Doctor convicted in dark web hitman scheme seeks medical license restoration from federal prison

A Spokane physician, who pleaded guilty in 2023 to a scheme in which he solicited a man on the dark web to cripple his female colleague and kidnap his estranged wife, wants to provide care for babies again.

Dr. Ronald C. Ilg, 59, a pediatrician who once focused on the medical care of newborns with birth defects or who were critically ill, recently sought to have his medical license restored after his legal troubles landed him in federal prison.

But appellate judges from the Division III Court of Appeals denied Ilg’s prescription: It ruled 3-0 to uphold an earlier decision by the Washington Medical Commission to suspend Ilg’s medical license, in an opinion released on Thursday.

Ilg “argues the Commission erred in revoking his license because his conduct was not related to the practice of his profession,” the judges wrote. “Because substantial evidence supports the Commission’s findings … we affirm.”

Ilg once provided care for infants at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. He currently resides in a federal prison in Seattle after pleading guilty in 2023 to two counts of threats in interstate commerce.

His current release date is Feb. 8, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

But what got him there is also why he’s seeking to restore his credentials to work as a doctor. For Ilg, life got a bit complicated, according to witnesses and court records.

The former executive director of Maddie’s Place was arrested in 2021 following an FBI investigation that established that Ilg solicited a man on the dark web to break the hands of his female colleague and to kidnap his wife as he sought divorce.

He reportedly offered to pay $60,000 in cryptocurrency to the man to also inject his wife with heroin, extort her and hold her hostage for seven days.

Ilg then established a structured bonus scheme for the hitman, according to court records.

“Bonuses would be paid if his estranged wife (1) withdrew all court motions and mediated agreements, (2) moved back in with Ilg and had intercourse with him ‘at least three times within the 2 week time frame,’ (3) refused to tell anyone about the kidnapping, and (4) became addicted to heroin under the hitman’s guidance,” according to court records.

But then it got even weirder.

Investigators learned that about the same time he was attempting to injure his former colleague and kidnap his wife, Ilg traveled to Mexico with a woman whom he placed in a dark, underground, tank-like structure on his property in Otis Orchards.

He also contacted that woman in June 2021 from jail, suggesting they get married to potentially stop her from testifying against him.

At his sentencing in January 2023, Ilg blamed his outreach on withdrawal symptoms from weaning himself off medication to help his anxiety and depression while in jail.

“It was out of desperation,” Ilg said, “and hope” that he would be released from custody.

At that same hearing, prosecutors released letters he had sent to a different woman described during proceedings as Ilg’s “fiancée.”

Richard Barker, assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, also played a recorded phone call from jail in which Ilg suggested the woman sell his story to be made into a film or book.

In one of the letters, Ilg claimed his story would be “the next ‘50 Shades of Grey,’ but on steroids,” referencing the popular romantic fiction novel that explores dominant/submissive themes.

But U.S. District Court Judge William Fremming Nielsen wasn’t impressed. He called Ilg’s behavior “egregious, abhorrent and evil.”

Ilg told Nielsen that when he posted the messages on the dark web, he felt like another person.

He noted his wife was seeking a divorce and he felt that his sexual preferences prompted the human resources investigation that had cost him his job at his medical practice in December 2020.

When the FBI interviewed him upon his return from Mexico in April 2021, Ilg said he used lies that he had written on his phone to attempt to explain away his actions. He then attempted suicide with pills, and was hospitalized for a week before he was arrested and taken to jail.

Ilg said he was “paraded through the hospital that he’d worked at for almost 20 years.”

Nielsen told Ilg that others faced problems in their life without resorting to attempted violence.

“It was unconscionable, the things that you were asking unknown people on the dark web to do to people you love,” Nielsen said at the time.

License denial

In the most recent case, attorneys for Ilg argued that his medical license should be restored because none of the conduct from his federal conviction had anything to do with providing care for babies.

Ilg’s attorneys argued that his license should be restored based on another case where a licensed professional engineer was allowed to maintain his credentials despite being convicted of three counts of child molestation.

Unlike that case, “Ilg fails to identify any distinction between the victims of his crimes and the patients he would interact with as a licensed medical professional,” Judge Tyson R. Hill wrote. “First, Ilg’s efforts to hire a hitman to harm his former colleague relate to his professional practice.

“Second, Ilg’s behavior suggest a clear lack of judgement and self control.”

The opinion upholding the suspension of Ilg’s medical license was also signed by concurring judges John O. Cooney and Megan K. Murphy.