United States Drug Enforcement Administration

DETROIT, Mich. - Dr. Anthony Conrardy, age 61, and Dr. William McCutchen, III, age 46, were found guilty yesterday of unlawfully distributing Schedule II narcotics by a federal jury in Detroit, MI, acting United States Attorney Daniel L. Lemisch announced today.  Dr. Anthony Conrardy was convicted of five counts of unlawfully distributing oxycodone and Dilaudid, and Dr. William McCutchen, III was convicted of four counts of unlawfully distributing oxycodone.

Lemisch was joined in the announcement by Timothy J. Plancon, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’(DEA) Detroit Field Division, Special Agent in Charge David P. Gelios of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Detroit Division, Lamont Pugh, Special Agent in Charge of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Manny Muriel, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation.

The jury deliberated for 8 days before returning the verdict, concluding a four-week trial before United States District Judge Arthur J. Tarnow. 

Their convictions at trial follow the earlier guilty pleas of Dr. Shardchandra Patel, age 72, to conspiracy, and Lillian Meghnot, age 86, to conspiracy, healthcare fraud, and money laundering. The criminal activity of Dr. Anthony Conrardy, Dr. William McCutchen, III, Dr. Sharadchandra Patel, and Lillian Meghnot stemmed from the operation of the Meghnot Comprehensive Center for Hope, a purported medical clinic formerly located on the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti border.  Federal agents executed a search warrant and arrests at the Meghnot Clinic in March of 2015.

The Meghnot Clinic was owned and operated by Lillian Meghnot, who hired staff and others to give the Meghnot Clinic the false appearance of a legitimate medical center, when in reality the Meghnot Clinic was a pill mill supplying narcotics to drug-seeking customers.

The evidence presented at trial demonstrated that Dr. Anthony Conrardy and Dr. William McCutchen, III wrote Schedule II narcotic prescriptions to individuals outside the course of professional medical practice and for no legitimate medical purpose in exchange for compensation. The Meghnot Center charged its purported patients $250.00 in cash for a thirty-day supply of narcotics.

The guilty pleas of Lillian Meghnot and Dr. Sharadchandra Patel acknowledged that from approximately September of 2011 to March of 2015, the Meghnot Clinic ostensibly operated as a pain management center that, in reality, wrote medically unnecessary prescriptions for oxycodone, Dilaudid, Vicodin, and other narcotics and benzodiazepines to drug-seeking individuals purporting to be patients.  The Meghont Clinic’s unlawful practices generated roughly $4.5 million dollars in revenue.  And the Clinic’s physicians prescribed over 1.5 million oxycodone pills, among other drugs.

Each of the counts on which Dr. Conrardy and Dr. McCutchen were convicted carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000,000.

The jury trial and convictions followed a multi-year investigation by the DEA, FBI, the United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector (HHS-OIG), and the United States Internal Revenue Service Office of Criminal (IRS-CI). Assistant United States Attorneys Charles J. Kalil II and Patrick J. Hurford prosecuted the case