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Two Years After the Indictments, Where Are They Now?

It may seem like yesterday, but the bombshell that was the announcement that more than two dozen people had been indicted for their alleged role in a horse doping scheme was made exactly two years and two days ago. What has happened to the 29 individuals since the day that shook horse racing to its core?

Here's a rundown:

Jorge Navarro: Navarro pled guilty to one count of drug alteration and misbranding and was sentenced to five years in prison, the maximum allowable sentence. Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil was not the least bit sympathetic when Navarro blamed his juicing on the pressure he was under to win races and went so far as to say she wished she were able to sentence him to more than five years. In addition to the prison sentence, Navarro was ordered to payment of restitution in the amount of $26,860,514, reflecting winnings obtained through his fraudulent doping scheme. He is expected to begin his stay in prison as early as next week.

Jason Servis: Has not entered a guilty plea and seems intent on fighting this to the end. In November, in a superseding indictment, the government tacked on the extra charges of mail and wire fraud conspiracy. The maximum sentence under federal guidelines for the charge is 20 years. His trial has been delayed and is not expected to occur until the first quarter of 2023. He is represented by the high-profile attorney Rita Glavin, who also represented Andrew Cuomo, who resigned amid accusations of sexual harassment.

Louis Grasso, Donato Poliseno, Conor Flynn, Thomas Guido, Rene Allard and Richard Banca: The defendants come from the harness industry and are under an indictment that is separate from the Servis-Navarro indictment. Grasso is a veterinarian, who, the government charges supplied adulterated and misbranded PEDs to trainers. The others are all trainers. All six have been charged with one count of drug adulteration and misbranding and have maintained their innocence. Their case goes to trial June 27.

Erica Garcia and Michael Tannuzzo: Tannuzzo was a NYRA-based trainer with a small stable who, allegedly, helped supply Navarro with drugs. Garcia is a veterinarian who also faces charges that she helped procure drugs for Navarro. Their trial is slated for December.

Marcos Zulueta: A Parx-based trainer who was winning at a 31% clip before being indicted, has pled guilty and has been sentenced to 33 months. He also assisted Navarro in obtaining PEDs. Has not yet reported to prison.

Gregory Skelton: An Indiana-based veterinarian, he is no longer under indictment.

Seth Fishman: The Florida veterinarian ran a large scale operation that manufactured and sold PEDs, Fishman went to trial and was found guilty after the jury deliberated for less than two days. He was convicted on two counts of conspiring to violate adulteration and misbranding laws and the manufacture of PEDS and faces up to 20 years in prison. He was absent from the court room for the last two days of his trial and his absence has yet to be explained. He will be sentenced May 5.

Lisa Gianelli: Assisted Fishman. Her trial was postponed after her lawyer came down with COVID.

Ross Cohen: Is no longer under indictment and testified against Fishman.

Chris Oakes: A prominent harness trainer who used drugs on his own horses and also supplied Navarro with drugs, pled guilty and was sentenced to three years. His sentence will begin June 1.

Nick Surick: Another prominent Standardbred trainer, he is no longer under indictment.

Jordan Fishman: A Massachusetts-based drug manufacturer, he pled guilty and was sentenced to 15 months.

Rick Dane, Jr.: A harness trainer, he has pled guilty and has not yet been sentenced.

Kristian Rhein: A veterinarian based in New York, he sold SGF-1000, the drug that Servis was allegedly using on his horses. He was sentenced to three years and is serving his terms at FCI Fort Dix.

Michael Kegley, Jr.: A sales director for a company that sold PEDs, Kegley was sentenced to 30 months and is serving his term at FCI Ashland.

Alexander Chan: Like Servis, mail and wire fraud charges have been tacked on to the original indictment and he faces up to 20 years in prison. Allegedly procured drug for Servis. His trial has been postponed until 2023, when he will be tried along with Servis.

Henry Argueta: Servis' former assistant, he is no longer under indictment. Would come as no surprise if he were to testify against his old boss.

Scott Robinson: A drug supplier, he pled guilty and was sentenced to 18 months and is serving his sentence at FCI Coleman Low. Granted an interview from prison to the TDN and said he had “thousands of customers.”

Scott Mangini: A drug manufacturer and a former partner with Robinson, was sentenced to 18 months and Is serving his sentence at FPC Pensacola.

Chris Marino: The harness trainer is no longer under indictment.

Sarah Izhaki and Ashley Liebowitz: A mother and daughter team who appeared to be minor players in the scandal. Izhaki pled guilty and was sentenced to time served plus three years of supervised release. Her daughter, Leibowitz, entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the government.

Rebecca Linke: A New Jersey-based veterinarian, Linke entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the government. The charges in the indictment will be dismissed if she complies with all the rules, regulations and special conditions of the agreement.

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Mangini Gets 18 Months in Prison

Even up until the final tense moments before a federal judge handed down Scott Mangini's sentence Friday for his role as a licensed pharmacist who created custom drugs for racehorses in an alleged international doping conspiracy, the defense and prosecution sparred over two main issues: 1) How many of those drugs were actually “performance-enhancing,” and 2) What should Mangini's sentencing be relative to that of Scott Robinson, who got 18 months in prison for marketing and selling those same pharmaceuticals?

Saying that he wanted to “send a message” that would be as much of a deterrent to others as a specific punishment for Mangini's pleading guilty to one felony count of conspiring to distribute adulterated and misbranded drugs, United States District Judge J. Paul Oetken sentenced the 56-year-old to the same term as Robinson-18 months in prison.

“At the end of the day, I find that resolving how much of it was performance-enhancing, or had one of the potential uses of enhancing the performances of animals, including horses, is not essential to my sentencing decision,” Oetken said Sept. 10 in U.S. District Court (Southern District of New York).

“The drugs were not tested or approved by the [Food and Drug Administration]. They were not properly labelled and distributed pursuant to prescriptions. And, in fact, [the business was] organized to avoid detection by the FDA and other regulators, including the use of false prescriptions and false return addresses,” Oetken said.

The maximum sentence that Mangini faced under federal guidelines was five years imprisonment, which is what prosecutors had recommended. Defense attorneys had lobbied for a period of home confinement.

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors also demanded a forfeiture order from Mangini in the amount of $8,108,141.

In pre-sentencing court documents, Mangini's attorneys had argued that amount was “far more than he has earned in his lifetime,” and that “the forfeiture is plainly disproportionate for Mr. Mangini as it guarantees he will remain forever impoverished.”

Just prior to the 18-month sentence being handed down, Mangini was granted the opportunity to address the court. He began speaking slowly, in a level, pensive voice. But by the time he finished what he wanted to say, his diction had cracked under the strain of emotion.

“When I got into the business, I had the idea that I could help all kinds of horses and make it affordable for owners and trainers,” Mangini said. “I started selling cheaper versions of animal drugs and supplements. I really didn't know it was illegal. I had an obligation to follow the rules and I failed to do so. Now when I look back, I destroyed my life. And I have no one to blame but myself…

“I have lost my career as a pharmacist. And I can't work with horses again,” Mangini continued. “What is especially hard is how I [inaudible] my wife and my stepson. They are totally dependent upon me financially. I tried to protect them. Because of this crime, they will suffer. And it is my fault. This has haunted me since my arrest…

“Even though I may be absent from their daily lives, they know that I am financially ruined. My wife cries [inaudible] and I don't know what to say to her. I know I am to blame for doing this to them…

“My parents, in their 70s, they moved to [where Mangini lives in] Florida so that I could help them as they grow old, so I could be there for them. I have let them down as well,” Mangini said. “Since my arrest, I have tried to do better. I admitted that I violated the FDA rules. I met with the government every time that they wanted. I told them the truth. I admitted that I broke the law. Now I am filled with regret and remorse, and I'm sorry.”

On March 9, 2020, Mangini was arrested as part of the nationwide sweep that netted 27 others alleged to be involved all through the supply chain of an international doping ring. He was charged with two counts of participating in conspiracies related to his distribution in interstate commerce of adulterated and misbranded drugs with the intent to defraud and mislead.

The charges were based on Mangini supplying custom-made drugs to resellers (such as Robinson) and, later, to customers directly through several businesses and websites dedicated to the marketing and sale of performance-enhancing drugs to those in the horse racing industry.

The prosecution had alleged that Mangini often obscured his involvement by “hiding behind other people” and that he “sold a wide variety of drugs, including blood builders, used to increase red blood cell counts and/or oxygenation to stimulate a horse's race performance and recovery; analgesics, designed to block pain, which can mask physical injuries; and red acid, similarly used to reduce inflammation in joints and reduce pain.”

On April 23, 2021, weeks before he was to stand trial, Mangini pled guilty after negotiating a plea agreement that charged him with just a single, encompassing count of participating in a drug adulteration and misbranding conspiracy.

“In some cases the drugs were manufactured in facilities that were not as sanitary as they should have been, under circumstances where they created increased risk of harm to the animals that they were intended for,” Oetken said prior to the sentencing. “The defendant was a licensed pharmacist, and in that role he knew what he was doing, and he knew that he was acting to evade the law and regulatory authorities.”

Oetken also noted that before his arrest, authorities had already once restricted Mangini's pharmacist's license and had suspended the business license of the pharmaceuticals firm he was involved with.

“So he was aware several years ago that authorities were taking a closer look at the business, and for at least some period of time he went back to operating it,” Oetken said.

The judge then noted that Mangini has no prior criminal history, and that he had provided numerous character-reference letters that Oetken took into consideration.

But then Oetken said, “Balancing those positive considerations with the nature of the crime, this is a sufficiently serious crime that punishment is warranted. Among the purposes of sentencing that must be considered-and I think [what] is relevant here is promoting respect for the law and also deterrence, particularly general deterrence-those are important considerations given that the business scheme here was designed to evade the law.

“I also treated similarly situated defendants with comparable punishment as a necessary consideration,” Oetken continued. “Mr. Robinson was sentenced to 18 months. I found that significantly below [mandatory sentencing guidelines] was appropriate. I think the fact of imprisonment is more important than a lengthy imprisonment. I don't think it's likely that the defendant needs to be [incarcerated] because he's a danger or something like that. But I do think that sending a message that this form of crime will be taken seriously is important.”

Six of 28 defendants named in the original indictment have now pled guilty to charges in the federal government's prosecution of an alleged “corrupt scheme” to manufacture, mislabel, rebrand, distribute, and administer PEDs to racehorses all across America and in international races.

Robinson was the first to be sentenced in March 2021. In addition to his 18 months in prison, he had to forfeit $3.8 million in profits.

In June, Sarah Izhaki was sentenced to time already served plus three years of supervised release for selling misbranded versions of Epogen.

Michael Kegley, Jr., an independent contractor for the Kentucky-based company MediVet Equine, pled guilty July 23 to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding. He is to be sentenced Nov. 22.

Kristian Rhein, a suspended veterinarian formerly based at Belmont Park, on Aug. 3 pled guilty to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding for use in the covert doping of Thoroughbreds. As part of a plea bargain, Rhein has agreed forfeit $1.02 million in profits directly traceable to his offense, plus pay $729,716 in restitution. He is to be sentenced Dec. 2.

The barred trainer Jorge Navarro cut a deal with federal prosecutors Aug. 11 in which he pled guilty to one count of conspiring with others to administer non-FDA-approved, misbranded and adulterated drugs, including PEDs that Navarro believed would be untestable and undetectable. In exchange, a similar second count against him was dropped.

Navarro faces a maximum prison term of five years when he gets sentenced Dec. 17. Navarro's plea deal also stipulates that he pay $25.8 million to a list of victims that has not yet been made public.

A number of others still have their cases winding through the federal court system. Among them are the barred trainer Jason Servis, whom the feds allegedly recorded in wiretapped phone conversations discussing the doping of Maximum Security, the former $16,000 maiden-claimer who crossed the wire first in the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby but was disqualified for interference.

Oetken told Mangini to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons (specific location to be determined) Oct. 25.

His attorney, however, requested that the judge set a January surrender date, “so Mr. Mangini can have the holidays” with his family.

Oetken concurred, and reset Mangini's prison reporting date to Jan. 10, 2022.

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Trainer Richard Vega Handed Two-Year Suspension

Trainer Richard Vega has been hit with a two-year suspension by the Pennsylvania Racing Commission after a May 25 backstretch raid at Parx allegedly turned up a number of needles and syringes in his tack room.

Paulick Report was the first to report on Vega's suspension, which was handed down June 29 and does not expire until June 28, 2023.

According to a ruling posted on the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission's website, during the search of Vega's tack room investigators found 21 loaded syringes, 18 needles, one intravenous filled bag and one intravenous catheter. The ruling did not specify what, if anything, was found in the syringes and the racing commission's Director of Thoroughbred Horse Racing Tom Chuckas did not return a phone call seeking comment. As in most states, in Pennsylvania, only licensed veterinarians may be in possession of needles and syringes, no matter what drugs or medications might be found in them.

Vega's attorney Alan Pincus told the TDN Tuesday that he had filed an appeal in Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court seeking a stay of the suspension. If the stay is granted, Vega could be allowed to continue training.

The search of Vega's tack room was part of a wide-ranging investigation in which cars coming in and out of the stable area were checked, 66 out-of-competition tests were performed and six barns and six tack rooms were searched. To date, Vega is the only Parx-based trainer to have been suspended.

Vega was summarily suspended following the raid and has not started a horse since May 19.

So far as the severity of the infraction goes, Chuckas has sent a mixed message. Shortly after the raid and during a meeting of the commission, Chuckas said that a “significant amount of contraband” had been found and said what was found were “items that have no business on the backside.” But, a month later, Chuckas, during another commission meeting, said that raids at both Parx and Penn National found “nothing of substance.”

“[Vega's] due process was horribly violated,” Pincus said. “And Mr. Chuckas made comments saying there was nothing of any substance found. As soon as the judge makes a ruling I will have plenty more to say.”

Vega has been enshrined in the Parx Hall of Fame and has won 1,115 races during a career that began in 1992. His starters have earned $19,519,981. He emigrated from Cuba in 1980 and began his career on the track as a groom in Florida. His clients have included Sal DeBunda, who is the president and general counsel of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association (PTHA) and is a member of the state racing commission.

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Trainers In Maryland Warned About Use Of Amicar

The Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association has released a statement regarding the use of anti-bleeding medications for racehorses in training. Horsemen are encouraged to stop the use of these drugs immediately, particularly the use of aminocaproic acid, sold under the name Amicar.

Amicar and other anti-bleeding medications are used to prevent bleeding from horses that suffer from Exercise Induced Pulmonary Hemorrhage (EIPH).

Amicar and multiple other anti-bleeding medications were placed on the Prohibited List in 2013 under Association of Racing Commissioners International Uniform Classification Guidelines for Foreign Substances.

These medications were placed on this list because they cannot be regulated by withdrawal time guidelines, and the medications have no timeline in which they can be used in which they might not trigger a positive test post-race.

Any trainer who uses these medications runs the risk of his or her horse coming back with a positive drug test post-race.