Medical Doctor Convicted Of Federal ‘Structuring’ Charges
LOS ANGELES - A Los Angeles doctor has been convicted of federal “structuring” charges for making cash deposits totaling nearly a half million dollars in an effort to circumvent federal reporting requirements. Washington Bryan II, 48, of Westwood, was found guilty of 29 counts of structuring Thursday afternoon by a jury in United States District Court.
Federal prosecutors presented evidence that Bryan structured the cash deposits for the purpose of concealing income he received from thousands of prescriptions that he issued for narcotic painkillers and HIV medications out of his Brentwood office. The evidence at trial showed that Bryan was disciplined by the Medical Board of California for excessively prescribing narcotic medications, including OxyContin, and placed on three years of probation. The cash structuring began after Bryan was placed on probation and while he continued to routinely prescribe high dosages of painkillers to patients - most of whom paid $500 in cash each time they visited Bryan’s Brentwood office and obtained prescriptions, sometimes without ever seeing the doctor.
Bryan made deposits of less than $10,000 into four separate accounts for the purpose of preventing banks from reporting the deposits to the federal government, which is required for every cash transaction of more than $10,000. For each of the 29 counts, he made cash deposits into multiple bank accounts on the same day - sometimes within minutes of each other - that added up to more than $10,000. Evidence revealed Bryan made illegal cash deposits totaling approximately $478,000 between October 2011 and January 2013.
As a result of the guilty verdicts, Bryan faces a statutory maximum sentence of 145 years in federal prison when he is sentenced by United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner on February 27.
The investigation into Bryan was conducted by IRS Criminal Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services - Office of Inspector General, the Department of Defense - Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the California Department of Justice and the Los Angeles Police Department.
