Melrose Park Doctors Stanley Demorest and Nicholas Recchia Sentenced for Opioid Prescriptions Billed to Medicare and Medicaid

Case from 2021–2023 (U.S. Attorney's Office latest release: Dec. 20, 2023). Published on Scammers.com Oct. 16, 2026; case status is current as of that date.

Two suburban Chicago physicians who prescribed opioids to people with no legitimate medical need, and caused pharmacies to bill Medicare and Medicaid for the drugs, were sentenced Dec. 14, 2023, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois [1]. U.S. District Judge John F. Kness sentenced Stanley David Demorest to two years in federal prison and Nicholas Recchia to six months.

How the scheme worked

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office [1] [2]:

1. The practice. Demorest managed Demorest Consultants LLC, a medical practice in Melrose Park, Illinois. Recchia worked there as a physician.
2. Prescriptions without medical need. From 2015 to 2020, the two agreed to dispense hydrocodone, oxycodone, fentanyl and other controlled substances to people they knew had no legitimate medical need. The 2021 indictment alleged the patients received no meaningful physical exams or medical tests.
3. A borrowed DEA number. Demorest had voluntarily surrendered his DEA registration in 2015 and could no longer legally prescribe controlled substances. In some cases, he used Recchia's name and DEA number to write prescriptions.
4. Billing the government. Pharmacies were caused to submit many claims to Medicare and Medicaid for the improper prescriptions.

Both admitted in plea agreements that they dispensed controlled substances outside the usual course of medical practice and without a legitimate medical purpose [1].

The defendants

• Stanley David Demorest, 67, Bloomingdale, Ill.: pleaded guilty in 2023 to one count of health care fraud and one count of unlawfully using another person's DEA registration number. He was sentenced Dec. 14, 2023, to 2 years in prison [1].
• Nicholas Recchia, 64, River Grove, Ill.: pleaded guilty in 2023 to one count of health care fraud. He was sentenced Dec. 14, 2023, to 6 months in prison [1].

The case was brought by the U.S. Attorney's Office's Opioid Task Force and investigated by the DEA, the FBI, HHS-OIG and the Department of Labor OIG [1] [2].

Red flags

• A clinic that hands out opioid prescriptions with little or no exam.
• Prescriptions signed by a doctor you never saw.
• Medicare or Medicaid statements listing prescriptions you didn't get or a prescriber you don't know.

What to do

1. Review your Medicare Summary Notices or Medicaid statements, and check your prescription history at your pharmacy.
2. Report suspected prescription fraud to the HHS-OIG hotline at oig.hhs.gov or the DEA at dea.gov.
3. Get help for opioid misuse through SAMHSA's National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.

Case status (as of Oct. 16, 2026)

Defendant	Court	Status as of Oct. 16, 2026	Source
Stanley David Demorest, 67, Bloomingdale, Ill.	N.D. Ill.	Pleaded guilty (2023) to health care fraud and DEA number misuse; sentenced Dec. 14, 2023, to 2 years	[1]
Nicholas Recchia, 64, River Grove, Ill.	N.D. Ill.	Pleaded guilty (2023) to health care fraud; sentenced Dec. 14, 2023, to 6 months	[1]

Sources

1. U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois, "Two Suburban Chicago Physicians Sentenced to Federal Prison for Health Care Fraud," Dec. 20, 2023. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/two-suburban-chicago-physicians-sentenced-federal-prison-health-care-fraud
2. U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois, "Two Suburban Chicago Physicians Indicted on Narcotics and Health Care Fraud Charges," July 27, 2021. https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/two-suburban-chicago-physicians-indicted-narcotics-and-health-care-fraud-charges

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