Anthony Conrardy, Oxycodone Distribution, Michigan 2023

Two Michigan physicians, Dr. Anthony Conrardy, 61, and Dr. William McCutchen, III, 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 Special Agent in Charge Timothy J. Plancon, of the Drug Enforcement Administration, 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, 72, to conspiracy, and Lillian Meghnot, 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.

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.

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