The owner of Irvine Village Urgent Care Dr. Dzung Ahn Pham pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances on Oct. 7.
Pham illegally wrote prescriptions for approximately 150,000 pills of controlled substances — including opioids — from January 2013 to December 2018, according to his plea agreement. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Court documents state that Pham illegally wrote prescriptions to 18 patients, including an individual with known drug addiction, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Pham allegedly prescribed over 700 oxycodone pills for use by this individual in the name of the individual’s wife, who was not a patient of Pham and was not aware of the prescriptions.
In December 2018, Pham was arrested by authorities and in January 2019 he was indicted for six counts of felony charges by a grand jury.
Pham was “flooding Southern California with huge quantities of opioids and other dangerous narcotics by writing prescriptions for drugs he knew would be diverted to the street,” U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said in a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors allege that Pham was involved in at least seven deaths, including a DUI crash that killed a Costa Mesa fire captain in November 2018, according to CBS News. Police discovered a prescription bottle with Pham’s name in the defendant’s vehicle following the fatal collision.
Pham was also arrested in connection to the gunman of the 2018 Thousand Oaks shooting that left 13 dead and 16 injured. He had allegedly received drugs prescribed by Pham.
At least five other individuals who were prescribed drugs by Pham died of an overdose. However, Pham has not been criminally charged in connection to these incidents, according to the OC Register.
According to court documents, Pham illegally prescribed controlled substances “in exchange for cash and insurance payments, knowing that the prescriptions were issued outside the usual course of professional medical practice and without a legitimate medical purpose,” reported the OC Register.
Prosecutors estimated Pham pocketed more than $6.7 million in cash and insurance payments over the six-year period of illegal drug distribution at the time of his arrest.
Pham insisted on his innocence in an exclusive with ABC7 News in February 2019.
“I strongly believe that I am innocent,” Pham said. It’s certainly traumatic, I never expected to be treated like a criminal,” he said in reference to his arrest.
In addition, court papers state that Pham conspired with Irvine pharmacist Jennifer Thaoyen Nguyen. Pham allegedly directed patients to Nguyen knowing that other pharmacies would not fill his prescriptions without a valid medical purpose.
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Nguyen filled illegal prescriptions written by Pham for over 2,400 total pills of oxycodone, hydrocodone and amphetamine salts. She is set to sign a plea deal on Oct. 14 and faces five to six years in prison.
Beatrice Lee is a City News Intern for the fall 2022 quarter. She can be reached at beatrirl@uci.edu.