Vienna / Oakton Doctor pleads guilty for prescribing drugs improperly, faces up to 20 years

A doctor from Oakton pleaded guilty to prescribing amphetamine and opioid pills without proper assessment of patients on Wednesday (15 Jan).

David Allingham who owns Oakton Primary Care Center authorized the renewal of medications without physical examinations of patient between April 2019 and at least January 2024. According to The Department of Justice.

Federal prosecutors have said that Allingham relied upon untrained medical personnel to issue prescriptions for him, either personally or by phone. Virginia pharmacies filled 7,300 prescriptions from Allingham’s offices over a five-year span, totaling more that 400,000 pills.

Allingham told his employees that he would not be filling prescriptions from a national chain of pharmacies. He then instructed them to switch to ‘mom-and-pop’ pharmacies, to avoid any further scrutiny on his patients. This way he was able to continue prescribing high doses of opioids.

Federal prosecutors stated that “multiple” Allingham’s patient died “within a few hours, days or weeks” after obtaining an oxycodone prescription.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

• Allingham continued to prescribe oxycodone to a patient who had failed 40 drug tests from 2019 to 2023, despite the fact that he was not acting in a medically appropriate manner.
• The FDA has “violated regulations” by prescribing at least 527 amphetamines as weight loss aids for patients.
• Unlawfully used the identity of another doctor to prescribe medication for himself and his family members

Allingham has had a brush with medical ethics before, but this federal case is not his first.

Inspectors found that Allingham “failed to keep adequate records of drugs received and dispensed,” the Washington Post reported. Inspectors discovered that Allingham had failed to “keep adequate records of medications received and dispensed” the Washington Post .

Allingham, 64 years old, could face up to 20-years in federal prison. The U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria is set to sentence him on April 30.