Michigan Doctor Sentenced for Distributing

What Happened

A doctor from the Detroit area, Michigan, was sentenced to 60 months in prison on June 19, 2019, for his role in a scheme to unlawfully distribute opioids. The U.S. Department of Justice notice, relayed by the HHS Office of Inspector General, stated that the scheme involved more than 23,000 pills of oxycodone. The notice did not name the physician or describe how the scheme operated.

“sentenced to 60 months in prison today for his role in a scheme to unlawfully distribute more than 23,000 pills of oxycodone”
HHS-OIG enforcement action page, Jun 19, 2019

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

HHS-OIG enforcement action page, Jun 19, 2019

Case at a Glance

Setting: Physician practice
Drug: Oxycodone
Method: Scheme to unlawfully distribute opioids
Status: Sentenced June 19, 2019 to 60 months in prison

Source: HHS Office of Inspector General

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.

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2025 — The Rounding Revolution: A High-Tech Approach to Diversion Prevention (with Emily Spiceland, PharmD)
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Faculty, ASHP Drug Diversion Certificate
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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

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Penalty Outcomes in the Case Records

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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

Michigan Doctor Sentenced for Distributing Oxycodone