Former veterinarian Dr. Kristian Rhein was sentenced to three years in federal prison Jan. 5 after he entered a plea of guilty to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding in the ongoing case around a series of racehorse doping rings.
U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil ordered Rhein to surrender himself before 2 p.m. on March 7 to begin his sentence, which the court recommended he serve at FCI Otisville or “as close to New York as possible.” Rhein was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine in addition to $729,716 in restitution to victims of his offense. As with previous defendants, public-facing court documents do not reveal exactly who the “victims” of his crimes are, or how restitution will be distributed to them. Schedules for restitution payments with previous defendants have been filed under seal. He may share responsibility for that restitution amount with other co-defendants, in the event others are ultimately ordered to pay restitution on the same count of the indictment.
Rhein had previously agreed to forfeit the proceeds he took in from his offense, which total $1,021,800. Previous orders from the court required he pay more than half that total before his sentencing hearing.
Rhein was a racetrack-based veterinarian operating primarily in New York, where he was accused of giving horses clenbuterol without valid prescriptions and selling SGF-1000 to trainers, including co-defendant trainer Jason Servis. Rhein was later revealed to own a share in MediVet Equine, which sold SGF-1000. Intercepted communication between Rhein and others revealed he did not know exactly what was in the substance, except that he was confident it was untestable.
Read more about SGF-1000 in our previous reporting here and here.
MediVet sales director Michael Kegley changed his plea from not guilty to guilty last summer, around the same time as Rhein. He is due to be sentenced Jan. 6.
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