A couple told patients they’d created a breakthrough medical device. In a Philadelphia courtroom, they admitted it was all a lie.

She went by Dr. Mary, and her promise was a tantalizing medical breakthrough.

At clinics operated in Arizona and several other states, Mary Blakley and her husband, Fred, told patients that for just $300, they could provide a full-body scan that utilized a proprietary “smart chip” to detect a variety of potential illnesses, including cancer.

In addition, the Blakleys boasted, their technology could actually help cure some patients’ maladies — blasting away kidney stones with a laser, killing cancer cells by injecting a special cream, or cleaning out lungs with a prototype “sweeper” approach.

But in federal court in Philadelphia on Monday, the couple admitted that their clinics were a sham — that in reality, they only administered basic ultrasounds to patients while lying about the other fantastical benefits.

Their guilty pleas were the latest development in a fraud prosecution with a variety of unusual elements. Mary Blakley, for example, had not only lied about being a doctor to build her clinics, prosecutors said — her background included a prior federal conviction for manufacturing methamphetamine.

Fred Blakley, 61, meanwhile, also pleaded guilty Monday to a separate set of firearms charges, admitting that as he was perpetuating the healthcare fraud, he was also stockpiling dozens of guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition for what he said was a forthcoming civil war against the U.S. government.

Neither of the Blakleys said much in court Monday beyond responding to routine questions from U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh. They pleaded guilty to counts including mail and wire fraud and conspiracy.

Prosecutors said the couple — from Lake Havasu City, Ariz. — generated more than $2 million in fraudulent billings over the years. Their clinics operated in places including their home state, California, and Colorado, prosecutors said, and some of their patients had ties to Pennsylvania, which is where they were ultimately prosecuted.

Their chief offering was a signature “full-body scan,” which they ran through a traditional ultrasound machine — but said had been enhanced with their proprietary smart chip technology. They told patients their machine could detect, treat, and cure a variety of illnesses, and also said the technology was a secret and should not be discussed with anyone.

The Blakleys would often go on to prescribe various creams or drugs that had little to no benefit, prosecutors said, and sometimes said a patient would need to continue using the prescription for life. One of the substances, fenbendazole, was approved for use in animals by the Food and Drug Administration, prosecutors said, but was not approved for use in humans.

To bolster her standing with clients, prosecutors said, Mary Blakley, now 66, lied about her background, falsely claiming she had worked at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston; saying she had developed pharmaceuticals for Merck; and claiming she had received a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

She hung a fake degree from the Swedish school on the wall of her clinic office, prosecutors said, along with others from Gatesville University and Almeda University — two online institutions that prosecutors described as “diploma mills.”

To try to avoid detection, prosecutors said, the Blakleys asked their patients to pay with cash or check, refused to keep client records, and avoided keeping records of the full-body scans, which they sometimes described as “research.”

They also sought to expand their empire, sometimes by selling their purported devices to others, or by charging trainees to open franchise branches of their clinics.

In the meantime, court documents said, Fred Blakley was amassing a collection of more than two dozen guns and 30,000 rounds of ammunition, some of which he stored in the garage of his pastor. He was not allowed to own any firearms because he had been convicted alongside his wife in the prior methamphetamine case.

As undercover FBI agents investigated the couple for their healthcare fraud, court documents said, Fred Blakley was captured on an audio recording in 2022 telling one of the agents he was “planning on shooting some humans.”

“We’re gonna have to go to war with our own government … a civil war," he said, according to court documents, later adding: “You better arm up good. I’ve got thousands of rounds of ammunition, and I’m ready to rock.”

The couple’s downfall began several years ago, when local authorities in Arizona received complaints about the clinics, including from the couple’s estranged daughter.

The FBI then began an extensive investigation, court documents said, and the couple were indicted in federal court in Philadelphia earlier this year.

They are scheduled to be sentenced by McHugh in April. The couple are in custody at the federal detention center in Philadelphia. Each faces the possibility of being sentenced to more than 150 years behind bars.