Christopher Paul George

The twin brothers Chris and Jeff grew up as children of John George and his wife Denice Haggerty in Wellington, Florida, an area where the inhabitants are considered to be wealthy.{{Cite web|title=How Florida brothers' 'pill mill' operation fueled painkiller abuse epidemic|url=http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/07/11542417-how-florida-brothers-pill-mill-operation-fueled-painkiller-abuse-epidemic|last=Francis|first=Thomas|date=7 May 2012|website=NBC Investigations|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130629234327/http://investigations.nbcnews.com:80/_news/2012/05/07/11542417-how-florida-brothers-pill-mill-operation-fueled-painkiller-abuse-epidemic |archive-date=2013-06-29 |access-date=2020-05-25}} The father had become rich in the construction sector. Their parents divorced in 1988. According to their father, Chris and Jeff were not particularly good students, but they acquired entrepreneurial attitudes in the parental home.John Temple: American Pain, Chapter 1, {{ISBN|978-1-4930-1959-5}}Episode Pain Killer Profits of the television series American Greed on CNBC (30 June 2016).

Chris was first arrested at the age of 13. Further conflicts with the police followed due to illegal possession of alcohol, brawls, contraventions, obstruction of justice and theft. In 2003 he was arrested for ordering and accepting a package of anabolic steroids for his own use and for friends. Chris George was sentenced to eight months in prison, six of which he served in work furlough, mainly as an employee of his father's business. After being released from prison, he continued working in his father's construction company. Previously, Chris had studied business administration and construction management without earning a degree, spending two years at Palm Beach Community College and two years at Florida International University.

Before entering the pill mill business, Chris George and his twin brother Jeff ran the South Beach Rejuvenation Clinic, a company that sold anabolic steroids illegally. After telemedical consultations by telephone or e-mail, bodybuilding products were distributed. Jeff George was registered as the owner of this business, which was established around 2006.[https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/fls/PressReleases/Attachments/110823-04.Indictment.pdf United States Of America v. Christopher Paul George, Jeffrey George (...)] (Indictment), p. 56.

After talks with a doctor, Chris George decided at the end of 2007 to enter the pain management business together with his twin brother. He pushed ahead with the corresponding planning and preparations so that the South Florida Pain Clinic could start in February 2008. Its first location was a bungalow on Oakland Park Boulevard, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.[https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/fls/PressReleases/Attachments/110823-04.Indictment.pdf United States Of America v. Christopher Paul George, Jeffrey George (...)] (Indictment), p. 4.{{cite web|title=Neighbors calling clinic a pain|periodical=Sun-Sentinel|publisher=|url=https://www.pressreader.com/usa/sun-sentinel-broward-edition/20080718/281861524275882|url-status=|format=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=Juan Ortega, William Lucey|date=2008-07-18|language=EN|pages=|quote=}} Artikel mit Foto der Pill Mill

Within two weeks, Chris George recognized the opportunities in the pill mill business and began the expansion. He placed job offers for doctors on craiglist.org. A few weeks after the business started, a large number of Kentucky and Tennessee-bases customers visited the South Florida Pain Clinic. The revenues increased significantly, partly because of so-called sponsors, who paid a handful of people, often opioid addicts, to come to the South Florida Pain Clinic, receive prescriptions for high-dose painkillers, and purchase hundreds of them at the clinic. Some of these pills were given by the patients or buyers to the sponsors, who then sold them on the black market.

Advertising on large billboards, in free newspapers and on the Internet contributed to the business success. Chris George also hired experts to optimize search engine rankings for the South Florida Pain Clinic website. At the same time, he took care of building up a stable network of suppliers, mostly smaller pain drug wholesalers.

Complaints from owners of surrounding businesses led to the publication of a newspaper report about the South Florida Pain Clinic. Subsequently, the police observed the area.John Temple: American Pain, chapter 3, {{ISBN|978-1-4930-1959-5}} The clinic responded to these circumstances and the rapidly growing number of clients by moving to a new location, Cypress Creek Executive Court, an office complex near Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, in summer 2008.John Temple: American Pain, chapter 4, {{ISBN|978-1-4930-1959-5}} At this location the number of personnel was increased. After a few weeks, complaints from residents also increased, resulting in the South Florida Pain Clinic receiving scrutiny from media law enforcement agencies, and the landlord terminated the lease.

File:2010-03-03_Inside_American_Pain_-_Pill_Mill_-_Waiting_Room_after_Raid.jpg from a March 3, 2010 FBI photo]]

For these reasons, business continued in 2009 on the North Federal Highway in Boca Raton. The move was accompanied by a change of name, the company now was called American Pain. In the official documents Chris George was no longer registered as owner, but a straw man.

Business continued to flourish. In the second half of 2009, five full-time physicians were working there, with additional physicians on part-time jobs; the number of staff was around 20.John Temple: American Pain, chapter 6, {{ISBN|978-1-4930-1959-5}}. At the same time, internal processes were optimized so that as many patients as possible could be supplied with painkillers in the shortest possible time. The clinic developed more and more into a "prescription assembly line".John Temple: American Pain, chapter 10, {{ISBN|978-1-4930-1959-5}}. Temple refers here to an expert witness, who characterized the conditions as a prescription assembly line.

Despite the change of name, it was not possible to escape media attention and official observation. For example, the team of Portuguese journalist Mariana van Zeller filmed the clinic. These shots, and those of a subsequent pursuit of the journalist by Chris George and American Pain's head of security, were used in Zeller's documentary The OxyContin Express,{{cite web|title=The OxyContin Express|website=documentary.net|publisher=|url=https://documentary.net/video/oxycontin-express/|url-status=|format=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=|date=|year=|language=|pages=|quote=}} which received further awards and Emmy nominations in addition to the Peabody Award (2010).{{cite web|title=Current TV's Documentary Series 'Vanguard' Receives 69th Annual Peabody Award and 2010 Television Academy Honor|website=prnewswire.com|publisher=|url=https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/current-tvs-documentary-series-vanguard-receives-69th-annual-peabody-award-and-2010-television-academy-honor-90082357.html|url-status=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=Current TV|date=2010-04-07|language=|pages=|quote=}} Press release.
{{cite web|title=The OxyContin Express (Current TV)|website=peabodyawards.com|publisher=|url=http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/the-oxycontin-express|url-status=|format=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=|date=|year=|language=|pages=|quote=}} Recording of the award ceremony
{{cite web|title=International Documentary Association|periodical=Internet Movie Database|publisher=|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2016109/awards|url-status=|format=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=|date=|year=|language=|pages=|quote=}}

The search for a new location for American Pain began in November 2009John Temple: American Pain, chapter 8, {{ISBN|978-1-4930-1959-5}} and Chris George decided to move to a former bank building on the North Dixie Highway in Lake Worth.John Temple: American Pain, section Prologue, {{ISBN|978-1-4930-1959-5}} It had three floors and more than 6,000 square meters, twice the size of the previous building on the North Federal Highway and almost twenty times the size of the bungalow on Oakland Park Boulevard. Operations began there on February 1, 2010.

In 2009, Chris George opened another, much smaller clinic, Executive Pain, in West Palm Beach. His partner and later wife was Dianna Marie Pavnick, a former stripper.{{cite web|title=Lawyer for doctor fires back at pill-mill operator, calling her a victim who denied prescriptions to out-of-staters|periodical=The Palm Beach Post|publisher=|url=https://www.palmbeachpost.com/article/20130627/NEWS/812033448|url-status=|format=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=Jane Musgrave|date=2013-06-27|language=EN|pages=|quote=}}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} In the same year he acquired a pharmacy (Quick Pharm) in Orlando, Florida, which was subsequently also run by a straw man. Another pharmacy whose ownership Chris George concealed was Boca Drugs in Boca Raton.[https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/fls/PressReleases/Attachments/110823-04.Indictment.pdf United States Of America v. Christopher Paul George, Jeffrey George (...)] (Indictment), p. 57.{{cite web|title=How the George brothers made millions with pill mills|periodical=The Palm Beach Post|publisher=|url=https://www.palmbeachpost.com/article/20110826/news/812025868|url-status=|format=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=Bob LaMendola|date=2011-08-26|language=EN|pages=|quote=}}{{Dead link|date=March 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

In February 2010, the twin brothers opened a small pill mill in Kennesaw, Georgia, as a precautionary measure in the event of stricter Florida legislation on the prescription and sale of prescription painkillers.

Doctors usually prescribed a mix of painkillers, including large amounts of Oxycodone, Xanax, and Soma. In the American Pain location alone, doctors treated up to 500 patients daily. From July 7, 2008, to about March 2, 2010, doctors at this clinic wrote approximately 66,871 prescriptions, 96 percent for oxycodone or alprazolam. About 80 percent of the prescriptions of this location went to people who were not resident in Florida.{{cite web|title=Thirty-two Indicted in Broward and Palm Beach Countries in Second Coordinated Pill Mill Takedown|website=www.justice.gov|publisher=|url=https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/fls/PressReleases/2011/110823-04.html|url-status=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=United States Attorney's Office. Southern District of Florida|date=2011-08-23|language=EN|pages=|quote=}} Press release.[https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/fls/PressReleases/Attachments/110823-04.Indictment.pdf United States Of America v. Christopher Paul George, Jeffrey George (...)] (Indictment), p. 23.

In August 2011, an FBI representative described the group of companies as the largest criminal organization in the USA dealing with the illegal distribution of painkillers.

Christopher Paul George stated that his Pill Mills made more than forty million dollars.[https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/fls/PressReleases/Attachments/110823-04.Indictment.pdf United States Of America v. Christopher Paul George, Jeffrey George (...)] (Indictment), p. 34.

File:One_of_four_saves_with_money_found_in_the_attic_of_Christopher_George's_mother.jpg

For approximately 14 months, the FBI, DEA, the Internal Revenue Service, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and other law enforcement agencies evaluated information about the corporate group in covert Operation Oxy Alley{{cite web|title=Twin kingpins behind some of the most brazen pain clinics in South Florida|periodical=The Palm Beach Post|publisher=|url=https://www.palmbeachpost.com/article/20100306/NEWS/812036165|url-status=dead|format=|access-date=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190718235703/https://www.palmbeachpost.com/article/20100306/news/812036165|archive-date=2019-07-18|last=Michael LaForgia, Niels Heimeriks|date=2010-03-06|language=EN|pages=|quote=}}John Temple: American Pain, passim, {{ISBN|978-1-4930-1959-5}}. before searching clinics and private homes and securing extensive evidence on March 3, 2010.WPBF: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gIoGqSFx14 Wellington Man's Pain Clinics Raided] (report on the search). YouTube, uploaded to YouTube channel of WPBF, March 3rd, 2010.

Among the confiscated goods owned by George were three large real estates, several luxury cars and motorboats.[https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/fls/PressReleases/Attachments/110823-04.Indictment.pdf United States Of America v. Christopher Paul George, Jeffrey George (...)] (Indictment), p. 36. In the attic of Chris George's mother's home, $4.3 million in cash was found, stored in several safes.[https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/fls/PressReleases/Attachments/110823-04.Indictment.pdf United States Of America v. Christopher Paul George, Jeffrey George (...)] (Indictment), p. 94.

The 123-page indictment dated August 11, 2011, was directed against George, his twin brother Jeff, Dianna Pavnick George, Denice Haggerty, 13 physicians, and 15 other individuals involved.[https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/fls/PressReleases/Attachments/110823-04.Indictment.pdf United States Of America v. Christopher Paul George, Jeffrey George (...)], 11. August 2011. In order to prove the cooperation of the defendants and the role of the doctors, the indictment was based, among other things, on the RICO act, a federal law passed in 1970, in particular to combat the American mafia.John Temple: American Pain, chapter 7, {{ISBN|978-1-4930-1959-5}}. The charges were organized crime, conspiracy, money laundering, illegal distribution of drugs subject to special surveillance, maintenance of premises associated with drugs, and conspiracy to commit fraud in the Internet and mail order business.

Many of the accused pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison. On February 10, 2012, George's wife, Dianna Pavnick, and the twin's mother, Denice Haggerty, were both sentenced to four and a half years, having been the manager and assistant manager, respectively, at one of the pill mill clinics.{{cite press release |title=Three More Defendants Sentenced in Broward and Palm Beach Counties in Pill Mill Operation |date=2012-02-10 |publisher=United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida |url=https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/fls/PressReleases/2012/120210-04.html |access-date=2023-02-05}} On February 12, 2012, George was sentenced to seventeen and a half years. In April 2014, it was reduced to 14 years because George was cooperating with the authorities in the trial of two of his former doctors who were accused of murder. In December 2015, twin Jeff George was sentenced to 20 years in prison for a drug overdose murder, in addition to the same crimes for which Chris was sentenced.{{cite news |title=Former pill mill king gets 20 years in overdose death of West Palm man |first=Marc |last=Freeman |date=2015-12-02 |newspaper=Sun-Sentinel |url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-pill-mill-murder-jeff-george-sentencing-20151202-story.html |access-date=2023-02-12 |archive-url= |archive-date= }}

On February 11, 2022, George was released from federal prison.{{cite web |last1=Whigham |first1=Julius II |title='American Pain': Former Wellington pill mill kingpins Chris, Jeff George subjects of CNN documentary |url=https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/crime/2023/01/30/cnn-investigates-south-florida-pill-mill-kingpins-jeff-chris-george/69827156007/ |website=Palm Beach Post |access-date=18 May 2023}}

In addition to the contemporary coverage in newspapers and television stations, the criminal activities of the George twins were also taken up in other formats. The TV series Evil Twins described the twin brothers' behavior in the episode The Candymen, which was broadcast in 2015. The CNBC series American Greed made the pill mills of the George twins the subject of the episode Pain Killer Profits in June 2016.[https://www.cnbc.com/video/2016/06/30/american-greed-sneak-peek-pain-killer-profits.html Preview] of the episode (June 30, 2016). History produced Legal Pill Mills Ushered America's Opium Crisis, which deals with the George twins' ventures.{{cite web|title=8 Times America's War on Drugs Was Stranger Than Fiction|website=history.com|publisher=|url=https://www.history.com/news/8-times-americas-war-on-drugs-was-stranger-than-fiction|url-status=|format=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=|date=2019-07-18|language=EN|pages=|quote=}} John Temple published his book American Pain in 2015, which traces the rise and fall of George's Pill Mills.John Temple: American Pain, {{ISBN|978-1-4930-1959-5}}. Warner Bros. acquired the film rights to Temple's work in 2014,{{cite web|title=Warner Bros. Developing 'American Pain' Movie with Greg Berlanti|periodical=Variety|publisher=|url=https://variety.com/2014/film/news/american-pain-movie-greg-berlanti-warner-bros-1201360375/|url-status=|format=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=Dave McNary|date=2014-11-19|language=EN|pages=|quote=}} and in September 2019 it was announced that a new production company - Faster Horse Pictures{{cn|date=December 2021}} - was planning to make the film.{{cite web|title=Cindy Bond & Doug McKay Launch Film & TV Firm Faster Horse Pictures, Set Tate Taylor Opioids Pic 'American Pain' As First Movie|periodical=Deadline Hollywood|publisher=|url=https://deadline.com/2019/09/tate-taylor-american-pain-cindy-bond-doug-mckay-launch-la-based-film-tv-firm-faster-horse-pictures-set-first-movie-as-tate-taylors-american-pain-as-debut-movie-1202745374/|url-status=|format=|access-date=|archive-url=|archive-date=|last=Andreas Wiseman|date=2019-09-26|language=EN|pages=|quote=}}

• John Temple: American Pain. How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America's Deadliest Drug Epidemic. Lyons Press, Guilford (Connecticut) 2015, {{ISBN|978-1-4930-1959-5}}.

{{Reflist}}

• Felix Gillette: [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-06-06/american-pain-the-largest-u-dot-s-dot-pill-mills-rise-and-fall American Pain: The Largest U.S. Pill Mill's Rise and Fall]. In: Bloomberg News, 6. Juni 2012.
• Thomas Francis: [http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/07/11542417-how-florida-brothers-pill-mill-operation-fueled-painkiller-abuse-epidemic How Florida brothers' 'pill mill' operation fueled painkiller abuse epidemic]. In: MSNBC, 7. Mai 2012.
• [https://www.justice.gov/archive/usao/fls/PressReleases/Attachments/110823-04.Indictment.pdf United States Of America v. Christopher Paul George, Jeffrey George (...)] (Indictment), 11. August 2011.

{{DEFAULTSORT:George, Christopher}}

Category:1980 births

Category:Living people

Category:21st-century American criminals

Category:American male criminals

Category:American people convicted of drug offenses

Category:Criminals from Florida

Category:People from Wellington, Florida