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.
