Two Michigan doctors, the Detroit U.S. Attorney calls “drug dealers in white coats,” have been charged—along with the owner of a medical clinic and a patient recruiter—in a scheme to illegally distribute opioid prescription drugs with a street value of millions of dollars.
Federal authorities have indicted: Dr. Shakeeb Chinoy, 55, of Bloomfield Hills; Dr. Sunil Manjila-Varghese, 53, of Ann Arbor; Rommel Harvey, 43, of Detroit; and Gregory Sparks, 42, of Detroit. Harvey was a clinic owner and operator, and Sparks allegedly helped out and recruited patients.
The indictment alleges that from November 2023 through June 2025, Dr. Chinoy conspired with Dr. Manjila, Harvey, Sparks, and others to issue thousands of opioid prescriptions for “patients” who had no legitimate medical need for the drugs.
According to the indictment, Dr. Chinoy and Dr. Manjila issued prescriptions for more than 400,000 dosage units of Schedule II opioids—Oxycodone, Oxycodone-Acetaminophen (Percocet), Hydrocodone-Acetaminophen (Norco), Oxymorphone, and Promethazine with Codeine—with a conservative street value of more than $7 million.
Working with Grace Medical Clinic on 12 Mile Road in Warren and Prime Checkup2 on Fort Street in Lincoln Park, the doctors allegedly issued prescriptions for opioid drugs without seeing, examining, or communicating with the “patients,” authorities said. Since Chinoy’s license was suspended, he allegedly used Manjila’s credentials to issue the prescriptions, with Manjila’s permission.
Medicare and Medicaid programs were also fraudulently billed for over $1 million in medically unnecessary prescription and maintenance medications, authorities alleged.
“Doctors take an oath to do no harm and to care for others,” said U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. in a statement. “These doctors and professionals broke that oath to fill their pockets and used their respected positions of trust to push addictive opioids. They are drug dealers in white coats.”
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