A Maryland man has been sentenced to more than five years in federal prison for orchestrating a nationwide prescription fraud ring that used stolen identities of medical doctors to issue thousands of fake narcotics prescriptions, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, 25-year-old Benjamin Jamal Washington of Hyattsville was sentenced to 65 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Wesley L. Hsu. Washington pleaded guilty in September 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
Prosecutors said that from September 2020 through May 2023, Washington led a sophisticated scheme in which he and his co-conspirators stole personal information from dozens of doctors, including names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, and Drug Enforcement Administration registration numbers. The group used that information to impersonate doctors, obtain fraudulent identification documents, and create fake e-prescribing accounts in the victims’ names.
Investigators said Washington’s group paid corrupt phone company employees to perform illegal SIM swaps, allowing them to hijack the doctors’ phone numbers and bypass verification systems. Using the fraudulent accounts, the conspirators issued at least 5,600 fake prescriptions for controlled substances such as oxycodone and promethazine with codeine, which were filled at pharmacies nationwide. The drugs were then resold for profit.
Washington also admitted to stealing mail in Maryland in May 2022, including at least 30 checks, and unlawfully possessing a U.S. Postal Service arrow key capable of accessing hundreds of mailboxes. That case was transferred from the District of Maryland to California and included in his sentencing.
A co-conspirator, Micah Robert Lee, 26, of Washington, D.C., pleaded guilty in December 2025 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 17, facing up to 20 years in prison.
Washington was described by prosecutors as the organizer of an elaborate criminal operation that exploited healthcare systems and caused significant harm to pharmacies, physicians, and communities affected by illegal narcotics.
A Maryland man was sentenced to more than five years in prison for leading a multi-state scheme that impersonated doctors to issue thousands of fraudulent prescriptions for narcotics.