Government Says Servis Wiretaps Legit

United States Attorneys have filed an opposing motion to deny barred trainer Jason Servis and his fellow defendants' motions to suppress the wiretaps placed on their cell phones, along with the seized physical and electronic evidence from a search of veterinarian Seth Fishman's belongings.

The opposing motion was filed Sept. 2nd in the Southern District of New York by U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, who writes, “the defendants' motions are entirely without merit and should be denied in full.”

On Aug. 3, lawyers representing Servis filed a motion to have evidence against him that was obtained through wiretaps thrown out. Attorneys Rita Glavin and Michael Considine charged that the government obtained authorization from a court to tap into Servis's phone based on a sworn affidavit from an FBI agent that, they contend, “contained deliberately or recklessly false statements and the material omission of statutorily and constitutionally required information.”

The Servis legal team argued that the wiretap evidence should be thrown out because using it represents a violation of Servis's Fourth Amendment rights. The Fourth Amendment reads, in part: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.”

But the government argues in its opposing motion that law enforcement was led to Servis through an earlier investigation of now-barred Standardbred trainer Nick Surick, of whom they say the ruled-off Thoroughbred trainer Jorge Navarro was his “doping mentor.”

Navarro on Aug. 11 cut a deal with federal prosecutors in which he pled guilty to one count in the years-long Thoroughbred doping conspiracy in exchange for having a similar second count against him dismissed.

“This case arose from an investigation into overlapping and widespread schemes by racehorse trainers, veterinarians, drug distributors, and others to obtain money through lies, deceit, and active concealment of sophisticated doping of racehorses through the use of purportedly `untestable' drugs,” the filing states, adding that the investigation revealed ample evidence of Surick and Navarro's efforts to “obtain, share, distribute, discuss, use, and conceal various  performance-enhancing drugs that they each intended to be, and believed to be, untestable by racing authorities.”

The facts uncovered in that investigation, the filing states, “informed the application for the initial wiretap of Navarro's cellphone and those of Navarro's co-conspirators,” including Servis.

“Initial and renewal interceptions over the Navarro Phone indicated that: (1) Servis was actively assisting Navarro to conceal Navarro's doping practices by `tipping off' Navarro to the presence of racetrack officials; (2) Navarro was willing to confide in Servis regarding his own doping practices and about his own corrupt relationship with an unnamed racetrack security official; (3) Navarro believed that Servis had his own corrupt relationship with a racetrack security official; and (4) Servis further participated in Navarro's doping scheme as a recipient of an unspecified, “[ir]regular” version of Clenbuterol, which Servis wished to obtain after assuring himself that regulators were not scrutinizing the Servis operation too closely,” the government filing argues.

“The scheme being investigated was exceedingly complex,” the filing states. “There were ample intercepted conversations indicating that the drugs distributed amongst a number of the Target Subjects by design would not be on drug tests.”

One such intercepted conversation allegedly occurred on Jan. 25, 2019, between Navarro and another defendant, the now-barred harness trainer Christopher Oakes. Oakes had allegedly created his own customized “drench” by which performance-enhancing drugs [PEDs] were forced directly into a horse's stomach through a tube inserted via the nostril.

In that wiretapped call, Navarro allegedly discussed “this crazy [expletive] Seth [Fishman]” with Oakes, describing an injectable drug that Fishman had allegedly sent to Navarro in 2018: “He sent me something with amino acid right last year. And I [expletive] gave it to this horse. This [expletive] galloped. Galloped.”

Navarro then allegedly asked Oakes for help in obtaining more of that that drug, or another that Navarro could use. Oakes purportedly offered up a different untestable PED that he had developed, allegedly explaining that “this drench I got dude, they can test you all day, night, before, after. [This drench] has got a ton of those branch chain amino acids in it [and there is] zero chance you get caught, [even when administered on] race day.”

Separately, in a Feb. 21, 2019, intercepted call between Fishman and an unnamed racetrack customer, the customer (with no reference to treating a horse for a medical condition) allegedly asked for a blood builder offered by Fishman called BB3.

Fishman later on that call allegedly stated that “building blood is not cheap” because it is “the holy grail [PED] of sports.” Fishman allegedly assured the customer that the blood builder he offered would not test positive, even a few hours after it had been administered.

The government's opposing motion continued: “This discussion, entirely ignored in the Fishman Motion, further underscores that Seth Fishman was not creating and selling substances to comply with applicable racing rules and regulations, but to evade drug testing that would reveal a violation of such rules. Through that evasion, Fishman and his clients attempted to falsely present their horses as eligible to participate in lucrative races, knowing that this was false…”

“Even assuming that drug testing had been widely pursued, drug testing alone would not have revealed the scope of which (untestable) drugs were at issue, which trainers were purchasing drugs from Seth Fishman, or when these trainers were administering these drugs to racehorses in advance of races.

“Indiscriminate drug testing of various racehorses at various times in the hopes of yielding a positive test (ignoring for the moment that the drugs being administered were designed to be undetectable on drug tests) is not `reasonably likely' to have succeeded, or to have obviated the need for a wiretap. In sum, Seth Fishman has provided no justification for why the proposed alternative techniques would be likely to succeed, and not just be `theoretically possible,” the attorneys conclude.

Glavin and Considine are also seeking to have evidence obtained from wiretaps of the phones of Navarro, veterinarian Kristian Rhein and Alexander Chan, a veterinarian who worked with Rhein, suppressed.

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The Friday Show Presented By Monmouth Park: After Navarro’s Guilty Plea, What’s Next?

Following the guilty pleas over the last 10 days from veterinarian Kristian Rhein and trainer Jorge Navarro, the Paulick Report's three-time Eclipse Award-winning editor-in-chief Natalie Voss answers questions from readers and offers her own analysis of where the 18-month-old federal anti-doping criminal case stands and where it may be going.

Voss joins publisher Ray Paulick to explain Navarro's plea and the potential prison term and monetary consequences he faces.

Among the questions we've been asked are: What does Navarro's plea mean to some of the other individuals indicted, including trainer Jason Servis? Will any horses from the stables of convicted trainers or treated with performance-enhancing drugs by convicted veterinarians be disqualified from any victories? Will owners of horses who won purses through cheating trainers or veterinarians be on the hook for any monetary damages? Are more criminal indictments expected in the coming weeks or months?

Bloodstock editor Joe Nevills joins the show to review the Lake Huron Stakes win by the Woodbine Star of the Week, Forest Survivor, a 3-year-old Ontario-bred Old Forester colt who hung tough in the stretch after setting fast fractions under jockey Kazushi Kimura.

Watch this week's show, presented by Monmouth Park, below:

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Feds Call Navarro A ‘Reckless Fraudster,’ Say Drugs Have ‘Corrupted Much Of The Horse Racing Industry’

It turns out Jorge Navarro really was “The Juiceman,” and contrary to remarks on a 2017 video captured by a horseplayer at New Jersey's Monmouth Park, it was anything but vegetable juice.

In federal court on Wednesday, Navarro acknowledged his role in a racehorse doping scheme that involved multiple performance-enhancing substances, including imported clenbuterol and blood-building drugs he both admitted giving to his horses and distributing to others.

As the Department of Justice stated in a press release, Navarro was a “reckless fraudster whose veneer of success relied on the systematic abuse of the animals under his control.”

Furthermore, Audrey Strauss, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who is prosecuting the cases against more than two dozen trainers, veterinarians and suppliers, said performance-enhancing drugs “have corrupted much of the horse racing industry.”

The guilty plea by Navarro and last week's admission of guilt by veterinarian Kristian Rhein, Strauss said, “demonstrate the continued commitment of this office and our partners at the FBI to the investigation and prosecution of corruption, fraud and endangerment at every level of the horse racing industry.”

Navarro admitted to doping numerous horses, including Sharp Azteca, winner of eight of 17 races, including the Grade 1 Cigar Mile in 2017. He now stands at stud at Three Chimneys Farm.

Among the horses veterinarian Rhein admitted doping was Jason Servis-trained Maximum Security, who won four Grade 1 races and was disqualified from first place for interference in the 2019 Kentucky Derby. Transferred to Bob Baffert after Servis was indicted at the same time as Navarro (Servis has pleaded not guilty), Maximum Security won two of his final four starts before retiring to stud at Coolmore's Ashford Stud.

Just as Major League Baseball's record book is littered with the accomplishments of steroid cheaters like Barry Bonds, so too does horse racing now have a tainted database, with major races won by horses associated with convicted or indicted dopers. Even the Stud Book is polluted.

What happens next?

Can we really take Strauss at her word that the feds will continue their investigation? We know that the more guilty pleas there are, the greater likelihood that the convicted cheaters will cooperate with the government, widening the investigation and likely resulting in more trainers and veterinarians being charged. Prosecutors have collected massive amounts of information via computer and phone records, and cooperating witnesses can help connect some of the dots.

It probably comes down to how much more time and resources the Southern District of New York wants to commit to expose further corruption and cheating in this game.

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Racing has been exposed as a sport with weak or non-existent leadership at the racetrack and regulatory level when it comes to integrity issues. Track executives care more about filling the entry box than they do about the ethics or character of the trainers and owners who are supplying those entries.

Regulators concern themselves more with finding the cheapest testing laboratories than hiring the ones that have proven to be most effective at finding illicit drugs. And then they brag about how clean the game is because there are so few positive tests.

One example: In 2015, Truesdail Laboratories was found during a blind sample audit conducted by the Indiana Horse Racing Commission to have missed multiple positive tests, including a Class 1 drug – the most severe. Indiana fired Truesdail and moved their testing to another lab. It took years for a number of other racing commission to follow suit, even though Truesdail's failures were widely reported. Those racing commissions, from Maryland to New Jersey to Arkansas, simply didn't care.

Regulators also have known (or should know), based on the March 2020 indictments, that a representative for one of the owners of the Navarro-trained Nanoosh (according to Equibase, he was owned by Zayat Stables, Rockingham Ranch and David Bernsen) was on a conference call with the trainer discussing the horse's poor performances. According to the federal indictment, that person asked whether Navarro was “giving them all the shit,” and, “Is this horse jacked out? Is he on f – – king pills or what or are we just f – – king…” Navarro said, “Everything … he gets everything.”

Has a single racing commission or board of stewards – in California where the indictment said the stable is based or in any other state – called in the horse's owners to discuss this phone call with Navarro?

I doubt it. The last thing many commissions want to do – especially those rife with conflicts of interest – is hold owners accountable. To repeat: Racing commissions do not care.

There is a reason The Jockey Club – which has no official role in regulating horse racing – hired 5 Stones Intelligence, the private investigation firm that began the doping probe eventually turned over to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. There was plenty of smoke coming from certain stables: incredible form reversals off the claim or private purchase, win percentages that defied logic and runners that would routinely re-break at the eighth pole. Jockey Club officials assumed there was fire associated with that smoke, and they were right.

There is also a reason The Jockey Club has been so adamant in pushing for federal legislation that would turn over medication, integrity and safety issues to a group like the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that oversees Olympic athletes and the UFC, among other sports. It is because state racing commissions are not capable of policing the sport adequately.

It remains to be seen whether the March 2020 round-up was just the tip of the iceberg of corruption and cheating in our game. Some people should be very nervous going forward. Others should be ashamed for letting it get to this point.

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Servis Seeks to Have Wiretaps Thrown Out

Lawyers representing Jason Servis filed a motion Monday to have evidence against him that was obtained through wiretaps thrown out. Attorneys Rita Glavin and Michael Considine charge that the government obtained authorization from a court to tap into Servis's phone based on a sworn affidavit from an FBI agent that, they contend, “contained deliberately or recklessly false statements and the material omission of statutorily and constitutionally required information.”

The Servis legal team argues that the wire taps evidence should be thrown out because using it represents a violation of Servis's Fourth Amendment rights. The Fourth Amendment reads, in part: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.”

Servis has been charged with a long-running history of using performance-enhancing drugs on his horses, including the drug SGF-1000. The bulk of the evidence obtained against Servis comes from taps of his phone and the phones of others. The charges levied against him would be much more difficult to prove without the evidence from the tapped phones.

In an intercepted conversation with trainer Jorge Navarro, who is also under indictment, Servis said that he used SGF-1000 on “everything almost.”

Glavin and Considine are also seeking to have evidence obtained from wiretaps of the phones of Navarro, veterinarian Kristian Rhein and Alexander Chan, a veterinarian who worked with Rhein, suppressed.

“Mr. Servis's communications were unlawfully obtained as a result of those wiretaps, and he is an aggrieved party with standing to bring this motion,” his lawyers wrote. According to the original indictments release last year, Navarro is also heard admitting he used SGF-1000. On another intercepted call of note, Rhein tells Servis that, when it comes to SGF-1000, “They don't even have a test for it.”

The story was first reported by the Bloodhorse.

Servis's attorneys also charge that the government made “material misrepresentations” to the court about SGF-1000, stating that it is a performance-enhancing drug that contained “growth factors,” purposefully exaggerating the performance-enhancing qualities of SGF-1000 to obtain permission to tap the phone. The Servis lawyers write that SGF-1000 is not, in fact, a performance-enhancing drug. The filing reads: “SGF-1000 was tested on numerous occasions by independent laboratories and found to contain no growth factors. Instead, SGF-1000 tested as ovine (sheep) collagen, a substance which was unlikely to have any effect on a horse's performance at all.”

The motion also states that “SGF-1000 was repeatedly tested prior to the wiretap and found to contain no performance-enhancing substances.”

Whether or not SGF-1000 is a performance-enhancing drug could be a moot point. Throughout the case, the government has argued that even if a drug is not a performance-enhancer, it is illegal for a trainer to use it when their intent is to dope or “juice” a horse.

Despite the notoriety SGF-1000 has received because of the Servis-Navarro case, it is not hard to find it. It is available from the website vetpharmacystore.com, which is peddling a box of SGF-1000 for €170. The company describes SGF-1000 as an innovative formulation that includes “potent growth factors.”

The lawyers also charge that the government misled the courts about the urgency to use wiretaps at a time when it had not exhausted normal investigative procedures. “The Government failed to take even the most basic of investigative steps with respect to Mr. Servis, and instead ran to the district court for a wiretap as essentially its first investigative step,” they wrote.

In another attempt to bolster their case, the lawyers point out that Servis is “a trainer whose horses did not fail any post-race drug tests since the FBI's investigation in this case began in 2017 and through the date of the Mar. 9, 2020 Indictment.”

In Glavin, Servis has hired one of the top defense lawyers in the Northeast. It has been a busy few days for the attorney, who also represents New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who is embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal. On Tuesday, New York State Attorney General Letitia James released a report alleging that Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, including current and former government workers.

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