Owner of Chantilly Pain Clinic Convicted of Drug Trafficking, Fraud Charges

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Paul Boccone, 56, was convicted of conspiring to distribute and distribution of oxycodone, health care fraud, and payroll tax evasion for his role as the owner and president of Chantilly Specialists pain clinic in Chantilly, Virginia. Charles Brown, Jr., 51, a nurse practitioner with Chantilly Specialists, was convicted of conspiring to distribute and distribution of oxycodone.

Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, Attorney General of Virginia; James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; Richard A. Raven, Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office of IRS-Criminal Investigation; and Gary Cantrell, Deputy Inspector General for Investigations at HHS-OIG, made the announcement after the verdict was accepted by United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton.

The defendants will be sentenced on November 9, 2012. Boccone faces a maximum sentence of 350 years in prison, and Brown faces a maximum sentence of 160 years in prison.

According to court records and evidence at trial, Paul Boccone was the owner and president of Chantilly Specialists, a pain management clinic in Chantilly, Virginia. Although not a trained or licensed medical practitioner, the evidence showed that he treated patients and prescribed narcotics by either forging the signatures of medical practitioners or encouraging medical practitioners to endorse prescriptions that he wrote. Charles Brown, Jr. was the lead nurse practitioner at the practice and assisted Boccone by continuing to prescribe large amounts of narcotics to patients without medical need. Over the course of the conspiracy, evidence showed that at least four Chantilly Specialists patients died of overdoses related to the drugs they obtained from the practice.

This case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office; Internal Revenue Service; Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Inspector General; and Fairfax County Police Department.

Assistant United States Attorney Michael P. Ben’Ary and Special Assistant United States Attorney and Virginia Assistant Attorney General Marc J. Birnbaum are prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.