The sentencing paperwork filed Dec. 21 for Argueta's final judgment in United States District Court (Southern District of New York) stated that he pleaded guilty to three felony charges listed in a superseding information document in exchange for other charges in a separate indictment being dropped.

The court records did not state how much time Argueta had already served.

The judgment also stated that Argueta must pay more than $28 million in restitution to an undisclosed list of victims. The documentation did not list a specific payment plan.

It is common for convicts of federal crimes who don't have the means to pay exorbitantly large restitutions to never pay more than a fraction of the court-ordered amount, although the penalty is never legally forgiven and the government can continue to try and collect it up to 20 years after a criminal's sentence expires.

Separately, Argueta's court filing stated that, “As a result of the offenses charged in Counts One and Two of the Information, to which the Defendant pled guilty, a money judgment in the amount of $311,760 [representing] the amount of forfeitable property involved in the offenses charged [is] jointly and severally liable with the Co-Defendants…”

But the documentation went on to state that because Servis, who got sentenced to four years in prison on July 26, has already paid that $311,760, “the Government shall credit the Servis Payment against the Money Judgment and the [Argueta] Money Judgment will be fully satisfied.”

Argueta's name surfaced on multiple occasions in a trove of wiretapped evidence that prosecutors had planned to introduce at trials.

But the feds didn't have to use the vast majority of those taped telephone phone conversations and intercepted text messages, because the highest-profile defendants in the case all ended up cutting guilty-plea deals instead of taking their chances facing a jury.

On July 10, 2019, Servis and Argueta were listed in a transcript allegedly discussing concerns about getting caught administering performance-enhancing drugs to Thoroughbreds.

Servis: Be careful man, Henry, with that. Really careful, because …
Argueta: Yes?
Servis: Because we are getting really good.
Argueta: Yeah, no.
Servis: All we need is a problem like that. Oh, with [Maximum Security crossing the finish wire first but getting disqualified for interference in the] Derby and [expletive]. Oh, my God!

Argueta and Servis then discussed the likelihood that authorities would be on the lookout for them to see if they were doping horses.

Argueta: Yeah, but what are they going to see? Nobody going to see nothing. What are they going to see? Nothing.
Servis: Right.
Argueta: We don't do nothing–ha, ha! They can look wherever they want to look.

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Originally indicted in March of 2020, Servis represents the last domino to fall in the doping scandal that also involved trainer Jorge Navarro and more than two dozen others and sent shockwaves through the industry. Servis had appeared ready to fight the charges in court and had hired a high-profile attorney in Rita Glavin, who represented former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo when he faced allegations of sexual harassment. Servis's trial had been set to begin Jan. 9.

It was revealed last week that Servis and his attorney had begun the process of negotiating with prosecutors when a request was filed to the court asking for additional time to file motions prior to Servis's scheduled court date.

“The Government and counsel for defendant Jason Servis are currently in discussions regarding a potential pre-trial disposition, which may obviate the need for trial,” wrote United States Attorney Damian Williams in his letter to the court.

Servis was originally charged with three counts of felony drug misbranding. Some eight months after the original indictment was released, the charge of mail and wire fraud conspiracy was added in a superceding indictment. The maximum sentence under federal guidelines for that charge is 20 years.

It won't be known until Friday's hearing what charges Servis will plead guilty to. Like Servis, Navarro entered into a plea agreement with the government, pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit drug adulteration or misbranding. He was sentenced to five years in prison. Unlike Servis, Navarro was never charged with conspiracy, which could mean that Servis will face more than five years.

In a related development, Alexander Chan, a veterinarian who had worked for Servis and was scheduled to be tried alongside the barred trainer in January, also changed his plea and plead guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit drug misbranding or adulteration. He will be sentenced April 13. Chan had also been facing three felony charges related to drug adulteration, misbranding, along with wire fraud conspiracies.

That Servis might be acquitted at trail always seemed like a longshot. The federal government had compiled numerous intercepted phone conversations between Servis and others in which he discussed his doping routines with Chan, Navarro and another vet, Kristian Rhein. When Rhein pled guilty in August of 2020 he implicated Servis. Rhein was sentenced to three years.

Servis's performance-enhancing drug of choice was allegedly SGF-1000, purported to be a performance-enhancing drug intended to promote tissue repair and increase a racehorse's stamina and endurance beyond its natural capability. The government charged that Servis administered SGF-1000 to “virtually all of the racehorses under his control.” The list includes Maximum Security (New Year's Day), who was first under the wire in the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby before being disqualified for interference.

The evidence included a conversation between Servis and Navarro in which Servis recommended SGF-1000 to his fellow trainer and said, “I've been using it on almost everything.”

In the original indictment it was charged that Servis and his co-conspirators “concealed the administration of PEDs from federal and state government agencies, racing officials, and the betting public by, among other things, concealing and covertly transporting PEDs between barns where Servis's racehorse were stabled, falsifying veterinary bills to conceal the administration of SGF-1000, and using fake prescriptions.”

Servis's sentencing may be the final chapter in a scandal that has hovered over the industry for nearly three years. With Chan having changed his plea and Servis about to do the same, the cases covering all the individuals originally indicted will have been adjudicated. Every person involved will have either pled guilty or been convicted in court.

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Chan's deal involved waiving indictment and pleading guilty to a single superseding information charge of drug adulteration and misbranding in exchange for the other charges against him being dropped, a format that is similar in substance to deals that other convicted defendants in the wide-ranging doping conspiracy case have agreed to with government prosecutors rather than face a trial by jury.

Chan had signaled his intention to plead guilty last Thursday, when he asked for and was swiftly granted a Dec. 5 change-of-plea hearing in United States District Court (Southern District of New York).

That decision seemingly left Servis as the lone remaining high-profile defendant in the case to go to trial as scheduled Jan. 9. But news broke Friday that Servis, too, is seeking a plea deal to adjudicate his own trio of felony drug misbranding and conspiracy to commit fraud charges. There was no update on the court docket with regard to Servis's case status as of early Monday evening.

As part of his plea deal, Chan will also have to pay the feds a forfeiture of $311,760. The money judgment represents the value of “any and all drugs that were adulterated or misbranded when introduced into or while in interstate commerce or while held for sale…” according to court documents filed Dec. 5.

Chan's sentencing will be Apr. 13.

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On Thursday, a federal judge put Guido behind bars for 20 months as part of an agreement with prosecutors in which Guido pleaded guilty to one felony count of substantive drug misbranding and adulteration with intent to defraud and mislead in exchange for three conspiracy charges against him being dropped.

Guido was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. Prior to his Nov. 17 sentencing, he already paid a $61,800 forfeiture that had been a condition of his plea bargain.

At two separate sentencings on Nov. 15, the same judge in in United States District Court (Southern District of New York) sent the former Standardbred trainer Rene Allard to prison for 27 months while the former racetrack veterinarian Louis Grasso got 50 months for his role in the same doping ring.

Had the case gone to trial, prosecutors had been prepared to prove how Guido and Grasso worked together to administer performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) to Standardbreds.

“Critically, Guido sought to obtain some of the most potent PEDs in the industry-blood builders-to administer to racehorses for the purpose of corruptly improving their race performance,” prosecutors wrote in a pre-sentencing submission.

Among the evidence that the feds intended to present if the case had gone to rial was a 2019 intercepted phone call in which the trainer and veterinarian discussed the death of a horse named Reiki, presumably after the administration of a blood-clotting agent.

“Guido appreciated the dangers of illegally administering drugs to racehorses for no legitimate medical purpose,” the prosecution's filing continued. “One of Guido's racehorses unexpectedly died with no apparent cause, leading co-defendant Louis Grasso to speculate that the horse had died after receiving a mis-administered dose of N-butyl alcohol. Guido likewise appreciated that his conduct was prohibited: over the course of his career, Guido had received multiple prior positive drug tests and fines or suspensions as punishment.”

Prosecutors had sought a 30-month prison sentence. Guido's attorney had argued for a far more lenient punishment of 12 months of home confinement. Guido's lawyer also disputed that his client had a direct role in Reiki's death.

“The government suggests that Mr. Guido was directly responsible for the death of a horse under his care,” Guido's attorney wrote. “The basis of this allegation is a conversation between Dr. Grasso and Mr. Guido recorded on October 2, 2019, in which they discuss the death of a horse owned by a friend of Mr. Guido.

“Dr. Grasso, who did not examine the horse, opines that the horse died of an improperly administered N-Butyl injection. [Reiki] died the day before [after competing in] a race at Pocono Downs.”

“Mr. Guido was not present at that race, he did not transport that horse to the track, and it's not clear whether Reiki was stabled at [his farm]. Mr. Guido did not mis-deliver an injection of N-Butyl to Reiki on October 1, 2019…. The entire conversation is speculative [and] we don't know why the horse died,” the defense filing continued.

But yet, even Guido's own attorney conceded in the same paragraph that, “What is true, however, is that similar to his facilitating others in obtaining Epogen prescriptions, Mr. Guido may have supplied the N-Butyl that Dr. Grasso had prescribed for his barn. It is conduct that he deeply regrets.”

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Grasso was also ordered to pay a forfeiture totaling $412,442.62 and restitution in the amount of $47,656,576. He must surrender to authorities on January 24, 2023, at which time he will enter prison.

Grasso was charged with one count of drug adulteration and misbranding conspiracy, a felony. He faced a maximum sentence of five years. Several other defendants in the doping case that have pled guilty received sentences in the neighborhood of three years.  That Castel gave Grasso more than four years seems to reflect the severity of the charges against him.

The prosecution had maintained that Grasso's doping led to corrupt trainers collecting over $47 million in ill-gotten purse winnings.

In May, when Grasso entered a guilty plea, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District Court issued a press release in which U.S. Attorney Damian Williams commented on the Grasso plea as well as the guilty plea entered by harness trainer Richard Banca. Banca was sentenced to 30 months.

“Grasso and Banca represent the corruption and greed of those in the racehorse industry looking to win at any cost,” Williams said. “In peddling illegal drugs and selling prescriptions to corrupt trainers, Louis Grasso abdicated his responsibilities as a medical professional to ensure the safety and health of the racehorses he 'treated.' By injecting horses with unnecessary and, at times, unknown drugs, Grasso risked the lives and welfare of the animals under his care, all in service of helping corrupt racehorse trainers like Banca line their pockets through fraud. These latest convictions demonstrate the commitment of this Office and of our partners at the FBI to hold accountable individuals seeking to profit from animal abuse and deceit.”

In the indictment of Grasso, the government portrayed him as a central figure in a scheme to manufacture, distribute and receive adulterated and misbranded PEDs which were administered to horses. The government charged that Grasso and others delivered and received “at least thousands” of units of PEDs issued by pharmacies pursuant to invalid prescriptions. Banca was among his customers.

According to the indictment, Grasso was also manufacturing and/or selling “epogen,” pain shots of joint blocks, bronchodilators and a substance called “red acid.” Red acid is believed to reduce inflammation in joints.

It appears that Grasso's doping may have been restricted to harness racing as the indictment does not mention any illegal activities that involved Thoroughbred racing.

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On Tuesday a federal judge granted Tannuzzo a swift July 7 hearing to explain his reasons for wanting to change his initial “not guilty” plea.

Tannuzzo, 50, who had 11 horses under his care and had been racing at Aqueduct at the time of his March 9, 2020, arrest, made headlines 24 hours later by steadfastly declaring his innocence and maintaining that the New York State Gaming Commission shouldn't have suspended his license after learning he had been booked by the feds on two felony charges related to conspiracies and drug misbranding.

Tannuzzo told Daily Racing Form at that time that he was being targeted by the feds because his “best friend” was the trainer and high-profile defendant Jorge Navarro. His two conspiracy charges were related to Tannuzzo picking up a package of purported performance-enhancing drugs from Navarro's residence and delivering it to him at Monmouth Park. Tannuzzo said that equated to “guilt by association.”

But since Tannuzzo made those initial statements in the press nearly 2 1/2 years ago, Navarro has admitted to doping his horses, changed his own plea to guilty, and is currently serving a five-year prison sentence. Tannuzzo's trial had been set to start Sept. 12.

According to a trove of wiretapped calls made public by federal prosecutors, on March 3, 2019, Navarro and Tannuzzo discussed modeling a doping program based on one Navarro had used on his elite-level stakes sprinter, X Y Jet.

A key takeaway from this discussion is that neither trainer seems sure of the name of the substance that would be administered.

Navarro: What I'm going to do is tap his ankles, put him in a series every week with SGF. I'm just trying [to get] my vet to give me a good price, man, because I want to [expletive] tap every week.

Tannuzzo: You're going to tap him every week?

Navarro: Yeah, with SGF. That's what I did with X Y Jet. I'm going to call my vet up north, my surgeon, to see how he did it to X Y Jet and that's it. Don't worry man, you're in good hands. Don't worry.

Tannuzzo: You're talking about the HGF, not the SGF.

Navarro: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. The SGF whatever. The thing that you sent me the syringe.

Tannuzzo: Yeah.

Navarro: Yeah, yeah. And [this undisclosed horse] is getting one of those SGF-1000 whatever. He's getting one today.

Within 10 months of that conversation, X Y Jet would die suddenly under Navarro's care, allegedly from cardiac distress that has never been fully documented or explained.

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The prosecution charged that Grasso's doping led to corrupt trainers collecting over $47 million in “ill-gotten purse winnings.”
He will be sentenced Sept. 6.

The plea was announced by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District Court, which, in a press release, took the occasion to also comment on a guilty plea entered last month from harness trainer Richard Banca.

“Grasso and Banca represent the corruption and greed of those in the racehorse industry looking to win at any cost,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams. “In peddling illegal drugs and selling prescriptions to corrupt trainers, Louis Grasso abdicated his responsibilities as a medical professional to ensure the safety and health of the racehorses he 'treated.' By injecting horses with unnecessary and, at times, unknown drugs, Grasso risked the lives and welfare of the animals under his care, all in service of helping corrupt racehorse trainers like Banca line their pockets through fraud. These latest convictions demonstrate the commitment of this Office and of our partners at the FBI to hold accountable individuals seeking to profit from animal abuse and deceit.”

In the indictment of Grasso, the government portrayed him as a central figure in a scheme to manufacture, distribute and receive adulterated and misbranded PEDs which were administered to horses. The government charged that Grasso and others delivered and received “at least thousands” of units of PEDs issued by pharmacies pursuant to invalid prescriptions.

According to the indictment, Grasso was manufacturing and/or selling “epogen,” pain shots of joint blocks, bronchodilators and a substance called “red acid.” Red acid is believed to reduce inflammation in joints.

It appears that Grasso's doping may have been restricted to harness racing as the indictment does not mention any illegal activities that involved Thoroughbred racing.

Grasso was among four individuals involved with harness racing included in an indictment that also listed trainers Conor Flynn, Donato Poliseno and Thomas Guido III. Poliseno and Guido are scheduled to be tried June 27. Flynn has cooperated with the government and recently testified against Lisa Gianelli, who was convicted of misbranding and drug adulteration.

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The New York-based lawyer Marc Fernich, who has extensive experience defending clients in the United States District Court (Southern District of New York) venue where Fishman's trial will commence, announced his appearance as co-counsel with a Jan. 10 filing in that court.

Fishman is charged with two felony counts related to drug alteration, misbranding, and conspiring to defraud the government.

Last month, Fishman was called before Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil to answer allegations made by prosecutors that he was still selling purportedly performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) even as he prepared to face a trial related to the sale of many of those same substances. At a bail revocation hearing, Fishman was ordered to surrender all of the substances stored at his Boca Raton business, but the judge stopped short of revoking his pre-trial release privileges.

Fernich, according to the bio on his firm's website, specializes in the study of legal precedents in intense regulatory environments. This expertise “enables Fernich to construct subtle, novel and creative arguments that other attorneys may miss” and it centers on “sophisticated appeals and legal motions that can toss charges at the trial level or pave the way for future appeals.”

Lisa Giannelli, whom the feds allege ran an online sales business called Equestology that was closely related to Fishman's venture, will also go on trial at the same time as Fishman.

Six of 27 defendants named in the original indictment have now been sentenced after pleading 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.

Giannelli and Fishman will be the first to push their cases to a trial. The indicted former trainer Jason Servis, the highest-profile of the remaining defendants, is in a third trial grouping that does not yet have an assigned court date.

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Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of United States District Court (Southern District of New York) wrote in a Dec. 22 order that the following added terms shall apply to Fishman's pretrial release:

“The defendant shall surrender all drugs and/or substances now stored at [the address for his Boca Raton business] to an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Food and Drug Administration, or the designee of either the FBI or the FDA, within two weeks of Dec. 20. At all times prior to the surrender of the drugs or substances … the defendant, his agents, and any employees of any business controlled by the defendant shall refrain from entering the [Boca Raton business]. For the duration of the period of his pretrial release, the defendant, and all entities that he controls, shall refrain from the manufacture and/or distribution of any drug or substance, and from the administration of any drug or substance, apart from the drugs and substances that the defendant may administer to himself in the course of self-treatment for his own medical conditions.”

Fishman is charged with two felony counts related to drug alteration, misbranding, and conspiring to defraud the government. His trail is tentatively expected to begin in January.

On Dec. 6, federal prosecutors asked the judge overseeing the case to consider revoking the bail terms of Fishman's pretrial release. The basis for that request was that an employee of Fishman's had informed the government that Fishman was still allegedly creating pharmaceuticals for foreign distribution, and an FBI search of Fishman's business permitted by that employee allegedly turned up some of the same drugs that had formed the basis of Fishman's originally charged offenses.

One week later, Fishman's legal team denied the charges while alleging that the move by the feds to get Fishman's bail revoked was a ploy to undermine his legal preparation for the upcoming trial.

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Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of United States District Court (Southern District of New York) also ordered that all remaining motions to suppress evidence that are pending on the docket are to be considered denied, noting that her written opinion on that decision is forthcoming.
Trial Group I shall now consist of defendants Seth Fishman and Lisa Gianelli. They had been previously advised their trial will commence on or about Jan. 19, 2022.

Group II shall consist of defendants Rick Dane Jr. and Rebecca Linke. On Thursday, the judge told them to expect to face a trial in the latter part of the first quarter of 2022.

Group III defendants Jason Servis, Erica Garcia, Michael Tannuzzo and Alexander Chan will be tried together at a date that has not yet been set. On Thursday, the judge ordered the prosecution and defense attorneys to get together over the next week to hash out a proposed schedule for the filing of related briefs, after which a trial date can be established by the court.

The now-barred trainers Servis and Jorge Navarro are the two highest-profile defendants in the case.

Navarro has already pled guilty to one count of conspiring to administer non-FDA-approved, misbranded and adulterated drugs, including PEDs that Navarro believed would be untestable and undetectable.

Navarro faces five years in prison at his December sentencing, and has admitted in open court that he doped the now-deceased elite sprinter X Y Jet and other graded stakes stars of his stable over a period of years. Navarro's plea deal also stipulates that he must pay $25.8 million to a list of victims that has not yet been made public.

Servis was the trainer of the former $16,000 maiden-claimer Maximum Security, who crossed the wire first in the 2019 GI Kentucky Derby but was disqualified for interference.

As evidence against Servis's alleged felonies, the feds have purportedly recorded him in numerous wiretapped phone conversations discussing with Navarro the doping regimens of top horses in his care, including administering injections of PEDs to Maximum Security.

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