Nevada Medical Board Issued 5 Complaints Against Psychiatrist Matthew Okeke in 2024, for Sexual Misconduct, Malpractice, Illegal Prescribing, etc.

March 5, 2025

On July 2, 2024, the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners filed a Complaint against Las Vegas psychiatrist Matthew Okeke for willfully and knowingly failing to comply with the law.

The Board’s document states that on February 22, 2024, the Board sent a letter to Okeke through his attorney, requesting that he obtain a complete set of fingerprints for a state and federal criminal history background check and return a fingerprint card containing the prints and written permission to forward the same to the appropriate entities.

The Board’s document explains that Okeke’s fingerprints and a background waiver were required because of complaints pending with the Board against Okeke.

By June 13, 2024, after much back and forth between the Board and Okeke’s attorney, Okeke emailed a copy of his fingerprints to the Board. The Board was unable to print this out and process it and explained that he needed to mail in the actual hardcopy fingerprint card and background waiver. Okeke never complied.

The board issued four prior complaints against Okeke in 2024:

Two were filed on February 21, 2024. 

February 21, 2024 – 1

The Board charged Okeke with malpractice, failure to maintain complete medical records; violation of statutes and regulations of the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy; fraudulent, illegal, unauthorized, or otherwise inappropriate prescribing of controlled substances; engaging in conduct which is intended to deceive; and charging for services not rendered. 

These allegations regard 270 violations of the Nevada Medical Practice Act, involving 66 patients to whom Okeke allegedly provided “crisis intervention services” and/or for whom he wrote prescriptions for controlled substances. In numerous cases, the patient records showed that the services were delivered not by Okeke but by an advanced practice registered nurse. Additionally, the Board found that the Okeke was out of the county on the days that the services were delivered. Okeke further failed to check the state prescription monitoring program (PMP), as required by Nevada law before prescribing a controlled substance, and failed to examine patients prior to writing prescriptions for controlled substances.

February 21, 2024 – 2

The Board charged Okeke with five counts of malpractice; five counts of failure of maintain complete medical records; six counts of violation of statutes and regulations of the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy; four counts of fraudulent, unauthorized, or otherwise inappropriate prescribing of a controlled substance; and four counts of engaging in conduct with is intended to deceive.

This complaint, though similar to the first, involves treatment that Okeke delivered to five patients, in which he failed to use the reasonable care, skill, or knowledge ordinarily used when rendering such services. In one case, he prescribed benzodiazepines to a patient while she was taking opioids at the same time. Further, he prescribed controlled substances to all five patients via paper prescriptions when he 1) was out of the country, 2) failed to check each patient's PMP prior to prescribing controlled substances as required by law, and 3) failed to examine the patients prior to writing them prescriptions for controlled substances.

Okeke pre-signed paper prescription pads and provided them to office staff and/or other practitioners so that Okeke’s name, Nevada State Board of Pharmacy registration number, and Board license number could be used to prescribe medications to four patients while Okeke was out of the country. This resulted in fraudulent, illegal, unauthorized, or otherwise inappropriate prescribing of controlled substances.

In a written response to the Board’s investigator regarding the patient who was taking opioids to whom Okeke prescribed benzodiazepines, Okeke stated in writing, “I check the PMP regularly.” However, records from the PMP showed that Okeke never queried the patient in the PMP.  Thus, he engaged in deceptive conduct to the Board and/or Investigative Committee.

February 23, 2024

The Board filed a complaint against Okeke for sexual misconduct, malpractice, and exploitation of the physician-patient relationship for personal or financial gain. 

The Board’s document states that on January 20, 2014, Okeke saw a 28-year-old female patient for a psychiatric evaluation. He continued to provide psychiatric treatment to the patient, including medication management, through 2021.

Their physician-patient relationship overlapped with their personal relationship that was romantic/or sexual in nature. 

Okeke signed a residential lease agreement on June 19, 2019, and was listed as a tenant at this property. He also listed the patient as an occupant of the premises. The document stated: “Tenant hereby to add girl friend […] as signer to all document related to this lease property.”

The Board investigator received copies of multiple text messages between Okeke and the patient, which included declarations of love and appreciation for each other.  Additionally, text messages included a request from the patient to Okeke asking him to “pls send the RX in,” and Okeke replied, “I sent the meds”.

The Board’s investigators received information regarding a trip that Okeke and the patient took to Costa Rica from September 29 to October 6, 2019.

It was cited that romantic or sexual interactions between physicians and patients that occur concurrently with the patient-physician relationship violate the standard of care for the practice of psychiatry. It is a violation of standard of care for a physician to prescribe medications to a patient that he or she has a romantic and/or sexual relationship with. Okeke’s prescribing of controlled substances for the patient overlapped with their personal relationship that was romantic and/or sexual in nature. 

In addition, Okeke failed to maintain complete and accurate medical records. It was cited that he used templates and did not review them for accuracy. It was found that Okeke was prescribing Adderall to the patient in daily quantities of 60 mg to 90 mg per day during the time period at issue in this complaint. The Federal Drug Enforcement Administration has found that only in rare cases is it necessary to prescribe more than 40 mg per day to a patient.

May 17, 2024

This complaint is, again, similar to the two that were filed on February 21^st.

This complaint involves Okeke’s treatment of one additional patient to whom Okeke prescribed benzodiazepines though the patient was already taking opioids, which Okeke should have known. Okeke further failed to include data on the patient’s diagnosis and treatment in the patient’s record. In other instances, he copied and pasted data from later visits into records of earler visits and failed to document other aspects of the patient’s condition and his treatment. Lastly, he stated in writing to the Board that he only “saw this patient only twice” but a review of his records showed that he saw and prescribed to the patient on numerous occasions.

This complaint also charges that Okeke closed his practice, Grand Desert Psychiatry, on June 14, 2023 but failed to notify the Board in writing within 14 days, as required. Further, he did not provide the location of the medical records for his patients to the Board. Lastly, Okeke failed to provide medical records upon a patient’s request. The patient filed a complaint with the Board in February 2024 due to her inability to obtain her medical records from Okeke. As of May 1, 2024, the patient had not received her records, and the location of Okeke’s patient records remains unknown.

Source: Complaint in the matter of the Charges and Complaint Against Matthew Obim Okeke, M.D., Case Nos. 24-22461-1 and 24-22461-2, filed February 21, 2024; Case No. and 24-22461-3, filed February 23, 2024; Case No. and 24-22461-4, filed May 17, 2024; and Case No. and 24-22461-5, filed July 2, 2024, Board of Medical Examiners of the State of Nevada.