The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia announced on March 7, 2017 that a 58-year-old Georgia gynecologist has been changed in a 176-count indictment with running a pill mill and with money laundering. If convicted of the criminal charges filed against him, the Georgia physician faces life in prison.
The press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office that announced the indictment stated the following:
According to the Indictment, [George Mack] Bird [III] instructed certain of his employees to dispense and distribute various controlled substances and highly addictive opioids using prescription forms that he had pre-signed in violation of federal law. The Indictment further alleged that, because Bird rarely saw or examined his patients, he directed his employees to utilize pre-printed medical notes to give the appearance that patients had been thoroughly examined, when in fact, they had not. Bird’s unlawful dispensation scheme was remarkably lucrative, generating more than $4.5 million in proceeds, according to the grand jury. The Indictment alleged that Bird and others conspired to illegally launder those proceeds by using them to pay for the operating expenses of Bird’s clinics.
Bird, who is currently being held in state custody, faces up to a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Additionally, the Government is seeking the forfeiture of Bird’s offices, home, investment properties, and a money judgment of at least $4.5 million. Approximately $1 million in cash was seized from Bird at the time of his arrest, and federal agents have since seized or frozen an additional $3.9 million held in various bank and investment accounts.
The press release cautions that the indictment is only an accusation and is not evidence of guilt. “A defendant is entitled to a fair trial, during which it is the Government’s burden to prove a defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.”
An article from June 8, 2015 referenced the arrest of a then 54-year-old Dr. George Mack Bird and a nurse after a raid at a women’s clinic, a weight loss clinic, and at other locations that resulted in the doctor being charged with illegally possessing prescription drugs and illegally writing prescriptions for Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, and Xanax. At that time, almost $1 million in cash, two office buildings, a home, four vehicles, and approximately $3 million in other assets were seized.
The Georgia Composite State Board of Medical Examiners’ website indicated on March 13, 2017 that a physician named “George Mack Bird” is a gynecologist and that his medical license is active. The doctor self-reported to the Board that he did not have any final public disciplinary action or second subsequent final private reprimand taken against him/her by a licensing board regulating his/her medical or any other license in Georgia or any other state, and that he has not been convicted of a felony, irrespective of the pendancy or availability of an appeal, or pled guilty or nolo contendere to a felony in any jurisdiction.
The doctor did report, however, a medical malpractice settlement in the amount of $700,000 in November 2014.
Source
If you were harmed as a result of the misuse or abuse of medications that were prescribed for you in Georgia or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find a medical malpractice lawyer in your state who may investigate your medical malpractice claim for you and represent you in a medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
Visit our website or call us toll-free in the United States at 800-295-3959 to find medical malpractice attorneys who may assist you.
Turn to us when you don’t know where to turn.