The Muscle Men

Soon, he had a bite with Oasis Longevity. In court documents, Haskins says he negotiated a price of $50 per prescription, twice what Santi was getting. Offers from other clinics were being faxed to the number Haskins provided, which led to the prosecutor's office. Then Oasis began mailing him prewritten prescriptions they expected him to sign, all of them for steroids.

The investigation also netted other doctors. One was a dentist in Florida whose license had been revoked for incompetence. Another was Dr. Claire Godfrey, an obstetrician and former beauty queen from Florida in her mid-30s. Godfrey pleaded guilty to the same felony charge as Santi and was sentenced to five years of probation. She was involved with Infinity Rejuvenation in Deerfield Beach, and her name appeared on about $1.3 million worth of prescriptions in the six months before her arrest, most of which were filled by Signature. Prosecutors say Godfrey was recorded during surveillance of Signature asking if she would be paid all the money owed to her. She was concerned some scripts may have been stamped with her name without her knowing — and she wanted to make sure she would be paid for all of them. In the two years before her arrest, Godfrey was paid more than $200,000 for her prescription signing.

Dr. Robert Carlson of Sarasota had a successful practice before prosecutors say he got involved with Signature. A heart surgeon, Carlson was featured on local news shows because of his cutting-edge surgical techniques. An Eagle Scout, Carlson is an incredibly young-looking 51. The mansion he shares with his third wife, Julie, is valued at nearly $3 million, and he has a stable of horses on his property.

In 2002, Carlson was preaching the miracles of treatments using "bioidentical hormones" or "hormone balancing." On his website and in lectures, Carlson, who did not respond to repeated phone messages from New Times, told prospective patients how human growth hormone can fight the effects of aging. He said it can help you lose weight, get stronger, build muscle definition, and enhance your sex life, and he was living proof: a youthful, energetic, attractive, two-time Ironman.

By the end of that year, Carlson bought into a business with Julie's brother, Joseph Raich. Glenn Stephanos, an acquaintance of Raich's, was the third partner, and Glenn's older brother, George, was the marketing director. They chose a name that sounded tropical, soothing. They decided on Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center.

The idea, prosecutors allege, was to create a profitable pipeline for steroids and human growth hormone. Carlson could take advantage of his good name and stamp the prescriptions, for which he would be paid $5,000 a week. Signature could take advantage of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and make the drugs themselves, often from raw ingredients originating in China and not approved by the FDA. Then Raich and the Stephanos brothers needed only to drum up potential HGH consumers, taking advantage of the most powerful (black-)marketing tool ever: the cavernous anonymity of the world wide web.

Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center started advertising by the end of 2002, not long after Signature Pharmacy went into business. Earlier that year, the Supreme Court ruled that it was legal for compounding pharmacies to advertise. Compounding pharmacies manufacture prescription drugs from raw ingredients in their own labs instead of reselling FDA-approved substances. The ruling legalized businesses like Signature and created what is now an estimated $2 billion industry. As the court saw it, compounding pharmacies were necessary to fill specific prescriptions larger pharmacies couldn't, for patients with particular allergies, for example.

The Mitchell Report mentions that Signature owned a lypholizer, a vacuum freeze dryer that can convert a single gram of raw HGH into thousands of doses — the way an internet business can turn a few drug purchasers into thousands or a few dollars into millions. In 2002, Signature did about $500,000 worth of business. In 2006, prosecutors say, the pharmacy made an estimated $40 million.

The Stephanos brothers grew up in Beverly, Massachusetts. Glenn, 52, married and moved to Palm Beach when he was young. George, 59, lived in New York and New Jersey much of his adult life. According to the Gloucester Times, George was on Beverly High's undefeated football team in 1964, and Glenn was captain of the basketball team when he graduated in 1974.

Glenn married the daughter of Otto DiVosta, a wealthy home builder. George ran a nightclub in Manhattan called Rascals. In 1992, he was sued by an insurance company after they accused him of beating a man at the club. Both brothers are tall, with Tarzan builds, strong chins, and long, flowing hair.

Joseph Raich, a muscular 45-year-old, is from a family that has lived in Palm Beach for several generations. He is known as a youth wrestling booster who has donated tens of thousands of dollars to the sport.

They went into business in office space on Indiantown Road in Jupiter, a mile or so from the beach. All three men own property near the light-green building. It was this space that, authorities say, became the call center that dealt with customers like J.

PBRC began canvassing the internet and placing ads in bodybuilding publications. Like thousands of other new businesses storming the internet in the early part of the decade, they advertised the wonders of hormones. Broad-shouldered spokesmen appeared on television singing the praises of the drugs. The real-life fountain of youth, they called it: lean looks, happy feelings, and they never failed to mention the potential for better sex. The implication was clear: The drugs make everything grow. They called themselves anti-aging clinics, and, prosecutors say, they existed solely as an online marketplace.