An Annandale doctor admitted Monday to writing prescriptions and illegally distributing opioid-based medications at pharmacies in Southwest Virginia and other areas.
Rotimi Iluyomade, 68, pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy to possess and distribute oxycodone, obtaining drugs by deception, money laundering, and operating a clinic for the purpose of distributing controlled substances.
Evidence filed in U.S. District Court in Abingdon shows Iluyomade and other co-conspirators used the Annandale clinic to sell more than 7,000 oxycodone pills and two frequently abused cold medicines, hydrocodone-chlorpheniramine. The solution and promethazine-codeine solution were shown to have distributed 141,000 ml.
Court records show Iluyomade’s prescriptions were filled at pharmacies in Roanoke, Radford and Floyd.
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“All doctors take an oath to treat patients and do no harm, but they must be held accountable when they fail to fulfill that oath,” U.S. Attorney Chris Kavanaugh said in a news release Wednesday. mentioned in.
“In this case, the doctor put a lot of people at risk,” Kavanaugh said.
Iluyomade admitted to writing approximately 2,044 illegal prescriptions for which he was paid $300 each, for a total of $613,200.
According to court records, the drugs were distributed by Iluyomade and at least eight co-conspirators in 2023 and 2024 from Crossover Medical Center, a pain management and weight loss clinic.
Shortly after the clinic opened, a person came in and requested a specific medication, promethazine-codeine solution (also known as “Lean” or “Purple Dolindo”), for a chronic cough.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Drug Information Center, cough syrup, which is often mixed with lemon-lime soda or hard candy, produces a sedative and fainting euphoria, but is highly addictive and can be overdosed. can lead to fatal consequences.
After being examined and receiving a prescription, the man visited the clinic multiple times to pick up more drugs, telling Iluyomade that “they were being sold to others for profit.”
Starting in 2023, multiple individuals visited clinics, provided doctors with a list of “patients” containing false identifying information, and demanded that those patients’ prescriptions be sent to pharmacies across the United States. According to court records, Iluyomade performed the tests without testing any of the patients.
About 70 of the prescriptions were filled at pharmacies in Western Virginia.
Iluyomade, who has a 30-year career as an emergency physician, will be sentenced later.
