Modesto Doctor Pleads Guilty to Illegal

What Happened

Sawtantra Chopra, 76, a former doctor from Modesto, California, pleaded guilty in May 2023 in federal court to three counts of illegally prescribing opioids and other medication. He admitted prescribing hydrocodone, alprazolam and promethazine with codeine syrup outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose. He surrendered his medical license in 2020 while the case was pending. Sentencing was scheduled for September 5, 2023, and he faced a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. The case was investigated by the California Department of Justice drug diversion team, DEA, FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation.

“pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of illegally prescribing opioids and other medication”
U.S. Department of Justice / U.S. Attorney's Office press release, May 11, 2023

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, May 11, 2023

Case at a Glance

Setting: Medical practice
Drug: Hydrocodone, alprazolam, promethazine with codeine
Method: Prescribing outside the usual course of professional practice
Status: Pleaded guilty May 2023 to three counts; license surrendered 2020; sentencing set for September 5, 2023

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

Modesto Doctor Pleads Guilty to Illegal Prescribing