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Fishman Absent From Court After Wiretaps Reveal Him Bragging About Dubai Sales

Closing arguments were a late scratch Jan. 31 in the horse doping trial of veterinarian Dr. Seth Fishman being held in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

New York U.S. District Court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil met the lawyers for both sides in the robing room, then called the jury into the courtroom and sent them home. She told the jurors to return to court Tuesday.

“There has developed legal issues that need to be dealt with,” Vyskocil told the jury of eight women and four men.

But Fishman's absence in court only deepened the mystery. His wife, Hanna, was in the courtroom in the morning and at one point appeared to be visibly upset. Fishman is free on $100,000 bond and has appeared in court for each of the trial's previous eight sessions.

The only other clue as to what was happening came when Fishman attorney Maurice Sercarz appeared in the courtroom after the jury had been dismissed and told the judge Fishman was on his way to the hospital.

“We are in open court,” Vyskocil said to Sercarz in admonishment.

Sercarz and his co-counsel Marc Fernich and prosecutors declined further comment.

Lawyers showed up in the afternoon for another conference in the robing room. The day ended with Vyskocil never returning to the bench.

Closing arguments in Fishman's trial were set to begin after the prosecution rested its case and the defense rested without calling a single witness, including Fishman. The jury has heard five days of testimony from 11 government witnesses, as well as an FBI wiretap in which convicted trainer Jorge Navarro was recorded speaking to Fishman.

Another prominent name that emerged in court in one of the wiretaps was that of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai and the owner of the internationally successful Godolphin racing stable.

On the wiretap, Fishman appears to discuss a $2-million “program” with the Sheikh's hospital in Dubai, known as Dubai Equine. On the other end of the line in the 2019 call was Florida harness trainer Adrienne Hall, who testified Thursday that Fishman put her on a program with his PEDs and that she administered the drugs to a horse that won a low-level claiming race. Hall agreed to testify in exchange for a non-prosecution agreement.

A transcript of the wiretap obtained Monday begins with Fishman telling Hall that his program “is not instantaneous.”

“Right, so ok, because they are racing on Sunday–they are going to be in on Monday. I gave the other stuff today anyway,” Hall says.
Fishman then goes on to say that it takes one or two weeks to start things.

“This is a program,” he says. “This is a program that Dubai Equine spent probably $2 million devising for their Thoroughbreds, you know? It is part of a program that uh, you know…there's other stuff too.”

Fishman goes on to say that he was bringing Hall on slowly.

Fishman adds, “This is what they do for all their horses and overall, they are very happy. Sheikh Mohammed Maktoum said the best three years, you know, in the 30 years he has been racing and they are very happy. So, I'm sharing stuff with you. But then again that's for Thoroughbreds so we just have to tweak something out because some of the stuff I design for Standardbreds, they don't work.”

It was unclear if Fishman was simply trying to impress Hall; a Godolphin spokesman said they would have no comment Monday night.

Fishman, 50, is on trial on for conspiring to violate medication adulteration and misbranding laws. He's accused of supplying horse trainers with illegal performance-enhancing drugs designed to evade testing by racing regulators in various states, including Florida, New York, and Kentucky.

Sercarz says the actions his client has been accused of were carried out to protect the health and welfare of horses in keeping with his oath as a licensed veterinarian.

Prosecutors allege that Fishman was part of a sweeping conspiracy to dope racehorses that included top trainers Navarro and Jason Servis and two dozen others. The New York U.S. Attorney's Office announced the charges in March 2020.

Servis is awaiting trial and Navarro has been sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty. Servis's name hasn't come up in testimony, but Navarro's name has come up numerous times. Prosecutors said Navarro paid Fishman tens of thousands of dollars for PEDs.

The jury also saw a video of Navarro's doped X Y Jet (Kantharos) winning the $2.5-million G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen in 2019. In a text seen by the jury after the race, Navarro thanked Fishman for his help. A tally shows the FBI's aforementioned wiretap was one of 55 recordings the jury heard in the case. Almost all of them involved Fishman.

The Thoroughbred industry's leading publications are working together to cover this key trial.

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Trainer Who Testified Against Fishman Faces Lifetime Ban

Trainer Jamen Davidovich, who admitted Thursday during the trial of Seth Fishman that he bought and used performance-enhancing drugs supplied by the veterinarian, has been suspended by the Ohio Racing Commission, a first step in what could lead to a permanent revocation of his license.

Davidovich testified that Fishman, one of 27 individuals originally indicted in the doping probe that includes high-profile trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, began supplying him with drugs after the two met at a Ft. Lauderdale restaurant. Asked by prosecutor Anden Chow how the subject of PEDs came up, Davidovich responded, “We were talking about different things to make the horse run better.”

Davidovich, 31, races primarily in Ohio and the commission in that state wasted little time taking action Friday. According to Ohio State Racing Commission executive director Chris Dragone, Davidovich's license has been suspended pending a hearing. The news that the Ohio commission had taken action against Davidovich was first reported by the Blood-Horse.

“He's entitled to a hearing and we'll see what he has to say,” Dragone said.

Dragone said that if the evidence shows that Davidovich doped horses his license could be permanently suspended.

“We haven't seen the transcripts (from the Fishman trial) yet,” Dragone said. “But from everything I have heard and from what he said, this was blatant. This is very serious. This came out of the blue and we had no notice so far as what he was going to say in court. But when he said in court that he drugged horses we had to take action. And it's possible that he may have his license revoked and that he will be ruled off for life.”

Reached by the TDN, Davidovich said he had no comment.

After winning just five races in 2014, Davidovich's career took off in 2015 when he went 25-for-99 (25%). He was 21-for-81 in 2016 and 9-for-59 in 2017. He said during the trial that he stopped doping in 2018, which is when his fortunes changed. Since 2018, he has won just six races from 51 starters.

Thursday's court room proceedings also included testimony from harness trainer Adrienne Hall, who also admitted she used PEDs supplied by Fishman. She last started a horse in December at the Meadowlands. Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural said he has not yet decided if he will ban Hall from his tracks.

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The Week in Review: Fishman’s Defense is Hard to Swallow

Indicted veterinarian Seth Fishman started to tell his story last week, both to a jury and to the Washington Post. Fishman, currently on trial in a federal courtroom in Manhattan for his role in a widespread scheme to dope racehorses, wants you to believe that he is an animal lover who was devoted to working for the benefit and health of the horses he treated. He wants you to believe that the drugs he dispersed were given to help and heal and not to improve performance.

“It will be for the government to prove that his intent and purpose was something other than limiting animal suffering.” Fishman's attorney Maurice Sercarz told the jury during opening arguments of Fishman's trial, which also includes his associate Lisa Giannelli.

The government has said otherwise, that he was a relentless horse doper, had close ties to Jorge Navarro and was obsessed with winning races and manufacturing drugs that were undetectable.

From Fishman's team, it's textbook stuff. Our client is misunderstood. There are two sides to every story. It's really horse racing that is dirty and not Seth Fishman.

The problem is, they don't have anything to back it up. The government has done its job and done it well. The original indictment includes a trove of evidence that Fishman was cold and calculating, cared nothing about the animal and would inject a horse with anything he could find if he thought it would help the horse win a race and collect a purse. Their claims are backed by a treasure trove of evidence.

According to the original indictment, after X Y Jet (Kantharos) won the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen, Fishman sent a text congratulating Navarro. Navarro replied: “Thank u boss u are a big part of it.” The reference, allegedly, is to Fishman's role in procuring drugs for Navarro to use on X Y Jet, who later dropped dead.

There's more, and, from the indictment, the government's conclusion is that treating and healing horses were not a part of Fishman's play book, despite his position as a veterinarian. The indictment charges that Fishman “did not perform medical examinations, provide a diagnosis, or otherwise evaluate the medical necessity of providing PEDs in advance of selling PEDs. Indeed, the administration of those PEDs was not intended to be therapeutic, but rather to increase the chances of winning horse races.”

Sunday, we learned that the government is requesting to enter into evidence charges that Fishman was investigated in Delaware more than a decade ago after a standardbred died after being injected with one of his products.

Yet, it appears that Fishman is intent on portraying himself as a heroic figure. In a Washington Post story that ran Wednesday, the reporter writes that Fishman depicts himself as “a sort of racetrack St. Francis of Assisi.” He also told the Post that the reason he continued to fight the charges was because “I'm going to take one for the team of veterinarians.”

According to the Post, Fishman defied his lawyer's wishes when granting an interview to the paper. No doubt, his legal team can't be pleased with what was a rambling, strange interview in which he did himself no favors and didn't present any credible evidence that has been wrongly accused. Rather, he stuck to the “I'm really an animal lover, please believe me” defense.

He goes on to claim that what this is really all about is the sport trying to make itself more attractive to bettors by offering a cleaner product…as if that is a bad thing.

From the Post story: “Fishman claimed that the real motive of those seeking regulatory reform was to make the sport more palatable for bettors by eradicating any foreign substances–at the expense of the animals. “I don't think the veterinary world should have to answer to a gambling product that seems to be getting more and more corrupt, not less corrupt,” Fishman said. “The animals' needs need to be put before the gamblers' needs.”

In another weird exchange with the Post, Fishman said that in another case, the feds had asked him to wear a wire in an attempt to catch racetrack cheats. He refused to do so, telling the paper that “to make them happy I would have had to violate two of the Ten Commandments. Just say for biblical reasons I couldn't do it.”

The trial will continue Monday, and unless his attorney has some sort of unforeseen trick up his sleeve, it appears that the defense strategy will be more of the same. Their defense is weak, but that's likely because it's all that they have.

It means they are hoping the jury will ignore the evidence presented by the government and buy into Fishman's claims that he's, well, not such a bad guy. According to Pew Research, fewer than 1% of all federal criminal cases result in the defendant taking their case to trial and winning. The most likely scenario is that the self-described animal lover will come out on the losing end here and his future includes a stint in a federal prison.

In Doping Trial, Are New Names About to Surface?

The opening day of testimony in the Fishman-Gianelli trial included what may turn out to be a bombshell, courtesy of the government lawyers. Prosecutor Anden Chow told jurors that the government's case would include the testimony of trainers who bought Fishman's drugs.
It was unclear what exactly that means, but what if it means that trainers who were not included in the original indictment are about to step forward and admit they bought PEDs from Fishman? Surely, Fishman sold his goods to many others not included in the indictment. If any new trainers do come forward, it's likely they worked out a deal with the government to avoid prosecution. But if anyone comes forward and admits using illegal PEDs, they would surely face sanctions from tracks and racing commissions, which, very well, could mean a lifetime ban.
Stay tuned.

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Doping Trial Pauses for Weekend, But Court Filings Don’t

Although the federal racehorse doping conspiracy trial for veterinarian Seth Fishman and his assistant, Lisa Giannelli, paused for the weekend, attorneys for both sides remained busy on Saturday and Sunday, filing requests with the court over the admissibility of evidence regarding an equine fatality and the way witnesses must testify while wearing masks as a pandemic precaution.

On Sunday morning, the prosecution filed a motion in United States District Court (Southern District of New York) that asked for permission to present evidence related to Fishman being investigated in Delaware more than a decade ago when a Standardbred died after being injected with one of his prescribed products.

“The Government moves for the admission of evidence regarding Fishman and Giannelli's knowledge of the death of the horse 'Louisville' in light of the defendants' opening statements and lines of cross-examination,“ prosecutors wrote in the Jan. 23 motion.

“The Government is entitled to fairly rebut the joint defense theory that the defendants lacked criminal intent because they sought only to help animals. Given that defense counsel has placed the safety and welfare of animals squarely at issue with respect to the defendants' intent to defraud or mislead in distributing these drugs, the Rule 403 balancing has shifted significantly,“ the filing continued.

Rule 403 pertains to a judge's discretion to exclude certain evidence if it is outweighed by the potential danger of unfair prejudice to defendants or could cause confusion among jury members.

In this case, prosecutors had previously been told that the evidence related to Louisville would not be permitted. But now the feds are saying that based upon the defense's strategy presented in the first few days of the trial, the evidence related to that equine death and its investigation by the state is newly relevant and should be allowed.

“The defendants each have advanced the theory that Seth Fishman was acting only in the best interest of the animal, and that Lisa Giannelli acted in reliance upon Seth Fishman's so-called veterinary expertise,“ the motion stated.

“A defendant suffers unfair prejudice only where evidence 'lure[s] the factfinder into declaring guilt on a ground different from proof specific to the offense charged,'” the motion argued. “But defense counsel cannot have it both ways: they cannot raise the defense that the defendants were concerned with the welfare of horses (or had no reason to believe they risked the safety of horses), then exclude highly probative evidence to the contrary…

“Countervailing evidence that Seth Fishman and Lisa Giannelli were aware of the risks of Pentosan, in particular, and IV drugs, generally, yet still distributed those drugs directly to racehorse trainers without prescriptions from or the oversight by a veterinarian is now highly relevant to the defendants' state of mind—the central point of contention as a result of defense counsel's arguments and questioning,“ the filing stated.

“By giving trainers and other non-medical personnel access to prescription and custom injectable drugs, Fishman and Giannelli provided the means by which trainers could do serious injury to their horses, and both defendants were aware of that fact at least as a result of the complaint lodged against them…

“There is no question that Giannelli and Fishman were aware of these risks as of at least 2010 when the complaint was filed with the Delaware Division of Professional Responsibility. That they continued to distribute Pentosan, and other IV medications to trainers, grooms, and others, has significant relevance in light of the arguments now raised to the jury,“ the filing stated.

Fishman is charged with two felony counts related to drug alteration, misbranding, and conspiring to defraud the government. Giannelli, who worked under Fishman (her exact role is disputed) faces similar charges.

In a separate letter to the judge filed by Fishman's attorney on Saturday, the defense took umbrage with a courthouse COVID-19 safety protocol requiring witnesses to testify while wearing masks despite already being sequestered in a HEPA-filtered plexiglass box.

“In our respectful view, adding a mask requirement to the current precautions hampers adequate assessment of witness demeanor and credibility, impermissibly impairing defendants' Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights to confrontation, due process and fair trial,“ Fishman's lawyer wrote.

“Granted, balancing those essential guarantees against public health considerations is no easy task. But even amid an ongoing pandemic, an additional witness mask requirement seems unwarranted overkill, a belt-and-suspenders approach,“ the Jan. 22 letter stated.

“Conversely, the prevailing lesser restrictions–including ample distancing and continuously masking all trial participants and spectators save a single testifying witness and speaking lawyer, each sequestered in their own HEPA-filtered plexiglass box–appear more than sufficient,“ the defense stated.

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