On January 21, 2022, Mark Daniel Allen, 64, of Venice, Florida, was sentenced to 168 months in prison and $700 in special assessments, followed by three years of supervised released, by the Honorable Travis R. McDonough, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
According to court documents, Allen was found guilty of six counts of unlawfully distributing controlled substances and one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises after a three-day trial, which began on September 1, 2021. Evidence presented at trial showed that Allen unlawfully prescribed approximately 15,000 opioid pills to three women with whom he had sexual relationships, and to a male patient who later passed away.
Allen was a nurse practitioner who owned Volunteer Family Medical Clinic in Manchester.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III for the Eastern District of Tennessee; Special Agent in Charge Joseph Carrico of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Knoxville Field Office; Special Agent in Charge Tamala Miles of the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG); and Director David Rausch of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) made the announcement.
The FBI, HHS-OIG, TBI, Manchester Police Department, and Coffee County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James Brooks of the Eastern District of Tennessee and Trial Attorney Emily Petro of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and prosecuted the case.
