The owner of a once-popular hormone replacement therapy clinic was arrested this week for the illegal distribution of anabolic steroids over the internet but this was the least of his worries. Jeffrey George started selling steroids through his South Beach Rejuvenation clinic in 2006 but it was his involvement in a chain of Florida pain clinics that has made him the focus of federal investigators.
Jeffrey George and his twin brother Chris George masterminded a pain clinic operation that brought in $40 million dollars over two years through the liberal and aggressive sale of oxycodone and other painkillers. They were indicted, along with 31 coconspirators, on federal charges of racketeering, fraud and illegal drug distribution. Jeff George is also facing a murder charge related to the death of one of the clinics’ 56 patients who overdosed.
Jeff George promoted what prosecutors called “an illegal anabolic steroid internet sales business” but was known as “South Beach Rejuvenation” to its clients. The anti-aging and hormone replacement clinic was advertised on the internet and in bodybuilding and fitness magazines.
George had previously been convicted on the charge of possession with the intent to deliver anabolic steroids and sentenced to eight months imprisonment in 2003 after he was caught importing a package of steroids shipped from Mexico. The next time he became involved with selling steroids, he sought to take advantage of the lax Florida laws that allowed the rise of a burgeoning market of “anti-aging” and “rejuvenation” clinics that “legally” prescribed anabolic steroids.
George, who had no medical training, founded South Beach Rejuvenation in 2006. He solicited physicians who had no qualms about prescribing steroids. Physician Daniel Hauser was paid $5000 per week to write steroid prescriptions for South Beach Rejuvenation.
He hired friends and family as “sales consultants” who told prospective customers to obtain blood work and a physical examination from a doctor near their residence. The customers would fill out a questionnaire over the internet and email the results of their lab work and physical in exchange for anabolic steroids. Dr. Hauser would write steroid prescriptions for these customers. Sometimes, sales consultants would forge Dr. Hauser’s signature on the prescriptions.
The federal indictment claims that all of the sales consultants (“steroid telemarketers”) at South Beach Rejuvenation were themselves using large quantities of anabolic steroids, being prescribed oxycodone and selling the drugs on the side. Consultants earned commissions based on the quantity of steroids sold and therefore were rewarded by convincing customers to buy large quantities of steroids. They advised customers on how to stack steroids in order to improve their physique and performance for bodybuilding and sports.
Jeff George’s brother Chris also decided to get involved in setting up a steroid clinic. He helped his friend, Chris Hutson, finance and establish LA Health and Rejuvenation based on the model used by South Beach Rejuvenation. Chris George referred one of the doctors prescribing oxycodone to patients of his pain clinics to Hutson.
Hutson paid Dr. Cynthia Cadet and Dr. Robert Meek one thousand dollars per week to prescribe anabolic steroids to clients of LA Health and Rejuvenation. Hutson also referred Dr. Meek to Chris George to write pain pill prescriptions for George’s pain clinics. Dr. Meek and Dr. Cadet took turns prescribing oxycodone for the pain clinics and prescribing anabolic steroids for the rejuvenation clinics.
Jeff George, Chris George and all of the physicians and sales consultants associated with South Beach Rejuvenation and LA Health and Rejuvenation were named in the 123 page superseding indictment alleging involvement in a criminal enterprise involving the illegal distribution of prescription narcotics and controlled substances under the guise of medical necessity. It also accuses them of participating in telemarketing fraud and illegally distributing anabolic steroids over the internet.
Source:
LaMendola, B. (August 25, 2011). How the George brothers made millions with pill mills. Retrieved from http://www.sun-sentinel.com/health/fl-hk-george-pill-mill-20110824,0,6996283.story
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