty of illegally prescribing opioids, faces federal prison
SAN JOSE – A family physician from San Jose is facing federal prison time after being found guilty of illegally prescribing massive quantities of opioids, including to a person who later died of an overdose, federal prosecutors said Friday.
Dr. Donald Siao was convicted on 12 counts of distributing oxycodone and hydrocodone outside of his professional practice and without a legitimate purpose, Northern California U.S. Attorney Ismail Ramsey's office announced. The verdicts followed a one-week trial.
According to evidence presented at trial, Siao was initially the subject of a prescription fraud investigation in 2016. Investigators found the doctor wrote 8,201 prescriptions for controlled substances between May 2016 and May 2017, which averages out to 22 prescriptions per day.
Authorities then launched another investigation, which involved four undercover agents posing as patients. Prosecutors said Siao prescribed oxycodone and hydrocodone in increasing quantities over 17 visits.
"The undercover agents received prescriptions from Siao despite complaining of only vague pain or discomfort, requesting specific opioids by name, and admitting to sharing the pills with friends and coworkers," prosecutors said in a statement.
Prosecutors also detailed instances where Siao prescribed opioids to a mother and son despite what they described as "obvious" red flags.
The doctor was found to have prescribed the pills to the mother despite being alerted that she was jailed for selling pills. Siao also prescribed pills to the son after he overdosed twice, after being flagged by a medical provider for drug-seeking behavior, and after his mom died from an overdose.
Prosecutors also claimed that Siao refused to heed warnings about his prescriptions after acknowledging guidelines from the California Medical Board on prescribing controlled substances.
"Siao nevertheless continued to prescribe opioids to the agents upon their request and with little to no physical examination, sometimes after visits lasting only a few minutes," prosecutors said.
Siao faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The government was also seeking the forfeiture of his medical license.
Prosecutors said Siao was scheduled to be sentenced on November 7.