2 Illinois men charged in alleged weight-loss scheme

CHICAGO (AP) - Federal authorities have charged the owner of a weight-loss center and a physician from suburban Chicago in an alleged scheme that brought them $790,000 over two years.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports (http://bit.ly/1X4oOWB ) that the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago charged 48-year-old Michael Jennings of Naperville and Dr. William Mikaitis, a 72-year-old Burr Ridge resident.

Each faces 16 counts of various distribution and illegal medical practices charges. Each could face 95 years in prison if found guilty.

Authorities say Jennings, who owns a Lombard weight-loss business, paid Mikaitis $75,000 from 2013 to 2015 to use the physician's credentials to order and sell hundreds of thousands of doses of appetite suppressant.

Neither man has a listed phone number and could not be reached for comment Saturday by The Associated Press.

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Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, http://chicago.suntimes.com/