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Feds, Fishman Spar in Bail Revocation Hearing

Federal prosecutors and the legal team for Seth Fishman continue to spar over allegations by the government that the indicted Florida veterinarian should have his bail revoked for allegedly still selling purportedly performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) while awaiting trial in the international racehorse doping conspiracy case.

The latest legal salvo, fired Dec. 17 by prosecutors in the form of a letter, comes three days before Fishman's Dec. 20 bail revocation hearing in United States District Court (Southern District of New York).

This latest plot twist in the case began Dec. 6, when prosecutors told the judge that Fishman's administrative assistant permitted Federal Bureau of Investigation agents to search her workplace, and the search allegedly yielded evidence that Fishman is still selling drugs.

One week later, Fishman replied with a court filing of his own that stated that employee “had little choice but to succumb to the demand by agents that they be permitted to search the premises” because at the time her consent to the search was obtained “she was at risk of prosecution for the very offenses with which Dr. Fishman was charged.”

Friday's new filing made three points:

“First, Fishman attempts to justify his continued manufacture of drugs by claiming a 'good faith' effort to meet the requirements of the 'export exemption' set forth in 21 U.S.C. § 381(e),” the Dec. 17 filing stated.

“Second, the defendant suggests that the Government has implicitly condoned his ongoing criminal activity insofar as Fishman and/or his former counsel have claimed that Fishman holds an intention to continue his drug sales in conformity with the foreign sales exemption of 21 U.S.C. § 381(e),” the filing stated.

“Finally, the Government notes that Fishman points to no authority for the proposition that a proffering witness cannot provide voluntary consent to a search,” the filing stated.

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

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Judge: ‘Wiretapping Is Appropriate to Investigate Conspiracies’

The judge in the federal doping conspiracy case used words like “frivolous” and “weak” to swat away motions made by seven defendants to suppress wiretap and other electronic evidence in trails that are expected to commence in 2022.

The opinion and order filed Dec. 8 by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in United States District Court (Southern District of New York) follows a verbal ruling she made Nov. 4 during a status conference that denied all of the related motions made during the late summer by Jason Servis, Seth Fishman, Lisa Giannelli, Erica Garcia, Michael Tannuzzo, Alexander Chan and Rick Dane, Jr.

“The Court has considered all of the arguments raised in all of the suppression motions filed in this case and has concluded that none warrants the suppression of evidence or a hearing,” Vyskocil wrote. “To the contrary, based on the Court's careful review of the application for each challenged wiretap order and search warrant, there is no question that the issuing judicial officer in each instance had a substantial basis for the finding of probable cause.”

Some of the challenged evidence included conversations recorded off the phone of now-barred trainer Jorge Navarro, who has since pleaded guilty to one count in the years-long Thoroughbred drugging conspiracy.

Intercepted calls included statements about Navarro obtaining and/or using purported performance-enhancing equine drugs, such as an unregulated version of clenbuterol, “trays of red acid,” and “24 bottles” of a substance. Other evidence included Navarro discussing the “doping and hiding” of a horse, the use of a “shock machine,” and even the now-infamous Monmouth Park video recorded by a bar patron in which Navarro celebrated a 2017 win by boasting about “juicing” horses.

“In challenging the Navarro wiretaps, the defendants unpersuasively attempt to 'dissect' the affidavits and argue that individual pieces of evidence did not establish probable cause,” Vyskocil wrote. “Garcia, joined by Tannuzzo and Servis, argues that the government did not establish that the aforementioned '24 bottles' were a prohibited substance. The government was not required to prove, in an application for a wiretap, that when Navarro said, 'Grab me…24 bottles,' he conspired to purchase and use a prohibited substance. Rather, it was required to offer evidence that, in a 'totality-of-circumstances' analysis, there was a 'fair probability' that Navarro was involved in a horse doping fraud scheme.”

Vyskocil also noted the extensive review process that was required before numerous other judges originally signed off on those wiretaps, which occurred over the course of 18 months prior to the March 2020 arrests of several dozen alleged conspirators.

“At least 13 judges independently found probable cause to authorize 15 different applications to begin or renew wiretaps,” Vyskocil wrote. “At least 10 magistrate judges found probable cause for search warrants.”

The order continued: “The defendants also challenge the Navarro wiretaps and other wiretaps that incriminated them on the ground that the government had failed to exhaust alternative investigative techniques. Their arguments are wholly unpersuasive…. The law in this Circuit is clear that wiretapping is appropriate to investigate conspiracies where 'the clandestine nature of alleged conspiracies makes them relatively less susceptible to normal investigative techniques'…

“Moreover, the government explained, none of the confidential sources had gotten close to Navarro and approaching him at that point was more likely to raise his suspicions than yield information. Affidavits in support of other wiretap applications cited this and additional evidence that the conspirators were cognizant of the need to maintain secrecy.”

Vyskocil summed up: “Certain defendants insist that the government should have been required to do more drug testing or more extensively investigate financial records. However, the government is not required to exhaust any particular avenue of investigation before seeking a wiretap. Moreover, as various affidavits made clear, the conspirators were using drugs that were designed to be undetectable by racing industry drug tests and went to great lengths to avoid creating financial or other records.”

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Documents Reveal Rhein, Servis Knew Law Enforcement Was Watching In August 2019

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.

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Government Recommends Three Years for Rhein

The government has recommended a three-year prison sentence for Kristian Rhein, the veterinarian embroiled in the MediVet Equine practice that marketed and sold “an adulterated and misbranded performance-enhancing drug,” they revealed in papers filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

Rhein was one of 27 people charged in a widespread doping scheme of Thoroughbred racehorses on Mar. 9, 2020 that included trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro.

United States Attorney Damian Williams, in papers filed with Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in her court in the Southern District of New York, wrote, “The parties' stipulated Guidelines sentence is the statutory maximum sentence of 36 months' imprisonment. In light of the Section 3553(a) factors discussed below, that is the appropriate sentence in this case, and one necessary to serve the goals of sentencing. The Government respectfully submits that the stipulated Guidelines sentence of thirty-six months' imprisonment is sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to serve the legitimate purposes of sentencing set forth in Title 18, United States Code, Section 3553(a).”

Williams's sentencing recommendation sums up their case again Rhein as such: “Rhein, a licensed racetrack veterinarian who predominantly catered to racehorse trainers exploited the deference typically offered to licensed veterinarians in order to peddle SGF-1000-in which he held a financial interest-which was not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) or created pursuant to “good manufacturing practices,” and the administration of which did not comply with applicable racing rules. Rhein actively marketed, sold, and administered SGF-1000 for the non-medical purpose of illicitly improving racehorse performance. That is, Rhein doped horses in an effort to scam others through a prolific fraud. Rhein, through his veterinary practice, further illegally distributed the prescription drug clenbuterol, providing it to trainers in bulk to administer to their horses, without issuing valid prescriptions for that drug, or otherwise administering that drug due to a medical need.”

The submission further states that “Rhein and his co-conspirators did not know the precise chemical contents of SGF-1000, yet marketed the product as one containing growth factors, and believed that, irrespective of its contents, it would enhance a horse's performance and be untestable on standard drug tests.”

Rhein has agreed to forfeit a total of $1,021,800, $671,800 of which is due at or before the time of sentencing, which represents the value of the distributed drugs. He has also agreed to pay restitution to other “victims of the offense,” the filing reads, in the amount of $729,716, the total amount of payments he received from owners by concealing his billing for the drugs by billing for acupuncture, among other things. Williams writes that the Government intends to submit a proposed restitution order and a schedule of victims at or before Rhein's sentencing.

Williams's submission details Rhein's attempts to conceal his activities from doping controls.

He writes, “Notably, beginning at least in June 2019, Rhein grew concerned regarding mounting regulatory scrutiny of SGF-1000, and shared this concern with others at MediVet. On June 5, 2019, Jason Servis informed Rhein that Maximum Security had received a dose of SGF-1000 shortly before an unannounced drug test, and Rhein quickly reassured Servis that the drug would not test positive. Rhein stated to Servis: `Yeah no no no the Jockey Club tested it and I met the guy who tested it way back when. It comes back as collagen. They don't even have a test for it. . . . [I]'ve had at least three different times it's been tested on horses that I have it the day before and nothing. Not a word. . . . There's no test for it in America. There's no testing. There's nothing. There's nothing you did that would test.' Rhein—despite not knowing the precise contents of SGF-1000 at that time—nonetheless assuaged Servis's concerns, not by saying SGF-1000 was legal or permissible (which it was not), but by saying SGF-1000 would not be detectable on a drug test. In Rhein's mind, it was immaterial whether he was following the letter of the racing rules or the law, because he believed neither he nor his customers would ever get caught. The following day, Rhein and Servis resumed their discussions of SGF-1000, and Rhein noted his belief that `somebody squealed' regarding his use of that drug.”

As the scrutiny from authorities became greater, Williams writes, “Rather than cease sales of SGF-1000 in the face of this scrutiny, approximately one week after others at MediVet sounded the alarm regarding potential federal charges, Rhein discussed with Kegley how they could tweak the labeling of SGF-1000, so as to make it appear innocuous. Rhein specifically related his suggestion: 'we gotta think of re-branding if it goes sideways.' Rhein brainstormed calling SGF-1000 by a new name: “What was the (expletive deleted) name that somebody told me? It was a good name. It was kinda cheesy, but (expletive deleted) it was a good, it was a one-word name, like . . . you know like . . . like Encore, something like that. . . . Repair . . . RepairRx. Like Repair Treatment . . . And what you do is you just say it's a preventative. It's preventative.” Despite the fact that SGF-1000 is an injectable drug whose precise contents were then-unknown to Rhein, Rhein agreed with Kegley that it should be described as a `dietary supplement for equine.'”

After Rhein learned in 2019 that Servis had been approached by law enforcement, and after the New York Gaming Commission specifically banned it, MediVet representatives provided information to the Racehorse Medication Testing Consortium (RMTC) which did not report the positive findings for low levels of ace promazine and other drugs. “While Rhein was grappling with the existential threats to his sales of SGF-1000, he continued his equally illicit practice of distributing prescription clenbuterol to trainers without issuing valid prescriptions, and concealed that conduct by issuing fraudulent bills concealing costs of clenbuterol that were paid by racehorse owners,” Williams writes.

Rhein pleaded guilty on Aug. 3, 2021. No date for sentencing has been set.

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