LOS ANGELES — This is an official press release from the U.S. Department of Justice (USAO - California, Central), published as received.
LOS ANGELES – A Maryland man was sentenced today to 65 months in federal prison for leading a long-running scheme in which dozens of medical doctors’ personal information was stolen and then used to create fraudulent e-prescribing accounts, which his accomplices then used to issue thousands of fraudulent prescriptions of controlled substances.
Benjamin Jamal Washington, 25, of Hyattsville, Maryland, was sentenced by United States District Judge Wesley L. Hsu.
Washington pleaded guilty in September 2025 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, and one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
From September 2020 to May 2023, Washington and his co-conspirators obtained personal identifying information (PII) belonging to dozens of doctors, including their names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, National Provider Identification number, and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Registration Numbers.
After obtaining this information, the co-conspirators impersonated the victims by obtaining fake drivers’ licenses in their names. They also paid corrupt telephone company employees to perform illegal subscriber identity module (SIM) swaps – fraudulently inducing a phone carrier to reassign a cell phone number from the legitimate subscriber to a phone controlled by the co-conspirators – to gain access to the physicians’ phone numbers.
Washington and his co-conspirators then used the fraudulent drivers’ licenses and the stolen phone numbers to open fraudulent e-prescribing accounts in the physicians’ names. At least one co-conspirator spoke with a pharmacy technician to understand the patterns and practices of physicians submitting e-prescriptions so Washington and his co-conspirators could avoid detection and issue more fraudulent prescriptions.
Once the co-conspirators opened the fraudulent e-prescribing accounts, Washington and others used the accounts to submit at least 5,600 fraudulent prescriptions of controlled substances, including illegal prescriptions of oxycodone and promethazine with codeine.
The co-conspirators then traveled to pharmacies across the United States, including pharmacies within the Los Angeles area, to pick up the illegally prescribed controlled substances, which they sold for a significant profit.
During the same period, in May 2022, Washington stole mail from two mailboxes in Bethesda, Maryland, and unlawfully possessed a United States Postal Service arrow key – a master key that allows access to mail for hundreds of boxes in an area. At the first mailbox, Washington stole at least 30 checks.
Washington pleaded guilty in September 2025 to one count of mail theft and one count of unlawful possession of Postal Service keys. That case was transferred from the District of Maryland to the Central District of California.
Micah Robert Lee, 26, of Washington, D.C., who is another co-conspirator in the fraudulent e-prescription scheme, pleaded guilty in December 2025 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Lee is scheduled to be sentenced on April 17, at which time he will face up to 20 years in federal prison.
The FBI and the DEA investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Attorneys Ian V. Yanniello of the National Security Division, Elizabeth S.P. Douglas of the Major Frauds Section, and Matthew J. Tako of the Transnational Organized Crime Section prosecuted this case.
