San Jose Doctor is charged with the illegal distribution of opioids

SAN JOSE >> A San Jose doctor has been charged with multiple counts of illegally distributing painkillers and health care fraud after federal authorities say he breezily handed out powerful opioids to agents posing as patients who didn’t have a legitimate need for the pills.

Prosecutors say Donald Siao, 55, prescribed patients hydrocodone or oxycodone with “little or no physical examinations” on first appointments, and in subsequent appointments, he at times increased the number of pills the patient would receive.

In one example, prosecutors said an undercover agent posing as a patient met with Siao at an initial appointment and complained of pain.

“Following an eight second physical examination, Siao wrote a prescription for 30 pills of Norco, a hydrocodone-acetaminophen combination,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, which is prosecuting the case on behalf of multiple federal agencies.

Siao is alleged to have even prescribed pills to the undercover agents when they told him they would give them to their employees “as work incentives,” or use them to “pay back friends.”

One agent requested a prescription for Marinol — essentially a pill-form of THC, the main psychoactive in marijuana — explaining he wouldn’t take the pills but would display them at work as a pretext for his positive drug tests, telling the doctor, “‘that way it covers the dirty drug test,’” prosecutors said.

Siao allegedly replied, “Gotcha,” and wrote the prescription.

Siao caught the attention of investigators when a prescription monitoring system identified that he was a “high prescriber,” authorities said.

In one recent year, prosecutors say Siao wrote 8,201 prescriptions for controlled substances, “including large quantities of hydrocodone and oxycodone and many instances of the dangerous combination of opioid, muscle relaxant, and benzodiazepine.”

Siao is charged with three counts of illegal distribution of hydrocodone and one count of illegal distribution of oxycodone.

If convicted of any of those counts, he faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $1 million.

Siao is also charged with two counts of health care fraud, as prosecutors allege he wrote alprazolam and oxycodone prescriptions for a patient “without any legitimate medical purpose” in May 2018.

If convicted of either of those counts, he faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. However, his sentences will be determined by the discretion of a judge following the U.S. sentencing guidelines.

Siao made an initial appearance Friday in federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen in San Jose, and he remains free on bond, authorities said. He is scheduled to be in court again Wednesday.