DC and Virginia Doctor Charged

What Happened

Dr. Robert M. Cao, a physician licensed in the District of Columbia and Virginia, was charged in September 2021 by criminal complaint with unlawful distribution of a controlled substance outside the scope of his professional practice. Court documents allege that between January and May 2021 he wrote a man at least five prescriptions for oxycodone and hydrocodone. The man died on May 31, 2021, and an autopsy documented the cause as acute combined oxycodone and ethanol poisoning. Cao was arrested on September 14 and faces a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted.

“at least five prescriptions for oxycodone and hydrocodone, Schedule II controlled substances with a high potential for abuse”
U.S. Department of Justice / U.S. Attorney's Office press release, Sep 17, 2021

Related Guidance

15 Red Flags of Drug Diversion — Behavioral and transactional indicators of diversion.
Investigation Playbook — How to investigate suspected diversion inside an organization.

Sources

U.S. Department of Justice / U.S. Attorney's Office press release, Sep 17, 2021

Case at a Glance

Setting: Physician practice
Drug: Oxycodone and hydrocodone
Method: Allegedly prescribed narcotics outside the scope of professional practice, including to a man who later died of overdose
Status: Charged by criminal complaint and arrested September 14, 2021; case pending

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

What this case shows

Where this record connects to the site's working material. Links are chosen from the case's setting, drug and method fields.

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Last reviewed: September 2026 · Educational content, not legal advice.

About the author

DivertGuard is built and maintained by Alex Rodriguez, MHIIM, CPhT (also known as Jesus Rodriguez) — a drug diversion prevention program manager with more than a decade in pharmacy practice, including direct responsibility for a health-system controlled substance diversion prevention program.

Conference presentations

2025 — The Rounding Revolution: A High-Tech Approach to Diversion Prevention (with Emily Spiceland, PharmD)
2024 — No Pill Left Behind: Strategies for Comprehensive Drug Accountability (with Eric Andrews)
2022 — Ready for My Close Up! Implementing, Maintaining, and Expanding Drug Diversion Prevention Cameras (with Jeremy Quinn, Shawn Young, and John Bailey)

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Faculty, ASHP Drug Diversion Certificate
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Published author, Pharmacy Purchasing & Products

Credentials

Doctorate candidate — Doctor of Health Informatics (DHI), Rutgers University, School of Health Professions; research on health data analytics and the prediction of cognitive decline
MHIIM — master's in health informatics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center (2019–2021)
CPhT — Certified Pharmacy Technician, with 10+ years of pharmacy practice across retail, hospice, compounding, home-health, and hospital settings

The assessment items, weighting, and case registry behind this site come from that operational background — building and running a diversion prevention program, not from vendor marketing. Every tool here is free, requires no signup, and is based on published regulatory and professional standards (DEA, Joint Commission, ASHP, CDC).

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Related Resources

Diversion Settlements & Fines

Settlements, civil penalties and criminal fines paid by hospitals and pharmacies in documented drug diversion cases, with the amount, year and primary source for each

Penalty Outcomes in the Case Records

Counts of the outcomes the registry records state: prison, probation, fines, licence actions and restitution, with stated sentence lengths by band and by drug class

Registry Insights: Sentences, Fines, States and Outcomes

Sentence lengths, fines and restitution, cases per 100,000 pharmacists by state, and plea and licence outcomes, each counted from the case records with its n, plus charts of cases by year, state and drug class

DC and Virginia Doctor Charged Over Oxycodone Prescriptions