1 00:00:03,150 --> 00:00:08,150 In this episode of American Greed, Chris and Jeff George, twin brothers, say 2 00:00:08,150 --> 00:00:10,050 they help patients manage pain. 3 00:00:10,390 --> 00:00:14,170 But all they do is push pills, deadly addictive pills. 4 00:00:14,390 --> 00:00:19,610 Running the largest pill mill in the U .S., the twins rake in $40 million in 5 00:00:19,610 --> 00:00:20,830 just over two years. 6 00:00:21,250 --> 00:00:24,990 They had so much cash in these clinics, they kept the cash in garbage bags. 7 00:00:25,610 --> 00:00:29,550 Convinced it's all legal, Chris even brings his wife into the game. 8 00:00:29,830 --> 00:00:30,830 I trusted him. 9 00:00:30,940 --> 00:00:35,900 I shouldn't have. And the patients pay not just with money, but also with their 10 00:00:35,900 --> 00:00:42,720 lives. They gave him two deadly pills that were even more deadly when they 11 00:00:42,720 --> 00:00:46,760 combined. They did it on purpose, and it killed someone. 12 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:10,040 Wellington, Florida, in Palm Beach County, is known for horse shows and 13 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:12,600 tournaments and soaring property values. 14 00:01:12,940 --> 00:01:18,080 It is here where twin brothers Chris and Jeff George start life in the lap of 15 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:23,280 luxury. Their father, John George, owns a hugely successful home building 16 00:01:23,280 --> 00:01:26,700 business and gives his boys all they could ever need. 17 00:01:27,140 --> 00:01:32,300 He is proud of them. Chris and Jeff are both very, very intelligent. They 18 00:01:32,300 --> 00:01:38,320 weren't. great students because they played too much. And they're both very, 19 00:01:38,480 --> 00:01:42,760 how do you say, entrepreneurial. 20 00:01:43,580 --> 00:01:45,520 And that's what will get them in trouble. 21 00:01:46,060 --> 00:01:51,180 From the start, the George twins make their own rules and like to take 22 00:01:51,920 --> 00:01:54,660 Did I see him as overly mischievous? 23 00:01:55,140 --> 00:01:59,460 Yes. They certainly pushed the envelope as they were children. 24 00:02:00,700 --> 00:02:01,700 Nothing... 25 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:05,560 Terribly bad, but certainly mischievous, yeah. 26 00:02:06,340 --> 00:02:10,520 But Palm Beach County Sheriff reports show more serious problems. 27 00:02:11,620 --> 00:02:16,040 Arrests for aggravated assault, possession of stolen property, domestic 28 00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:22,420 violence. Jeff got kicked out of a number of schools in high school, and 29 00:02:22,420 --> 00:02:23,420 were troublemakers. 30 00:02:23,740 --> 00:02:27,980 At first, the twins are into football and wrestling, and then move into 31 00:02:27,980 --> 00:02:31,100 bodybuilding that leads to steroids. And after graduation? 32 00:02:31,820 --> 00:02:32,820 One more arrest. 33 00:02:33,260 --> 00:02:39,640 Chris was arrested in his early 20s for receiving anabolic steroids 34 00:02:39,640 --> 00:02:44,720 and actually received an eight -month prison sentence. 35 00:02:45,760 --> 00:02:50,880 Now a convicted felon, Chris goes to work for his father and learns how to 36 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:56,060 business. He also spends time at strip clubs where he meets a dancer named 37 00:02:56,060 --> 00:02:58,320 Diana, his future wife. 38 00:02:58,820 --> 00:03:00,620 At that time, I thought he was... 39 00:03:00,910 --> 00:03:01,888 Completely pathetic. 40 00:03:01,890 --> 00:03:06,730 Just like a lost young kid, you know, that really didn't know who he was, what 41 00:03:06,730 --> 00:03:08,930 direction he was going in, and hungry for attention. 42 00:03:10,810 --> 00:03:14,470 Two years later, the real estate market in Florida crashes. 43 00:03:15,090 --> 00:03:17,090 Chris's future is up for grabs. 44 00:03:17,410 --> 00:03:21,090 He and Diana move in with Jeff, who is still causing trouble. 45 00:03:21,530 --> 00:03:26,530 Now he is in an open battle with his neighbors over his truck, a monster 46 00:03:26,530 --> 00:03:28,770 that he parks illegally in his front yard. 47 00:03:29,230 --> 00:03:34,110 When he is fined more than $15 ,000, he simply ignores the tickets. 48 00:03:34,490 --> 00:03:39,350 He didn't care. He basically sort of lived a life of going to the gym, going 49 00:03:39,350 --> 00:03:42,590 strip clubs, working, and he lived like a slob. 50 00:03:44,270 --> 00:03:49,770 At this point, Jeff is running his own company, South Beach Rejuvenation, an 51 00:03:49,770 --> 00:03:51,790 online business that sells steroids. 52 00:03:52,250 --> 00:03:56,690 But Jeff and Chris soon learn that the real money is in pain management. 53 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:02,000 FBI Special Agent Kurt McKenzie becomes an expert on the George brothers' 54 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:03,200 operation. 55 00:04:03,580 --> 00:04:08,660 Chris and his brother Jeff met a corrupt physician who taught the both of them 56 00:04:08,660 --> 00:04:14,360 how to set up a pain clinic to make money and how to maximize your profits 57 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:15,360 selling drugs. 58 00:04:15,620 --> 00:04:17,500 Legal drug dealing is what they were taught. 59 00:04:17,740 --> 00:04:23,860 The drug the doctor recommends is oxycodone, a powerfully addictive 60 00:04:23,860 --> 00:04:25,560 is actually synthetic heroin. 61 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:29,880 and it is creating an epidemic of addiction across the country. 62 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:34,180 In Virginia, 28 deaths by overdose in two years. 63 00:04:34,440 --> 00:04:37,880 Kentucky, 59 deaths by overdose in the last year. 64 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:41,760 Maine, 10 deaths, 156 arrests this year. 65 00:04:42,300 --> 00:04:46,620 Most states have a system that monitors the pills, but not Florida. 66 00:04:47,130 --> 00:04:52,130 In fact, Florida laws are so lax, there is nothing to stop Chris George, a 67 00:04:52,130 --> 00:04:56,230 convicted felon with no medical experience, from opening a pain clinic 68 00:04:56,230 --> 00:04:58,450 selling powerfully addictive narcotics. 69 00:04:58,930 --> 00:05:03,670 And so while Jeff sticks with steroids, Chris decides to move ahead with the 70 00:05:03,670 --> 00:05:04,790 oxycodone business. 71 00:05:05,980 --> 00:05:12,320 He realized that this was something that people were wanting, and he realized 72 00:05:12,320 --> 00:05:17,300 that it was a product that he could provide for them. And given the laws in 73 00:05:17,300 --> 00:05:19,340 state of Florida at the time, he could do so. 74 00:05:20,140 --> 00:05:24,640 Chris chooses busy Oakland Park Boulevard north of Fort Lauderdale as 75 00:05:24,640 --> 00:05:25,860 location for his clinic. 76 00:05:26,620 --> 00:05:28,620 Next, he needs to find some doctors. 77 00:05:29,530 --> 00:05:33,870 Pain management is really a highly specialized field. 78 00:05:34,270 --> 00:05:39,190 Specialists are found through firms that market for specialists. 79 00:05:40,390 --> 00:05:42,690 But Chris has a different idea. 80 00:05:43,050 --> 00:05:46,350 They went about getting doctors by advertising Craigslist. 81 00:05:47,710 --> 00:05:48,710 Craigslist. 82 00:05:49,710 --> 00:05:56,490 He simply places an ad, MD with DEA license needed for busy pain clinic, and 83 00:05:56,490 --> 00:05:57,530 adds a stunning attraction. 84 00:05:58,250 --> 00:06:01,150 make up to $400 an hour. 85 00:06:01,450 --> 00:06:03,910 Sure enough, the responses pour in. 86 00:06:04,770 --> 00:06:07,790 Several of the doctors were former emergency room physicians. 87 00:06:08,310 --> 00:06:10,470 One of them was a former proctologist. 88 00:06:10,970 --> 00:06:15,550 One was a former plastic surgeon. The one thing they all had in common was 89 00:06:15,550 --> 00:06:16,710 wanted to make money quickly. 90 00:06:17,490 --> 00:06:21,550 At the start of 2008, there are just a few pain clinics in Florida. 91 00:06:21,970 --> 00:06:23,970 Chris is making it up as he goes. 92 00:06:25,420 --> 00:06:31,780 He pays the doctors $1 ,000 to use their DEA licenses to order pills from 93 00:06:31,780 --> 00:06:37,740 wholesalers. And as for legitimate -looking medical forms... At one point, 94 00:06:37,740 --> 00:06:43,840 sort of walked into another pain clinic and simply took the paperwork that that 95 00:06:43,840 --> 00:06:49,920 pain clinic used and then sort of cut and pasted their names on top of it and 96 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:51,120 started using that. 97 00:06:52,870 --> 00:06:55,650 Finally, by February, Chris is ready to open. 98 00:06:55,910 --> 00:06:59,390 He calls his business South Florida Pain Clinic. 99 00:06:59,830 --> 00:07:04,110 The doctor that had given me this idea, he told him, this is what we do and this 100 00:07:04,110 --> 00:07:05,930 is how it's going to be and it's going to be great. 101 00:07:06,370 --> 00:07:07,690 Don't worry, they will come. 102 00:07:08,530 --> 00:07:13,030 Next on American Greed, a new kind of drugstore opens in a Florida strip mall. 103 00:07:13,470 --> 00:07:17,670 I'm just like, this ain't nothing but a drug deal, you know, kind of legal. 104 00:07:30,350 --> 00:07:35,950 In February 2008 in Broward County, Florida, a new chapter in prescription 105 00:07:35,950 --> 00:07:40,830 addiction begins when Chris George's South Florida Pain Clinic opens for 106 00:07:40,830 --> 00:07:43,730 business. South Florida Pain was an experiment. 107 00:07:44,030 --> 00:07:48,450 It was saying, let's see if we can do this and how does this work. So this was 108 00:07:48,450 --> 00:07:50,610 their learning experience. This was their starter clinic. 109 00:07:51,390 --> 00:07:54,150 And what a way to start with a bang. 110 00:07:54,570 --> 00:07:57,530 The first day they maybe had seven or eight patients. 111 00:07:58,270 --> 00:08:04,710 By three weeks in, they were treating, you know, probably 30, 40, 50 patients, 112 00:08:04,850 --> 00:08:09,450 you know. It got to be so many people that they were parking in our parking 113 00:08:09,670 --> 00:08:11,450 the McDonald's parking lot. 114 00:08:11,790 --> 00:08:17,790 Across the street, Mark, who owns a billiard business, watches in amazement 115 00:08:17,790 --> 00:08:18,870 the business explodes. 116 00:08:19,660 --> 00:08:25,000 I arrived on a rainy thunderstorm morning. There was 14 vehicles and over 117 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:30,180 people out the front door waiting to go in. And that's when I was like, this is 118 00:08:30,180 --> 00:08:31,079 pretty crazy. 119 00:08:31,080 --> 00:08:37,900 It just exploded because there was this addict network grapevine that spread 120 00:08:37,900 --> 00:08:41,159 the news that there was a place that was churning out pills. 121 00:08:41,940 --> 00:08:45,540 One of the people plugged into that grapevine is Steve Mazza. 122 00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:48,680 Now head of the catering department for a non -profit organization, 123 00:08:49,380 --> 00:08:52,140 Mazza started using drugs as a teenager. 124 00:08:52,660 --> 00:08:59,560 Back then, it wasn't like today. It was like pot, alcohol, Quaaludes, you 125 00:08:59,560 --> 00:09:01,980 know, some pills and cocaine. 126 00:09:02,860 --> 00:09:08,880 By 2008, he has been introduced to oxycodone and knows how addictive it is. 127 00:09:09,630 --> 00:09:15,030 You don't care about nothing else. You really, you might think you care about 128 00:09:15,030 --> 00:09:19,870 other things, but you don't. If you have your pills, then you're okay. You can 129 00:09:19,870 --> 00:09:26,710 care about other things. But if you don't have them pills, your main concern 130 00:09:26,710 --> 00:09:27,850 is getting more pills. 131 00:09:28,410 --> 00:09:31,650 A friend tells him about South Florida pain. 132 00:09:32,070 --> 00:09:36,410 I was nervous because I've never been to a pain clinic. 133 00:09:37,120 --> 00:09:39,860 And so I was more or less like, are you sure? 134 00:09:40,620 --> 00:09:43,400 But he quickly learns there is nothing to fear. 135 00:09:44,020 --> 00:09:48,460 They called my name, went back, seen the doctor, and the doctor asked me where 136 00:09:48,460 --> 00:09:54,260 it hurts. I told him I don't think I talked to him for more than a minute and 137 00:09:54,260 --> 00:10:00,080 half, and he was already writing the prescriptions out for 280 oxycodones, 30 138 00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:01,080 milligrams. 139 00:10:01,580 --> 00:10:02,580 What separated? 140 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:06,360 Real doctors from what these people did, it's everybody who came through those 141 00:10:06,360 --> 00:10:10,640 doors. Everybody got the same drugs in roughly the same amounts every single 142 00:10:10,640 --> 00:10:13,540 time, and nobody was ever diagnosed with anything. 143 00:10:14,360 --> 00:10:19,620 And because Florida law allows clinics to dispense the pills they prescribe, 144 00:10:19,620 --> 00:10:22,340 patients walk out the door with hundreds of pills. 145 00:10:23,020 --> 00:10:27,900 It was extremely easy, and I'm just like, this ain't nothing but a drug 146 00:10:28,040 --> 00:10:30,120 you know, kind of legal. 147 00:10:31,630 --> 00:10:36,910 Mazza says he pays 90 cents a pill inside the clinic, but out on the 148 00:10:36,910 --> 00:10:38,470 pills are worth a lot more. 149 00:10:38,890 --> 00:10:44,210 We had people, friends, actually the guy that introduced us to the stuff, that 150 00:10:44,210 --> 00:10:49,190 we would sell him 100 pills for $7 apiece. 151 00:10:49,530 --> 00:10:56,050 Make 700 bucks right off of the top. That would pay for the doctor visit. 152 00:10:56,070 --> 00:10:59,630 Then you would still have 180 pills left for yourself. 153 00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:06,200 What the clinic is selling is a generic oxycodone, small blue pills that are 154 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:08,740 water -soluble, just what the addicts want. 155 00:11:09,260 --> 00:11:14,180 And at that time, it was that roxycodone brand, because they could immediately 156 00:11:14,180 --> 00:11:20,100 crush them, water -soluble, put them into a syringe, shoot it up, snort it, 157 00:11:20,100 --> 00:11:24,060 other things, where they get that immediate influx of the oxycodone into 158 00:11:24,060 --> 00:11:30,300 system. They had to have security outside the pain clinic to make people 159 00:11:30,300 --> 00:11:34,460 their cars and actually leave the parking lot. Because if they didn't 160 00:11:34,460 --> 00:11:38,720 parking lot, they knew they were in their cars snorting their pills or 161 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:42,960 their pills. They weren't just getting in the car and leaving like a normal 162 00:11:42,960 --> 00:11:43,960 doctor's office. 163 00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:48,080 Clearly, this is not a normal doctor's office. 164 00:11:48,540 --> 00:11:53,260 These were young guys having a good time. They weren't... 165 00:11:53,530 --> 00:11:57,090 particularly serious about this business at all in the early going. 166 00:11:57,330 --> 00:11:59,970 I mean, Chris thought it was kind of a lark. 167 00:12:00,450 --> 00:12:05,190 The police are called constantly by neighbors complaining of parking 168 00:12:05,190 --> 00:12:10,050 and by patients who say their pills were stolen. And along with the cops come 169 00:12:10,050 --> 00:12:15,730 reporters. In July, Fort Lauderdale's Sun Sentinel brings unwanted attention 170 00:12:15,730 --> 00:12:16,730 the clinic. 171 00:12:17,050 --> 00:12:21,290 Chris decides he needs to move, get a bigger place with more parking. 172 00:12:21,930 --> 00:12:25,010 But his customers continued to anger the neighbors. 173 00:12:25,710 --> 00:12:29,170 Being drug abusers and drug addicts, a lot of the activity they brought with 174 00:12:29,170 --> 00:12:32,290 them is what you'd expect from drug abusers and drug addicts. 175 00:12:32,710 --> 00:12:37,190 Prostitution, theft, fighting in the parking lots, urinating. 176 00:12:37,490 --> 00:12:40,770 So all the surrounding businesses were constantly complaining to local law 177 00:12:40,770 --> 00:12:41,770 enforcement. 178 00:12:42,510 --> 00:12:47,710 Finally, it's clear that it's time to start again, this time even bigger and 179 00:12:47,710 --> 00:12:48,710 with a new name. 180 00:12:49,260 --> 00:12:55,920 South Florida pain had become this sort of symbol of overprescribing and 181 00:12:55,920 --> 00:13:01,260 drug addiction. And he decided that he needed to change the name to something 182 00:13:01,260 --> 00:13:05,620 else that wouldn't be associated with that. And he decided a good name would 183 00:13:05,620 --> 00:13:06,620 American pain. 184 00:13:07,020 --> 00:13:10,360 Next on American Greed, what to do with all that money. 185 00:13:10,760 --> 00:13:15,000 They said we need large, you know, garbage cans and receptacles, you know, 186 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:17,420 almost lawn or trash bags. 187 00:13:18,080 --> 00:13:19,080 to put the cash in. 188 00:13:30,980 --> 00:13:36,860 In early 2008, more than 1 ,000 miles from South Florida and eastern Kentucky, 189 00:13:37,140 --> 00:13:41,960 local law enforcement officers see a strange price shift in the street value 190 00:13:41,960 --> 00:13:43,220 prescription pills. 191 00:13:44,230 --> 00:13:48,330 Normally when you talk about oxycodone trafficking throughout Appalachia, a 30 192 00:13:48,330 --> 00:13:52,810 milligram tablet would cost you $30 on the street. We were getting reports that 193 00:13:52,810 --> 00:13:56,510 a 30 milligram tablet was going for as little as $10 apiece on the street. 194 00:13:57,350 --> 00:13:59,810 And soon the reason becomes clear. 195 00:14:00,130 --> 00:14:03,670 Pills are pouring into Appalachia from just one state. 196 00:14:04,170 --> 00:14:07,370 Law enforcement officers were making a tremendous amount of drug buys, 197 00:14:07,510 --> 00:14:10,350 undercover drug buys, and then would find prescription bottles. 198 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:14,840 that were given to them by Florida physicians, and that became a recurring 199 00:14:14,840 --> 00:14:18,340 scenario in every search that was conducted. 200 00:14:19,320 --> 00:14:20,600 It's terrible news. 201 00:14:21,100 --> 00:14:25,480 More pills for a part of the country that has had a devastating oxycodone 202 00:14:25,480 --> 00:14:27,060 addiction problem for years. 203 00:14:27,940 --> 00:14:33,000 You have coal miners in that area, and you have a lot of individuals who ended 204 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:35,180 up with lung cancer, black lung disease. 205 00:14:36,060 --> 00:14:40,980 And the pill was heavily marketed in that area to physicians as something 206 00:14:40,980 --> 00:14:45,460 could be prescribed to patients to treat the pain associated with those various 207 00:14:45,460 --> 00:14:46,460 diseases. 208 00:14:46,720 --> 00:14:52,000 Unfortunately, individuals became very quickly addicted to the medication and 209 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:56,160 sought out the medication in various ways. 210 00:14:56,540 --> 00:15:02,120 The pharmaceutical company's marketing campaign spells disaster as an epidemic 211 00:15:02,120 --> 00:15:04,380 of addiction spreads throughout the area. 212 00:15:05,100 --> 00:15:09,340 How many people here have actually been affected by OxyContin in one form or 213 00:15:09,340 --> 00:15:11,820 another? People who have babies on their hips. 214 00:15:12,380 --> 00:15:14,820 Women. Do you know where I can get some pills at? 215 00:15:16,260 --> 00:15:20,660 And, you know, you can't expect your kids to be raised good when you're doing 216 00:15:20,660 --> 00:15:21,659 yourself. 217 00:15:21,660 --> 00:15:28,360 A whole generation basically lost their parents or the young children of the 18 218 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:32,160 to 25 -year -olds were just taken away because of the problem. 219 00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:34,540 And so the state clamps down. 220 00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:39,900 instituting a monitoring system that makes it hard for addicts to get pills 221 00:15:39,900 --> 00:15:41,460 multiple doctors in the area. 222 00:15:41,720 --> 00:15:46,980 But Florida does not have a monitoring system, and so addicts can collect as 223 00:15:46,980 --> 00:15:49,560 many pills as they want if they go to Florida. 224 00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:57,560 And that's why Interstate 75 from Kentucky to Florida becomes known as Oxy 225 00:15:57,560 --> 00:16:02,400 Express, as thousands of drug seekers head straight to Chris George's American 226 00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:03,400 Pain. 227 00:16:04,180 --> 00:16:08,960 They were the number one provider for these prescription pills that were being 228 00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:09,960 refilled here in Kentucky. 229 00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:13,420 They were the hot topic. Everybody went to American Pain. 230 00:16:13,900 --> 00:16:18,200 And soon, Chris's success is inspiring other businesses. 231 00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:23,940 We had an airline that had begun sponsoring direct flights from 232 00:16:23,940 --> 00:16:27,700 Virginia to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. There was a demand for quick travel, 233 00:16:27,700 --> 00:16:29,160 turnaround to get down there and get back. 234 00:16:30,180 --> 00:16:34,600 Some making the trip are individuals supporting their own addiction, but many 235 00:16:34,600 --> 00:16:39,220 are drug dealers who cover the addict's costs, known as a sponsor. 236 00:16:40,060 --> 00:16:44,620 He would pay all their expenses. He would pay for their gas if they took 237 00:16:44,620 --> 00:16:47,540 own vehicle. He would pay for their food. He would pay for their cigarettes, 238 00:16:47,540 --> 00:16:52,080 for their lodging. He would even pay for their doctor's office visit, and he 239 00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:53,500 would pay to have the prescriptions filled. 240 00:16:53,760 --> 00:16:58,240 And then the patient splits the supply of pills with the sponsor. 241 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:02,780 With a split of the pills, giving 50 % to the drug seeker that goes into the 242 00:17:02,780 --> 00:17:07,720 clinic, the sponsor could still easily make $5 ,000 cash on this per person. 243 00:17:09,160 --> 00:17:14,060 You take five people down in a minivan, you know the sponsor can clear $25 ,000 244 00:17:14,060 --> 00:17:15,060 on one trip. 245 00:17:15,300 --> 00:17:21,780 It was unlike other types of drug networks because 246 00:17:21,780 --> 00:17:23,920 anyone could get in. 247 00:17:24,480 --> 00:17:27,819 You know, if you had enough money to just get down to Florida and get back, 248 00:17:27,819 --> 00:17:29,180 could make several thousand dollars. 249 00:17:30,040 --> 00:17:34,780 And because American Pain doesn't take insurance or Medicaid, every one of 250 00:17:34,780 --> 00:17:38,160 people walks into the door of the clinic with a wad of cash. 251 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:44,540 They pay $150 for the doctor visit and as much as $1 ,200 for the pills. 252 00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:49,980 So the cash drawers were being filled up within an hour or less. 253 00:17:50,490 --> 00:17:53,510 And they quickly realized that that alone wasn't going to cut it. 254 00:17:53,790 --> 00:18:00,710 So they said, look, let's just put it in trash cans. We need large, you 255 00:18:00,710 --> 00:18:05,050 know, garbage cans and receptacles to put the cash in after, you know, the 256 00:18:05,050 --> 00:18:06,070 drawers would fill up. 257 00:18:06,590 --> 00:18:11,510 But typically, banks are not comfortable with trash bags of money. And so Chris 258 00:18:11,510 --> 00:18:13,690 is forced to keep the money moving. 259 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:18,220 There are a multitude of banks that they were rejected from and told, we don't 260 00:18:18,220 --> 00:18:19,220 want your bits anymore. 261 00:18:19,320 --> 00:18:21,600 And he would just pull his money out and go to the next one. 262 00:18:22,100 --> 00:18:25,880 Some of Chris's cash goes to buying big ticket items. 263 00:18:27,020 --> 00:18:33,080 Bigger toys, bigger boats, bigger cars, faster cars, faster boats, 264 00:18:33,260 --> 00:18:40,180 odd trucks, things that I thought 265 00:18:40,180 --> 00:18:41,720 was stupid. 266 00:18:42,399 --> 00:18:46,800 But surprisingly, Chris is most interested in saving his money. 267 00:18:47,100 --> 00:18:48,600 He liked to see it. 268 00:18:48,860 --> 00:18:53,020 He liked to take the money, stack it up in a safe. I want to see it. I don't 269 00:18:53,020 --> 00:18:54,160 want to fly somewhere and spend it. 270 00:18:54,460 --> 00:19:00,500 He was all about just turning a profit, keeping it for himself, and 271 00:19:00,500 --> 00:19:04,060 making sure it was there and that his future was secure. 272 00:19:04,860 --> 00:19:09,340 These days, for Chris, the pain clinic is no longer a fun experiment. 273 00:19:09,540 --> 00:19:10,940 The money is too good. 274 00:19:11,540 --> 00:19:12,960 Now it's all business. 275 00:19:13,940 --> 00:19:19,040 If he could have had it open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and had, you 276 00:19:19,040 --> 00:19:23,020 know, people backing him to do so, he would have done it in a heartbeat. 277 00:19:23,420 --> 00:19:25,960 I mean, I had people ask me, when is enough enough? 278 00:19:27,400 --> 00:19:30,280 It's never enough for Chris, and it will never be enough. 279 00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:31,760 That's for sure. 280 00:19:32,460 --> 00:19:36,520 Next on American Greed, the real cost of doing business with the George 281 00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:37,520 brothers. 282 00:19:37,660 --> 00:19:38,660 Oh. 283 00:19:38,920 --> 00:19:43,780 I had a call from a police officer saying that your son, Joseph Bartolucci, 284 00:19:43,780 --> 00:19:44,780 found deceased. 285 00:19:56,360 --> 00:20:02,840 At the end of 2008, Chris George is pulling in as much as $80 ,000 a day at 286 00:20:02,840 --> 00:20:07,740 American Pain. And that inspires his brother, Jeff, to open his own pain 287 00:20:08,360 --> 00:20:14,420 As Jeff sees the growth that continues with South Florida pain into American 288 00:20:14,420 --> 00:20:20,060 pain, he's like, maybe this is something I should do. And he starts East Coast 289 00:20:20,060 --> 00:20:22,060 Pain. In February 2009, 290 00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:27,660 a 24 -year -old man named Joey Bartolucci makes an appointment at 291 00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:33,560 A graduate of the University of Florida, Bartolucci hopes to become a paramedic, 292 00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:36,440 but he has an addiction to pain meds. 293 00:20:37,160 --> 00:20:38,160 He told me. 294 00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:43,420 He talked to me about it. I was very proud of him, that he had the wisdom to 295 00:20:43,420 --> 00:20:47,900 know that he had a problem and that he should seek help for his problem. 296 00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:51,480 And he worked very hard to overcome it. 297 00:20:51,760 --> 00:20:55,180 But on February 27th, Bartolucci is struggling. 298 00:20:55,720 --> 00:21:00,880 And he walks into East Coast Pain and is given a prescription for 180 milligrams 299 00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:05,820 of the opioid hydromorphone, known as Dilaudid, and another for an anxiety 300 00:21:05,820 --> 00:21:06,820 medication. 301 00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:10,880 The next day, his mother learns what happened. 302 00:21:11,540 --> 00:21:16,600 Oh, I had a call from a police officer saying that I thought he was going to 303 00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:17,740 that Joey had been arrested. 304 00:21:18,540 --> 00:21:24,660 And he said, your son Joseph Bartolucci was found deceased today. And I just 305 00:21:24,660 --> 00:21:28,660 totally freaked, hung up on him and just started screaming. 306 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:32,240 Joey Bartolucci is found dead in his apartment. 307 00:21:34,220 --> 00:21:37,380 The coroner rules his death an accidental overdose. 308 00:21:37,960 --> 00:21:39,700 His sister disagrees. 309 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:47,640 It wasn't just an accident that they accidentally created the 310 00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:48,640 greedy business. 311 00:21:48,760 --> 00:21:54,760 They gave him two deadly pills that were even more deadly when they were 312 00:21:54,760 --> 00:21:58,640 combined. They did it on purpose, and it killed someone. 313 00:21:59,180 --> 00:22:03,890 When the story of Bartolucci's death makes the local paper, Jeff is quoted 314 00:22:03,890 --> 00:22:08,370 saying it's not his problem. The clinic and the doctor can't control a patient 315 00:22:08,370 --> 00:22:10,430 if they go home and do something stupid. 316 00:22:10,890 --> 00:22:16,450 He adds, I bought my Lamborghini four years ago. If I wreck it, am I going to 317 00:22:16,450 --> 00:22:18,270 hold the Lamborghini dealership responsible? 318 00:22:19,130 --> 00:22:20,510 They just didn't care. 319 00:22:20,810 --> 00:22:27,150 They just cared about money, cars, nice houses. 320 00:22:28,130 --> 00:22:29,990 They're the scumbags. 321 00:22:30,510 --> 00:22:31,950 They are the scumbags. 322 00:22:33,290 --> 00:22:38,970 At this time in Florida, seven people each day end up like Joey Bartolucci, 323 00:22:38,970 --> 00:22:39,990 of prescription overdose. 324 00:22:40,730 --> 00:22:44,110 Many who come from out of state don't even make it home. 325 00:22:44,370 --> 00:22:49,710 We got reports from highway patrol officers that they would find people 326 00:22:49,710 --> 00:22:54,790 behind the wheels of their cars or dead in the passenger seat of the car at the 327 00:22:54,790 --> 00:22:59,270 parking lot of a quick stop or in a motel along a highway. 328 00:22:59,590 --> 00:23:02,390 And, of course, many die after they get home. 329 00:23:02,910 --> 00:23:03,970 This is Linda. 330 00:23:05,050 --> 00:23:09,490 If you look right here, found in her wallet was her appointment card from 331 00:23:09,490 --> 00:23:11,110 American Pain, LLC. 332 00:23:11,990 --> 00:23:13,630 We found all these pill bottles. 333 00:23:14,470 --> 00:23:18,850 There's her flight information to where she flew down there before, her hotel 334 00:23:18,850 --> 00:23:20,310 reservation, where she stayed. 335 00:23:20,510 --> 00:23:24,130 Her family found her sitting at her desk with all this information laying there 336 00:23:24,130 --> 00:23:27,330 around her. This is all just evidence of the devastation that places like 337 00:23:27,330 --> 00:23:29,290 American Pain caused in eastern Kentucky. 338 00:23:30,730 --> 00:23:34,970 And because local authorities are requesting medical records from American 339 00:23:35,190 --> 00:23:38,590 people at the clinic know their patients are dying. 340 00:23:38,910 --> 00:23:42,390 There is, in my mind, absolutely. 341 00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:47,900 No way that anyone who worked at American Pain, whether it was someone 342 00:23:47,900 --> 00:23:51,460 greeted you at the door, who filled your prescription in the pharmacy in the 343 00:23:51,460 --> 00:23:56,340 back, who took you from one room to another to the physicians that did not 344 00:23:56,340 --> 00:24:00,640 that people were dying as a result of coming to that clinic. 345 00:24:00,980 --> 00:24:02,300 No question whatsoever. 346 00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:07,320 The most difficult part of this for many is the role of the doctors. 347 00:24:08,020 --> 00:24:10,460 We were all shocked. We could not believe. 348 00:24:11,660 --> 00:24:17,880 that doctors would put profit above their concerns for whether or not their 349 00:24:17,880 --> 00:24:20,220 patients lived or died. But that's exactly what they did. 350 00:24:20,540 --> 00:24:22,420 And the money is incredible. 351 00:24:22,820 --> 00:24:26,500 Most of the doctors are making more than $20 ,000 a week. 352 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:30,220 Well, they're simply drug dealers is all they are. They're no different than a 353 00:24:30,220 --> 00:24:35,680 cartel member from South America. They killed a vast amount of people and made 354 00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:36,680 lot of money doing so. 355 00:24:37,230 --> 00:24:40,110 But it's not only the doctors who seem not to care. 356 00:24:40,530 --> 00:24:44,010 It is also the man who hires them at American Pain. 357 00:24:44,450 --> 00:24:46,550 Chris did not care anything about these people. 358 00:24:47,130 --> 00:24:50,550 They were a means to make money. He could care less whether they lived or 359 00:24:51,230 --> 00:24:54,330 Diana George says it's the money that changes Chris. 360 00:24:54,570 --> 00:24:55,570 The greed. 361 00:24:56,350 --> 00:25:00,170 You know, it's very different. You know, you could look at him and just see 362 00:25:00,170 --> 00:25:04,430 that, like, the expression on his face was, I don't give a crap about anything 363 00:25:04,430 --> 00:25:05,430 but myself. 364 00:25:06,010 --> 00:25:07,830 You know, before he was different. 365 00:25:08,550 --> 00:25:10,310 To me, he became a monster. 366 00:25:10,970 --> 00:25:15,590 Some of the best evidence of how Chris feels comes in November 2009. 367 00:25:16,230 --> 00:25:20,930 Three patients from Tennessee leaving American Pain come to a railroad 368 00:25:21,310 --> 00:25:26,490 Just as the gates are coming down, inexplicably, the driver accelerates 369 00:25:26,490 --> 00:25:28,730 tracks and then realizes the mistake. 370 00:25:29,590 --> 00:25:34,350 But by that time, the gate had lowered so they couldn't pull back. And then the 371 00:25:34,350 --> 00:25:35,350 driver... 372 00:25:35,630 --> 00:25:38,710 It accelerated just as the train came in and hit them. 373 00:25:39,350 --> 00:25:40,630 All three die. 374 00:25:41,350 --> 00:25:46,030 What no one knows at American Pain is that at this point, Chris George is the 375 00:25:46,030 --> 00:25:47,690 target of a federal investigation. 376 00:25:48,690 --> 00:25:54,170 FBI undercover agents are videotaping inside the clinic, recording the 377 00:25:54,170 --> 00:25:55,470 lining up for pills. 378 00:25:56,010 --> 00:25:58,390 And Chris's cell phone has been tapped. 379 00:25:58,790 --> 00:26:00,570 Agents are listening to his call. 380 00:26:01,250 --> 00:26:04,490 When he hears the news of the train wreck, this is what he says. 381 00:26:05,290 --> 00:26:06,970 Yeah, it's easy to get hit by a train. 382 00:26:08,050 --> 00:26:13,950 As an agent, it's a very human moment when you hear individuals speak in that 383 00:26:13,950 --> 00:26:20,930 regard about a fellow human being in such a crass way without having any 384 00:26:20,930 --> 00:26:26,770 to, oh, my gosh, what are we doing here? And it was just another day. 385 00:26:27,170 --> 00:26:30,270 It was just another day in the day of a life in American pain. 386 00:26:31,150 --> 00:26:33,930 Next, no worries for the George twins. 387 00:26:34,600 --> 00:26:39,140 They thought they were bulletproof, in essence, legally, that they were legal 388 00:26:39,140 --> 00:26:40,140 drug dealers. 389 00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,060 Hear how Chris George deals with competitors. 390 00:26:43,660 --> 00:26:47,460 Go to cnbcprime .com slash American Greed. 391 00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:50,280 Feeling greedy? 392 00:26:50,940 --> 00:26:53,900 Want more than your share of behind -the -scenes dirt? 393 00:26:54,400 --> 00:26:57,200 Follow us at American Greed TV on Twitter. 394 00:26:57,800 --> 00:26:58,880 We'll be right back. 395 00:27:08,480 --> 00:27:09,680 December 2009. 396 00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:15,760 American Pain is holding its Christmas party at The Breakers, a luxury resort 397 00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:16,760 Palm Beach. 398 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:21,700 That was actually the first time I felt like super glamorous. I spent $20 ,000 399 00:27:21,700 --> 00:27:28,340 on gowns and, you know, more on shoes. And he was, you know, out there smoking 400 00:27:28,340 --> 00:27:30,160 cigars, just talking to his pals. 401 00:27:30,580 --> 00:27:33,240 The party has a Las Vegas theme. 402 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:37,260 Gambling tables are set up and funny money is printed. 403 00:27:37,740 --> 00:27:43,540 They used little dollar bills, little fake dollar bills that had Chris 404 00:27:43,540 --> 00:27:46,820 face where George Washington's face would normally be. 405 00:27:47,740 --> 00:27:52,220 Chris appears to be on top of the world. In the two years since he opened his 406 00:27:52,220 --> 00:27:55,240 first clinic, dozens have followed his lead. 407 00:27:55,440 --> 00:28:00,060 There are now more pain clinics in Broward County than there are 408 00:28:00,580 --> 00:28:02,740 That speaks volumes to me. 409 00:28:04,350 --> 00:28:08,930 how lucrative this business, this industry was in South Florida. There 410 00:28:08,930 --> 00:28:14,530 places for people to come get prescription drugs, oxycodone, than any 411 00:28:14,530 --> 00:28:17,790 place in the country in one county in South Florida. 412 00:28:18,090 --> 00:28:22,970 And Chris has expanded his own operation, opening a second clinic he 413 00:28:22,970 --> 00:28:25,770 Executive Pain in West Palm Beach. 414 00:28:26,030 --> 00:28:28,930 He asks his wife Diana to run the business. 415 00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:33,040 At the end of the day, Chris George was in charge of the clinic unquestionably, 416 00:28:33,100 --> 00:28:37,780 but you could tell in listening to her conversations with Chris George and in 417 00:28:37,780 --> 00:28:42,920 going through the evidence afterward that Diana was very organized, and she 418 00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:45,140 a lot of pride in running Executive Payne. 419 00:28:45,580 --> 00:28:49,800 But now, looking back, Diana tells a different story. 420 00:28:50,820 --> 00:28:54,980 I thought that people are dying, people are sick, people are abusing these 421 00:28:54,980 --> 00:28:55,980 drugs. 422 00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:57,780 I thought about it all the time. 423 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:02,760 You know, there would be young women that I would see come in. You could see 424 00:29:02,760 --> 00:29:07,080 they had bracelets covering up, track marks on their arm, makeup and stuff. 425 00:29:07,340 --> 00:29:10,780 I was ashamed at what I was doing, at what we were doing. 426 00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:15,340 We were all responsible for that, all of us. 427 00:29:16,540 --> 00:29:21,880 But Chris's businesses continue to grow, outpacing every other pain clinic in 428 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:22,880 the country. 429 00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:28,060 One of the reasons that we honed in on Chris George and his clinics at the time 430 00:29:28,060 --> 00:29:33,720 was of the top physicians that were dispensing oxycodone in the nation, five 431 00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:35,120 them worked at American Pain. 432 00:29:35,980 --> 00:29:38,580 But big is not big enough for Chris. 433 00:29:38,780 --> 00:29:40,800 He wants to be the biggest of all. 434 00:29:41,020 --> 00:29:46,420 And at the end of 2009, he sets his eyes on a 20 ,000 -square -foot former bank 435 00:29:46,420 --> 00:29:50,260 building in Lake Worth, the future home for American Pain. 436 00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:52,100 It was gigantic. 437 00:29:52,880 --> 00:29:56,960 It was like windowless, you know, so it had this sort of fortress -like feel to 438 00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:00,960 it. You know, it was sort of impermeable to the outside world. 439 00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:02,460 I think that's how it felt. 440 00:30:03,180 --> 00:30:09,200 American Pain in Lake Worth opens in January 2010 with two huge waiting rooms 441 00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:12,340 that can accommodate as many as 500 patients. 442 00:30:12,660 --> 00:30:16,040 It is later described as a Walmart of addiction. 443 00:30:16,880 --> 00:30:18,260 It looked like a DMV. 444 00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:22,180 Occasionally patients would pass out on the floor. 445 00:30:22,940 --> 00:30:24,040 going through drug withdrawal. 446 00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:26,900 Sometimes patients would be fighting each other over pills. 447 00:30:27,460 --> 00:30:32,100 The clinic's own security cameras offered a bird's -eye view of how the 448 00:30:32,100 --> 00:30:33,100 operation ran. 449 00:30:34,200 --> 00:30:38,320 This is just when they walk in the door in the morning. Now, the sad part is you 450 00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:39,320 can look at this video. 451 00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:42,880 I guarantee you some of the people you're going to see on this video for 452 00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:47,580 day, they're not alive anymore, just statistically. 453 00:30:48,400 --> 00:30:52,020 Chris had lines on his floor because the ags came in, they were either so high 454 00:30:52,020 --> 00:30:56,100 or they were so withdrawn, they didn't know where to go. And he had lines and 455 00:30:56,100 --> 00:30:59,140 arrows pointed on the floor for them to go, go to Dr. So -and -so. 456 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:03,500 By now, Steve Mazza is a regular at Chris's clinics. 457 00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:10,420 I went to the same doctors for month after month after month. I had a 458 00:31:10,420 --> 00:31:11,440 appointment every week. 459 00:31:11,700 --> 00:31:17,320 I was getting 200 pills from every doctor I seen each week. 460 00:31:17,950 --> 00:31:22,350 And for him, American pain in Lake Worth is beyond belief. 461 00:31:22,810 --> 00:31:29,450 I was shocked when they opened that building up. It was like a mini mall. 462 00:31:29,650 --> 00:31:36,550 The whole wall, from the floor to the ceiling, a 30 -foot wall, 463 00:31:36,810 --> 00:31:38,990 was all medical files. 464 00:31:39,410 --> 00:31:42,130 The clinic system is remarkably efficient. 465 00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:45,920 Chris George made it so easy for these guys. They didn't have to write anything 466 00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:47,580 down. They just had to stamp it. 467 00:31:49,380 --> 00:31:53,960 They had stamps in there with every possible concoction you can imagine. 468 00:31:54,220 --> 00:31:59,340 They had the dosage units, the milligrams, the pharmaceutical drug 469 00:31:59,340 --> 00:32:00,340 doctor just stamped it. 470 00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:03,820 I actually got into an argument with one doctor, and I explained to him, I said, 471 00:32:03,900 --> 00:32:07,000 this is not medicine. 472 00:32:09,400 --> 00:32:14,510 When you were working in the emergency room, Setting broken bones and suturing 473 00:32:14,510 --> 00:32:17,950 cuts, I couldn't do that. But I could do what you did here. 474 00:32:18,690 --> 00:32:22,510 You handed out pills like a trained circus performer. 475 00:32:23,150 --> 00:32:28,010 There's no effort in that. You did no medical evaluation of these patients. 476 00:32:28,010 --> 00:32:31,610 never diagnosed an illness. You did nothing. 477 00:32:31,850 --> 00:32:35,430 You rubber -stamped and handed out prescription -controlled substances. 478 00:32:35,630 --> 00:32:36,630 That's all you did. 479 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:42,840 And to prove his case, McKenzie actually times patients' office visits. 480 00:32:43,220 --> 00:32:47,920 The minute their foot crosses the door, I hit my stopwatch, I sit and time it. 481 00:32:48,980 --> 00:32:52,800 The minute the patient's foot walks out of the door, I stop the stopwatch. 482 00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:59,300 So on average, we would see examination times of less than four minutes, usually 483 00:32:59,300 --> 00:33:01,060 closer to three minutes and 45 seconds. 484 00:33:01,320 --> 00:33:05,380 Either way, every one of those patients got several hundred doses of narcotic 485 00:33:05,380 --> 00:33:07,240 medication in less than four minutes. 486 00:33:07,980 --> 00:33:14,420 They were a machine, a complete drug -pushing machine, just amazing. 487 00:33:15,040 --> 00:33:20,560 And equally amazing to many is that this business operates in full light of day, 488 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:22,620 with a billboard and ads. 489 00:33:23,460 --> 00:33:30,200 We spoke at length at family dinners, and I questioned it, 490 00:33:30,260 --> 00:33:33,300 and they were... Absolutely fine. 491 00:33:33,580 --> 00:33:39,060 Things were above board. It was wide open. Anyone could see it. It was 492 00:33:39,060 --> 00:33:45,660 hidden. They had doctors that were real doctors working for them. They thought 493 00:33:45,660 --> 00:33:50,220 they were bulletproof, in essence, legally, that they were legal drug 494 00:33:50,380 --> 00:33:54,680 that they, if anybody was going to be held responsible, it was going to be the 495 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:59,400 doctors, because they were the ones with the medical license and with the DEA 496 00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:01,420 license to prescribe the controlled substances. 497 00:34:02,030 --> 00:34:04,990 I trusted him, and I shouldn't have when it came to that part. 498 00:34:05,590 --> 00:34:08,889 You know, I always believed him. You know, I'm like, is this right? Is it 499 00:34:09,050 --> 00:34:10,050 Is what we're doing okay? 500 00:34:10,270 --> 00:34:13,250 Yeah, it's fine. We can't get in trouble for it. It's written here, you know. As 501 00:34:13,250 --> 00:34:16,250 long as we have this in place, as long as we have this in place, as long as we 502 00:34:16,250 --> 00:34:17,650 have this in place, we'd be fine. 503 00:34:18,270 --> 00:34:22,250 Now American Pain is seeing as many as 500 patients a day. 504 00:34:22,989 --> 00:34:25,850 They are dispensing thousands of pills each week. 505 00:34:26,230 --> 00:34:29,550 And the number of people dying is growing day by day. 506 00:34:30,159 --> 00:34:35,100 As the overdose death started becoming more prevalent and as the momentum grew 507 00:34:35,100 --> 00:34:40,020 and grew, we knew that we had to do something. And it was time to take 508 00:34:40,020 --> 00:34:44,719 everything that we had at the time and say, we're done. We're bringing Chris 509 00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:45,920 George's world to an end. 510 00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:50,440 Next on American Greed, big boys do cry when they're busted. 511 00:34:50,800 --> 00:34:52,360 And here he is now. He's crying on the phone. 512 00:34:52,820 --> 00:34:54,520 Scared to death. Doesn't know what to do. 513 00:35:06,540 --> 00:35:12,260 By the morning of March 3, 2010, Chris and Jeff George have in just two years 514 00:35:12,260 --> 00:35:16,640 sold 20 million pills and brought in $40 million. 515 00:35:17,240 --> 00:35:20,020 And today, all that stops. 516 00:35:20,700 --> 00:35:27,160 We wanted more than anything for Chris George to feel the weight of the federal 517 00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:30,900 government come down on him in a matter of minutes. 518 00:35:31,460 --> 00:35:32,780 Early in the morning. 519 00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:38,080 More than 200 local and federal law enforcement officers simultaneously 520 00:35:38,080 --> 00:35:42,440 on the George brothers' clinics and on the homes of everyone who works there. 521 00:35:43,460 --> 00:35:47,320 When agents arrive at Chris George's house, they are surprised. 522 00:35:48,060 --> 00:35:51,160 Chris and Diana have already left for the day. 523 00:35:51,520 --> 00:35:53,860 He called me, and he said the police were at the house. 524 00:35:55,020 --> 00:36:00,500 They had dogs in the house and all that other stuff. I'm just like, okay. 525 00:36:01,490 --> 00:36:04,110 The FBI is listening in on the call. 526 00:36:04,410 --> 00:36:05,530 Chris tells Diana. 527 00:36:10,190 --> 00:36:15,510 Just a scared little boy. 528 00:36:16,450 --> 00:36:17,590 Scared little boy. 529 00:36:17,890 --> 00:36:21,130 And, you know, it was heart -wrenching to see him like that because I'm so used 530 00:36:21,130 --> 00:36:26,630 to seeing that, you know, savvy business, tough guy, man that, you know, 531 00:36:26,630 --> 00:36:29,150 world. And here he is now. He's crying on the phone. 532 00:36:29,640 --> 00:36:31,320 Scared to death. Doesn't know what to do. 533 00:36:33,180 --> 00:36:36,280 The FBI finds a few guns and some cash. 534 00:36:36,580 --> 00:36:39,560 But the search of his mother's house turns up the biggest file. 535 00:36:39,940 --> 00:36:43,820 Four small safes with $4 .5 million in cash. 536 00:36:44,740 --> 00:36:49,980 Given the fact that we recovered so many millions of dollars from the attic of 537 00:36:49,980 --> 00:36:54,300 Chris George's mother's home on the day of the search warrant told me that Chris 538 00:36:54,300 --> 00:36:57,280 George knew that one day it was going to be over. 539 00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:01,460 Somehow, though, in his mind, I think he thought that he wasn't going to be 540 00:37:01,460 --> 00:37:05,300 going to jail and that there would be millions of dollars left over for him to 541 00:37:05,300 --> 00:37:07,160 be able to play with when it was all over. 542 00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:13,040 Later, when Chris is brought in for questioning, his response surprises no 543 00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:17,940 He says, you guys got nothing on me. You guys got nothing on me. Our response 544 00:37:17,940 --> 00:37:20,560 was, Chris, you hired these doctors. 545 00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:25,440 You took these doctors' DEA numbers and you ordered pills under them. 546 00:37:25,660 --> 00:37:29,500 Even though you're not the owner, you're the nominee owner, you still ran the 547 00:37:29,500 --> 00:37:31,780 show. The phone calls prove you ran the show. 548 00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:33,680 There's two ways about it. 549 00:37:34,240 --> 00:37:39,100 And that is what they get him on, conspiring to operate a criminal 550 00:37:39,860 --> 00:37:45,020 In 2011, Chris, Jeff, and Diana, along with clinic doctors and most of their 551 00:37:45,020 --> 00:37:46,400 employees, are indicted. 552 00:37:47,060 --> 00:37:52,100 Charges include racketeering, drug trafficking, money laundering, and wire 553 00:37:52,100 --> 00:37:54,540 fraud. Jeff George goes first. 554 00:37:55,230 --> 00:37:59,610 Treating guilty not only to the racketeering charge, but also to second 555 00:37:59,610 --> 00:38:04,590 murder for his role in the death of Joey Bartolucci. He is sentenced to 20 556 00:38:04,590 --> 00:38:10,790 years. He said that he was sorry. I think that he's sorry that he got 557 00:38:11,670 --> 00:38:16,190 I think that he's sorry that his life is in shambles, that he's going to prison. 558 00:38:17,110 --> 00:38:20,270 Later, Diana George pleads guilty to wire fraud. 559 00:38:20,830 --> 00:38:25,270 She is sentenced to two and a half years and is released in October 2013. 560 00:38:26,050 --> 00:38:28,110 She and Chris are now divorced. 561 00:38:28,510 --> 00:38:33,930 You know, I mean, it did suck being away and going to prison. It really, really 562 00:38:33,930 --> 00:38:39,350 sucked every day. But those were the choices I made that put me there. I 563 00:38:39,350 --> 00:38:46,150 to turn a blind eye and not really think about what I was actually doing or 564 00:38:46,150 --> 00:38:48,670 who I was hurting or who we all were hurting. 565 00:38:50,700 --> 00:38:51,700 Went with it. 566 00:38:51,800 --> 00:38:57,980 In October 2011, Chris finally pleaded guilty to racketeering and to sentence 567 00:38:57,980 --> 00:38:58,980 14 years. 568 00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:01,720 And no one is more surprised than his father. 569 00:39:02,340 --> 00:39:08,000 It's shocking to me. I'm living through this. I never would have expected two 570 00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:12,360 kids that went to Wellington Christian School to wind up in federal prison as 571 00:39:12,360 --> 00:39:14,960 prisoners. Maybe they would have. 572 00:39:15,690 --> 00:39:19,930 Some problems with traffic tickets and stuff like that, you know, those sort of 573 00:39:19,930 --> 00:39:23,450 things. Not 15, 20 years in prison. 574 00:39:23,790 --> 00:39:28,150 Out of 14 doctors who are indicted, 10 plead guilty. 575 00:39:28,450 --> 00:39:33,250 Those who go to trial are convicted on drug and money laundering charges, but 576 00:39:33,250 --> 00:39:36,330 are cleared of counts related to the deaths of their patients. 577 00:39:37,110 --> 00:39:43,130 One of the problems we had with prosecuting this case is that most 578 00:39:43,310 --> 00:39:46,080 rightfully so, hold doctors on a pedestal. 579 00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:49,840 And they don't hold drug addicts in very high regard at all. 580 00:39:50,460 --> 00:39:57,440 So to convince your average American that a doctor is not really a savior 581 00:39:57,440 --> 00:40:01,720 in a white coat, he or she is no different than a street drug dealer, and 582 00:40:01,720 --> 00:40:04,620 it's their fault that these addicts are in this condition, or it's their fault 583 00:40:04,620 --> 00:40:07,680 that this addict died, is very difficult to do. 584 00:40:07,920 --> 00:40:09,000 Very difficult to do. 585 00:40:09,780 --> 00:40:14,150 Almost two years after the shutdown of the clinics, the state of Florida 586 00:40:14,150 --> 00:40:19,050 implements a drug monitoring program and tightens regulations around the sale of 587 00:40:19,050 --> 00:40:22,550 oxycodone. And the overdose death rates begin to decline. 588 00:40:23,230 --> 00:40:27,030 One person who survives his addiction is Steve Mazza. 589 00:40:27,430 --> 00:40:32,050 After the birth of his daughter, Mazza decides he needs to get off the pills. 590 00:40:32,430 --> 00:40:35,250 One day, he realizes he has a choice. 591 00:40:35,770 --> 00:40:39,630 I could just get on this bus and go right down to South County and ring the 592 00:40:39,630 --> 00:40:43,110 doorbell and tell them, look, I'm going to kill myself if you don't help me. 593 00:40:43,510 --> 00:40:44,770 So that's what I did. 594 00:40:45,390 --> 00:40:49,990 With a lot of intensive treatment at the hospital and support from the Lord's 595 00:40:49,990 --> 00:40:55,510 Place, a social service organization in Lake Worth, Mazza now has a full -time 596 00:40:55,510 --> 00:40:57,690 job as head of catering for the agency. 597 00:40:58,430 --> 00:41:03,810 And I never thought I would have a decent... 598 00:41:04,320 --> 00:41:11,120 paying job, paying taxes again, and have my daughter on my own. 599 00:41:11,620 --> 00:41:16,820 Up north in eastern Kentucky, the legacy of the Florida pain clinics continue to 600 00:41:16,820 --> 00:41:17,439 be felt. 601 00:41:17,440 --> 00:41:20,280 Now there's a new drug of choice, heroin. 602 00:41:20,940 --> 00:41:25,500 We never had a heroin problem in this region prior to the prescription pill 603 00:41:25,500 --> 00:41:30,960 epidemic. Heroin just wasn't a drug that the Appalachian region was suffering 604 00:41:30,960 --> 00:41:32,300 from for whatever reason. 605 00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:37,700 But once the opioids were introduced to this population through the diversion of 606 00:41:37,700 --> 00:41:42,620 the prescription medication, and now that source is becoming very much 607 00:41:42,620 --> 00:41:45,900 for them to get, we're seeing the influx of heroin, which is much more 608 00:41:45,900 --> 00:41:46,900 devastating. 609 00:41:47,580 --> 00:41:51,660 As people look back on the short but catastrophic episode of Chris and Jeff 610 00:41:51,660 --> 00:41:56,240 George, everyone agrees that there was just one thing behind it all. 611 00:41:56,620 --> 00:42:00,480 I think what we saw was that greed just overcame everyone. 612 00:42:01,500 --> 00:42:08,500 It overcame their sense of morality, their sense of right and wrong, their 613 00:42:08,500 --> 00:42:15,200 of how we treat a fellow human being. And the fact of the matter is, is that 614 00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:19,580 they were getting a lot of money, and yet they were operating day to day. 615 00:42:19,580 --> 00:42:26,380 came in. Nobody shut them down. So the greed brought forth this 616 00:42:26,380 --> 00:42:29,480 amazing sense of immorality. 617 00:42:31,370 --> 00:42:34,550 It made them feel as though they could do no wrong.