Shelton Doctor Charged With Selling

What Happened

Dr. David Ciancimino, 62, of Trumbull, Connecticut, a sole practitioner in psychiatry and neurology/psychiatry with an office in Shelton, was arrested in September 2021 on a federal criminal complaint charging him with health care fraud and controlled substances offenses. Investigators alleged he provided prescriptions for Adderall or Xanax to numerous individuals in exchange for $200 in cash, typically with little to no examination. It is alleged he deposited about $356,000 in cash between July 2020 and September 2021. He was released on a $500,000 bond. The charges are only allegations.

“was providing prescriptions for Adderall or Xanax to numerous individuals in exchange for $200 in cash”
U.S. Department of Justice / U.S. Attorney's Office press release, Sep 23, 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 23, 2021

Case at a Glance

Setting: Psychiatry and neurology practice
Drug: Adderall and Xanax
Method: Alleged prescriptions for $200 cash with little or no medical examination
Status: Arrested September 2021 on a federal complaint; released on $500,000 bond

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

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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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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

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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

Shelton Doctor Charged With Selling Prescriptions for Cash