What federal prosecutors called a coast-to-coast Adderall pipeline just landed a San Francisco telehealth CEO in federal prison. Yesterday, Ruthia He, founder and CEO of Done Global, was sentenced to six years behind bars and hit with a $1 million fine. Dr. David Brody, the company’s former clinical president, was given two years in prison and the same $1 million penalty. Prosecutors say the startup’s operation helped distribute more than 37 million Adderall pills and generated roughly $12.3 million in fraudulent insurance claims.
How Prosecutors Say The Scheme Worked
At trial, federal prosecutors described Done as a subscription-for-prescriptions machine that put growth and revenue ahead of medical judgment. The model relied on short telehealth visits, automated refills and aggressive financial incentives that, according to the government, pushed stimulants out the door with minimal oversight.
Jurors heard evidence that executives pressured clinicians to diagnose ADHD during rushed online appointments, refused to hire or fired clinicians who would not play along, and used auto-refill messages so prescriptions kept flowing without meaningful follow-up care. Prosecutors also said Dr. Brody personally prescribed 394,324 Schedule II stimulant pills to 6,559 members, often without reviewing their records. Those details appear in a Department of Justice summary of the case.
DEA And Partners Call It A Modern Pill Mill
The Drug Enforcement Administration and its partner agencies cast the business as a modern-day pill mill that weaponized telehealth tools to flood communities with stimulants. According to the DEA, the company poured tens of millions of dollars into tightly targeted social media ads, set up a secondary entity when pharmacies began blocking prescriptions and leaned on encrypted messaging systems that made it harder for investigators to follow the trail.
Advertising, Pricing And Patient Harm
Prosecutors say Done spent more than $40 million on social media advertising that funneled potential patients into quick online assessments and easy, low-friction refills, according to the Department of Justice. A transcript attached to the DEA New York post on X laid out the subscription pricing: an initial $199 fee, then $99 for the first month and $79 per month after that.
Family members and clinicians told the court that the model did not just bend the rules, it harmed patients. They described cases of Adderall-induced psychosis and at least one overdose linked to the service, as reported by KQED.
Sentencing, The Judge And Fallout
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer handed down the sentences in San Francisco federal court, adding three years of supervised release and ordering fines and restitution for victims, according to KQED. The punishment, while significant, landed far below the 20-year terms the Department of Justice had urged the court to impose, a gap noted by Bloomberg Law.
Coverage of the hearing shows Judge Breyer signaling that the sentence should send a clear message to Silicon Valley health startups that blur the line between tech growth strategy and medical care. In other words, move fast and break things is a risky motto when controlled substances are involved.
Legal Implications
He and Brody were convicted in November 2025 of one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, four counts of distribution of controlled substances and one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. He was also convicted of one count of conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The case was brought by the Justice Department’s Health Care Fraud Unit, with investigative work from DEA, Homeland Security Investigations, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and IRS Criminal Investigation. According to the Department of Justice, that lineup reflects stepped-up federal scrutiny of telehealth prescribing and related enforcement.
Where This Leaves Telehealth
The Done case drops a heavy marker for digital mental health companies that lean on recurring prescriptions as their core business model. The sentencing is likely to sharpen both regulatory and investor attention on how online psychiatry outfits are run, particularly when revenue scales with prescription volume.
Legal analysts and reporters have noted that the prosecution fits into a broader arc of enforcement actions and settlements across the telehealth sector, and that boards and investors are now more likely to demand tighter clinical oversight and compliance audits.
