Henry Argueta | Horse Racing Free Tips

Henry Argueta, formerly the assistant to the now-imprisoned trainer Jason Servis, was sentenced to a prison term of “time served” and two years of supervised release after working out a cooperative plea bargain with prosecutors in the wide-ranging 2020 racehorse doping conspiracy case that has already netted several dozen convictions.

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.

The post Argueta, Assistant To Trainer Servis, Sentenced To ‘Time Served’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Prosecutors in the federal drug adulteration and misbranding case filed their sentencing recommendations for veterinarian Dr. Kristian Rhein late last week, and the documents revealed a couple of new details about the case they would have mounted against him.

Rhein has entered a plea of guilty to a charge of drug adulteration and misbranding for his role in what the government says was a broad conspiracy between veterinarians, drug manufacturers, and trainers to illegally dope racehorses. Rhein is specifically accused of giving horses clenbuterol without a valid prescription and peddling a substance called SGF-1000 to racetrack clients, including co-defendant Jason Servis.

It had previously been established that Rhein owned a stake in MediVet Equine, which sold SGF-1000, and that despite this, Rhein didn't seem totally clear on what was in the drug.

The prosecutors' sentencing documentation touched on excerpts from intercepted phone calls not previously revealed which captured Rhein musing about what SGF-1000 may or may not actually contain.

Read more about SGF-1000 in our previous reporting here and here.

In one call with an unidentified third party, Rhein said that he didn't even believe the substance contained growth hormone, despite being advertised that way for several years. Prosecutors said he “had not confirmed” this. Further, Rhein also seemed to have his own theories about regulatory testing.

“Just because they can test for it, it doesn't mean they will,” Rhein allegedly said. “Now if it has growth hormone, I mean, it costs them a lot of money to test. A lot of money. And the second thing is, how long is something in there. Well if we're giving it five to seven days out then we're fine. It's not gonna hang around. It's – nothing hangs around long. EPO doesn't hang around that long.”

Previous documents had revealed that Rhein became worried at one point that there could be federal scrutiny of SGF-1000 because it wasn't approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and that he was part of a brainstorming session on how to avoid detection. One of the things Rhein considered was whether the drug should be renamed to something more innocuous.

“What was the [expletive] name that somebody told me? It was a good name,” he said. “It was kinda cheesy, but shit it was good, it was a one-word name, like … you know like … like Encore, something like that … Repair … RepairRx. Like Repair Treatment.”

In fact, Rhein seemed to know back in August 2019 that there was more than a potential for law enforcement to become interested in SGF-1000. Rhein learned around mid-August that Servis had been approached and questioned by law enforcement. He then called Servis assistant Henry Argueta, who was included in the first round of indictments in March 2020 but absent from a superseding indictment in November 2020. Rhein asked Argueta whether the FBI or the “DA office from Manhattan” had approached Servis. It's not clear how he knew which agencies may be involved, but he also appeared to anticipate that his vehicle may become subject to searches. He also seemed to believe Servis' phone may be tapped, asking Argueta how he could “get in touch with Jason” without making anyone suspicious.

Rhein seems to have panicked at this time, calling an unidentified representative of an unnamed drug testing laboratory and explaining the situation with SGF-1000.

“Either cease and desist or you're gonna go to jail,” the person told Rhein. “One or the other. What do you want to do? … I'm saying if you want to stay out of jail don't use it.”

According to prosecutors, Rhein did not cease using the drug, which he often billed as acupuncture to conceal its use from owners.

Rhein later told fellow veterinarian and co-defendant Dr. Alexander Chan to “be careful” regarding his use of the drug and that “more than likely you are going to be watched.”

Prosecutors are advocating for a three-year sentence in federal prison.

The post Documents Reveal Rhein, Servis Knew Law Enforcement Was Watching In August 2019 appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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