Jordan Fishman Sentenced To 15 Months In Prison On Federal Doping Case

Dr. Jordan Fishman, one of the defendants in the March 2020 federal indictment of individuals connected with an alleged racehorse doping ring, has been sentenced to a term of 15 months in prison.

U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil ordered Fishman surrender himself by May 9 to begin his sentence and ruled he will be on supervised release for one year after completing his term.

Fishman entered a guilty plea to one count of adulteration or misbranding. He had also been charged with conspiracy to commit drug adulteration and misbranding and conspiracy to defraud the United States by the misbranding of drugs.

Fishman is no relation to recently-convicted former veterinarian and Equestology owner Dr. Seth Fishman, although he did supply ingredients to Equestology. While Seth Fishman had a degree in veterinary medicine, Jordan Fishman holds a PhD in biochemistry and carcinogenesis/toxicology, hence they are both known as “Dr. Fishman.”

In presentencing reports filed with the court, Fishman's counsel suggested that he should be given probation. His attorneys say that Fishman's company, 21st Century Biochemicals, works with a range of companies and according to its website, it makes custom peptides, custom antibodies, and offers a variety of testing services. Equestology was between 3 and 6 percent of Jordan Fishman's gross revenue, according to his attorney. Fishman's counsel also indicated 21st Century Biochemicals had been key to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic as it has designed peptides to help in ongoing research of new virus variants.

“Jordan is a hard-working, kind, and caring individual with zero history of crime,” read the defense report. “He does not live in a mansion or lead an opulent life. (Again, the parties agree the intended loss amount here was less than $150,000.) Instead, he lives in a small, unfinished two-bedroom apartment and is responsible for taking care of his parents, including his father, who has lung cancer.”

The defense also characterized prison as unreasonably risky to Fishman, as COVID-19 infections are known to spread more rapidly in a mass housing environment, and indicated Fishman has health concerns, including a high body mass index, which make him more susceptible to serious disease.

The prosecutors' report emphasized Fishman's knowledge that the substances he produced for Seth Fishman were used as performance-enhancing substances for horses, and that what he was doing was against federal law.

At Seth Fishman's request, prosecutors say Jordan Fishman made injectable products to act as blood builders and pain blocks, among other things. Jordan Fishman sold the products to Seth Fishman for considerably less than Seth Fishman charged his customers, and Jordan Fishman is not believed to have been consumer-facing in any way. They say he did give Seth Fishman useful intel as the latter built his business, however.

“Jordan Fishman went beyond merely taking direction from Seth Fishman,” wrote prosecutors. “The defendant kept Seth Fishman apprised of developments with respect to the testability of drugs and potential formulations for novel adulterated and misbranded performance-enhancing drugs.”

Attorneys for the government attached a number of exhibits showing intercepted emails between the two Fishmans, but those documents were filed under seal, with only selected excerpts included in the public-facing report.

Jordan Fishman apparently weighed in on which types of drugs he thought could impact a horse's performance, as well as how likely they were to be detected.

“Just a heads up,” he wrote in one email. “The German Sports Authority requested a quote through our European distributor for several versions of EMP1. I wanted you to know that this may be on people's radar by now since it is being resurrected by them. In a paper they published in 2011 they say they can detect it for perhaps several days.”

In a text message exchange, Seth and Jordan Fishman discussed the activity of human athletes using doping agents, including the “stupidity” of those who purchased GNRH (which Jordan Fishman made for Seth), over the internet instead of hiring their own supplier.

“In a call approximately one month later, on April 3, 2019, Seth Fishman further explicated the performance-enhancing qualities of vasodilators like Viagra, which Jordan Fishman had been (and continued to) manufacture at Seth Fishman's behest,” the report read. “In another call, the two discussed using and designing vasodilators specifically in connection with a race, estimating the length of a contemplated race in order to determine how long the vasodilator would have to last.”

“…at the outset of a discussion regarding the potency of a particular new drug in which the defendant discussed designing the drug to be many times more powerful than morphine, Jordan Fishman cautioned Seth Fishman: '[Y]ou are going to be taking chances with these animals. You know?'”

In 2017, Seth Fishman warned Jordan that agents with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approached an employee of his and indicated they had fielded complaints about Seth Fishman's business. Seth instructed Jordan to tell the FDA that Seth's clients were “predominantly overseas royalty” and “[a]s far as you know [Equestology's] clients are UAE royalty” and “as far as you know my research and production is for overseas clients that work with the ruling sheiks.”

Prosecutors had tried to get Seth Fishman's bail revoked shortly before his trial when they learned he had continued making products after his arrest, in what they asserted could be a violation of his bail conditions. Seth Fishman's attorneys argued that since the products in question were made for sale overseas only, they were not a violation of federal laws.

The government advocated for a sentence of 12 to 18 months in prison.

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Hall Testimony: Fishman Doping Program Could Cost $400 To $1,500 Per Horse, Per Month

As exhibits and transcripts from the trial of Dr. Seth Fishman continue to be acquired by members of the trade media, Harness Link reported over the weekend it had acquired a copy of the testimony given by owner/trainer Adrienne Hall, who appeared as a witness for the prosecution.

The publication presented the transcript in its entirety here.

Fishman was convicted by a federal jury last week on two counts of conspiring to violate adulteration and misbranding laws and the manufacture of performance-enhancing substances given to racehorses.

His sentencing is currently scheduled to take place during the first week of May. The maximum term he may face in federal prison is 20 years.

Jeff Gural, owner of the Meadowlands, has been outspoken in his support of Hall, who admitted to purchasing PEDs from Fishman in an effort to improve her horses' performance. Hall has seen her membership in the U.S. Trotting Association revoked, but Gural does not plan to ban her from his track. A spokesman for the New York State Gaming Commission also indicated that there were no restrictions in place on Hall's license as of last week.

The transcript notes several occasions when wiretapped phone calls were played for the jury. The contents of an audio recording is not typically captured on the court reporter's transcript and is not included here.

Here are a few takeaways from the transcript:

  • Hall initially contacted Fishman in an effort to find a veterinarian to serve her new training operation. She contacted Lisa Ranger on a recommendation from a fellow trainer in Ohio identified as Daniel Mier and purchased electrolyte jugs, iron sucrose, folic acid, vitamin B-12, Caco Copper, Amicar, and vitamin C from Equestology through Ranger. Hall was new to Florida at the time and interested in finding a new veterinarian to do lameness examinations on her horses. She inquired about whether Fishman could do this, but he later explained he did not do lameness work due to back problems. In fact, she said, Fishman never did any kind of examination of any of her horses. Hall later found a different veterinarian to do the work but never made any inquiries as to whether he could sell her any pre-race PEDs.
  • Fishman later detailed to Hall that he'd been investigated by an unidentified state veterinary board.
    “Here's reality,” read a text from Fishman to Hall, which Hall was asked to read on the stand. “I was tortured so much by race commission without a client ever getting a single positive other than stupid shit like Bute given by another vet. I voluntarily gave up my license and then the veterinary board had me investigated for BS. They even accused Lisa of practicing veterinary medicine. I spent $25,000 in legal fees and had a personal political favor called in to end the BS.”
  • Hall corresponded with Fishman anyhow in hopes he could help her with a pre-race program for her horses, which would eventually include products she understood to be VO2 Max, a blood builder, and equine growth hormone.
  • Those products were given to Hall in vials with instructions they be reconstituted with sterile or bacteriostatic water before being injected — a process that made Hall nervous, since she did not want to accidentally put the product into the wrong vein or into a muscle and harm the horse.
  • Fishman told Hall in text messages that a blood building program would run $400 to $800 per month per horse. “A good program for blood, tissue regeneration and muscle factors is normally $1,250 to $1,500 per month,” Fishman told her. He offered to discount that program to $750.
  • Hall said Fishman never charged her for the PEDs he gave to her. He did indicate at one stage that if she referred other trainers to him, that she could make a commission off those sales. She assumed his interest in working with her was primarily the hope she could connect him to larger-scale operations where he believed she had a connection.
  • Hall indicated that there were rumors that Tony Poliseno, apparently Donato Poliseno, who is a defendant on a separate indictment, was selling product trainers in Ohio believed could be suspect. Poliseno was on the Fishman client list presented as an exhibit by the prosecution during the trial.
    “…By the time I had left Ohio or when I was getting ready to leave Ohio, a lot of trainers were getting fed up with Poliseno,” Hall testified. “There were rumors that he was selling them products that were not as they were labeled. Horses were having bad reactions. Some of it they thought could have just been saline, so they were wasting money. A lot of people were stopping buying from him, and that's kind of how I came across Equestology.”

Read the complete transcript at Harness Link

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A Look At Seth Fishman’s Client Lists

The Paulick Report, along with other industry publications, has acquired copies of two documents presented during the recently-concluded trial of former veterinarian Dr. Seth Fishman which prosecutors say contain lists of clients from Fishman's Equestology business.

Fishman was convicted this week of two counts of conspiring to violate adulteration and misbranding laws and the manufacture of performance-enhancing drugs intended for use in racehorses.

The documents list clients by last name. One is limited to those with New York addresses. (Fishman's trial was held in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.) The other is alphabetized by last name and includes zip codes from a variety of states and a few Canadian postal codes. Street addresses and cities have been redacted, with zip code and state data remaining.

The list includes a number of people who were also indicted in March 2020 for their roles in what prosecutors say was a widespread network of drug suppliers, distributors and end users using adulterated and misbranded products to dope Thoroughbred and Standardbred racehorses. Thomas Guido/Guido Stable, Ross Cohen, Carl Garofalo, Tony Poliseno, Rene Allard, and Richard Banca are all on the list.

Garofalo entered a guilty plea in June 2021 to one count of adulteration and misbranding and was ordered to forfeit $6.7 million. He has yet to be sentenced. The other defendants have pleaded not guilty.

A number of harness trainers and stable names appear on the list, as do the names of several veterinarians, and a few Thoroughbred racing connections.

Jeff Gural, owner of the Meadowlands, indicated to the Paulick Report he is making inquiries with each harness trainer on the list to find out what specifically they were purchasing from Fishman and when.

“Everyone told me I was wasting my time and money trying to clean [racing] up so I just assume everyone thought it was business as usual and there was no risk,” Gural wrote in an email. “Obviously, they were wrong.”

The dates on the lists indicate they were pulled in February 2020, but it's not clear whether they are limited to client accounts that were active or contained historical data. The lists also do not indicate what the clients were purchasing or whether they were the end users of the products. While prosecutors say Fishman was not actively practicing veterinary medicine, he was licensed as a vet and could have provided legitimate, legal treatments in addition to or instead of the illegal products he was found guilty of making and distributing.

See the general list here.

See the New York-specific list here.

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Jury Finds Fishman Guilty; Drug Maker Could Face 20 Years In Prison

Florida veterinarian Dr. Seth Fishman, the first person to face trial in a sweeping horse-doping case that documented the widespread use of illegal and undetectable performance-enhancing drugs at tracks across the country, was convicted in New York Feb. 2 on charges that could put him behind bars for up to 20 years.

A jury of eight women and four men in U.S. District Court in Manhattan found Fishman, 50, guilty of two counts of conspiring to violate adulteration and misbranding laws and the manufacture of PEDS administered to racehorses by corrupt trainers for money and fame.

U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil will sentence Fishman May 5.

Prosecutor Sarah Mortazavi told the judge prosecutors would be seeking to detain Fishman pending sentencing. 

The verdict came swiftly. Jurors got the case late Feb. 1 and deliberated for about three hours Tuesday and Wednesday. The trial began with jury selection Jan. 19 and lasted 11 days. 

The jury rejected Fishman's defense that his actions were in keeping with his oath as a licensed veterinarian to protect the health and welfare of animals.

“I understand the jury has reached a verdict,” Vyskocil said after the jury filed in the wood-paneled courtroom on the 26th floor of the courthouse.

The jury's foreperson then announced Fishman's guilt on each of the counts.

“I love animals. I love horses,” one of the jurors, Victoria Lopez, a 61-year-old woman from The Bronx, said in an interview following the verdict. “What they were doing wasn't right.”

“The jury's swift conviction of Seth Fishman reflects the overwhelming evidence of his guilt as displayed through this trial,” New York U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a release issued from his office. “As an ostensible veterinarian – sworn to the care and protection of animals – Fishman cynically violated his oath in service of corrupt trainers and in the pursuit of profits.”

Williams added, “Through the sale of untested, unsafe, and unstable drugs, Fishman's illegal drug business was a platform for both fraud and animal abuse. Today's conviction appropriately condemns the danger inherent in Fishman's crimes and underscores the seriousness with which this office takes the kind of abuse that Fishman practiced.” 

Stuart S. Janney III, chairman of The Jockey Club, also reacted to the verdict.

“I am pleased to see all of the effort and time spent by federal agents, prosecutors, and others who have worked so hard on this case be rewarded with a guilty verdict, and I thank them for their commitment,” Janney said in a statement distributed by TJC.

“It is highly encouraging to know that those who cheat and endanger our sport's athletes, both equine and human, face meaningful and life-changing punishments,” he added. “Clearly, this verdict will serve as a deterrent to others, and it also provides hope for those who want to see true change in the racing industry. This step forward, one of many recently, reflects our steadfast determination towards maintaining the highest levels of integrity and safety for racing's athletes and customers.”

Fishman wasn't in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. Vyskocil hasn't said in open court where he is. A cryptic comment from Fishman's attorney to the judge led to speculation Fishman may be in a hospital.

Fishman had a co-defendant Lisa Giannelli, at the start of the trial. She worked with Fishman for 18 years, and prosecutors accused her of being Fishman's drug distributor. On Jan. 24, Vyskocil declared a mistrial in her case after her attorney tested positive for COVID-19. 

Nearly two years ago, Williams' office charged Fishman, six other veterinarians, 11 trainers, and nine others, identified as PED distributors, with conspiring dope horses in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Ohio, Kentucky, and the United Arab Emirates.

The investigation began in 2018 and was headed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and criminal investigators with the Food and Drug Administration.

At the time of the indictment, then-New York U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said the case was “the most far-reaching prosecution of racehorse doping in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice.”

At a March 2020 press conference announcing the indictments, FBI New York assistant director in charge William F. Sweeney Jr. said the doping conspiracy risked the health of horses administered PEDs.

“What happened to these horses amounted to nothing less than abuse,” Sweeney said.

Those charged included top trainer Jason Servis, who federal prosecutors say juiced multi-millionaire Maximum Security, the first-place finisher in the 2019 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1), who was demoted to 17th by stewards for interference with another horse in the race.

The accused also included Jorge Navarro, who was sentenced to five years in prison last year after pleading guilty to conspiracy. Prosecutors presented evidence at Fishman's trial showing that the trainer paid Fishman tens of thousands of dollars for PEDs, including a substance called BB3 that prosecutors say thickens a horse's blood to make it run faster and farther.

Navarro is one of nine charged individuals who have pled guilty. Two others who were arrested entered into non-prosecution agreements with prosecutors.

The Fishman trial revealed that another of those accused, former harness trainer Ross Cohen, struck a deal with prosecutors to become a cooperating witness.

Servis and several others have pled not guilty and are awaiting trial. 

Prosecutors have said in court papers that they are in plea discussions with several defendants without naming them. 

The Fishman verdict could have an impact on cases going forward.

The evidence against Fishman included witness testimony, emails and texts, and wiretap recordings that captured Fishman talking about doping horses, and bragging that his drugs wouldn't appear in post-race testing.

Prosecutors also showed the jury thousands of vials of drugs seized from Fishman's Florida company Equestology.

Two of those witnesses were harness trainer Adrienne Hall and Thoroughbred trainer Jamen Davidovich. They testified they juiced their horses with PEDs obtained from Fishman. Hall testified under deferred prosecution agreement with the government. Davidovich's testimony came after he was granted immunity.

As part of their case, prosecutors also played for the jury video of Navarro's juiced X Y Jet winning the $2.5 million Dubai Golden Shaheen Sponsored By Gulf News (G1) in Dubai in 2019. X Y Jet died of a heart attack a year later, Navarro said in a statement shortly after the incident.

“Thank you boss, (you're) a big part of it,” Navarro said in a text exchange with Fishman just after the 2019 Golden Shaheen.

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

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