It seemed, at the time, to be an unlikely story.

A cardiologist from New Jersey had run up a six-figure tab at Scores, an expensive strip club in Manhattan, but was balking at paying the debt, even though he had built up his tab over three separate visits in November.

The doctor, Zyad Younan, claimed he could not remember visiting the club, despite photographic evidence that he was there. He offered what he thought was a plausible explanation: He must have been drugged.

Months later, prosecutors said he was right.

An indictment unsealed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan this week describes a criminal ring whose members drugged well-off men, took them to strip clubs and then ran up tens of thousands of dollars on their credit cards while they were incapacitated.

The group is accused of stealing at least $200,000 from September to December, including $135,000 from Dr. Younan and a total of $65,000 from three other victims — a banker, a hedge fund executive and a real estate lawyer.