A Tennessee man, George David George, was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison after posing as a Harvard-educated psychiatrist, defrauding investors of $3 million, and practicing without a medical license—actions that led to serious health risks for multiple individuals, including a teenage boy.
Before his downfall, George was known in Tennessee’s wellness community as the visionary founder of Well City, a Brentwood-based startup promising to merge technology and health. But in reality, Well City was little more than an elaborate façade—a fraudulent investment scheme that funneled millions from trusting backers into George’s pockets.
When federal charges closed in and when the trial was about to begin for that fraud case, George cut off his ankle monitor and vanished. The fugitive resurfaced weeks later under a new name: Dr. Stephen Oliver, a grieving widower and Harvard psychiatrist imposter seeking a “fresh start” in Florida. He spun tales of tragedy—of a wife and children supposedly killed in a car crash—and found credibility among members of a Jacksonville megachurch.
It wasn’t long before George’s charisma opened new doors. He connected with a husband-and-wife team running a holistic wellness center in Ponte Vedra, Florida. Claiming to be in the process of transferring his medical license, he persuaded them to let him open a psychiatry office next door. Soon, “Dr. Oliver” was seeing patients, offering counseling sessions, and distributing medications with an authority that no one questioned.
Many of his “patients” were clients already seeking therapy, yoga, or massage for stress or mental health issues. But his false expertise took a dangerous turn when he convinced his girlfriend—who suffered from anxiety—to stop her prescribed medications, collecting her pills under the guise of “monitoring her progress.”
One of the patients’ mothers mentioned her teenage son’s deepening depression. George offered to help. For a fee, he provided her with what he called a “treatment plan” — a collection of anti-anxiety medications that he claimed would calm the boy’s mind. Instead, the drugs worsened the teenager’s condition, leading to a near-fatal suicide attempt. Experts later confirmed that the medications George dispensed would have intensified depressive symptoms, not alleviated them.
George’s web of lies began to unravel after he contacted family back in Tennessee. Federal agents traced the call, located him in Jacksonville, and arrested him. Investigators found framed family photographs in his apartment—the same photos he told his girlfriend were of his “dead” wife and children.
Back in court, George faced the full weight of his deception. Prosecutors described him as a “human wrecking ball,” a conman whose lies spanned investment fraud, identity theft, and unlicensed psychiatry. In 2019, a Tennessee federal judge sentenced him to 20 years in prison, marking the end of a saga that left emotional, financial, and physical scars across two states.
1. NewsChannel 5 Investigates. “Nashville Con Man Who Pretended to Be a Doctor Sentenced to 20 Years.” WTVF NewsChannel 5 Nashville, October 2019. https://www.newschannel5.com/news/newschannel-5-investigates/nashville-con-man-who-pretended-to-be-a-doctor-sentenced-to-20-years.
