Convicted Drug Distributor Robinson: “I Sold to Everybody”

Before he was caught up in the probe into performance-enhancing drugs in horse racing and arrested for selling and shipping adulterated and misbranding drugs, Scott Robinson was living large. He drove a Lamborghini and his on-line businesses that the government has charged were selling PEDs were pulling in millions. There was never any shortage of customers.

“I sold to everybody,” said Robinson, who added that he had “thousands of customers,” and not just in horse racing. Robinson said his products were bought by individuals using them with camels, racing greyhounds, racing pigeons and to people operating alpaca farms. As part of his sentence, which includes 18 months in prison, Robinson was ordered to pay a $3.8 million forfeiture.

One year to the day that the indictments against 27 individuals allegedly involved in a scheme to use performance-enhancing drugs on racehorses were announced, Robinson, a drug manufacturer and distributor, became the first of those involved in the scandal to be sentenced to prison after he pled guilty to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding. The maximum sentence for that offense is five years.

The scope of Robinson's operation, and how many trainers and veterinarians were buying his products, was one of many subjects Robinson discussed in a series of interviews with the TDN, one by phone and several by email. Robinson is currently serving his sentence at FCI Coleman Low Correctional Institute in Sumterville, Florida. Few subjects were off limits, including his client list. It includes dozens of Thoroughbred trainers and veterinarians who bought illegal drugs from Robinson, but it's a list he says he will not divulge.

“As far as telling you who I sold this to, I'm not ready to go that far,” he said. “I know my career is over, but there are people out there who still work in racing and their livelihoods are at stake. They aren't the ones that got me into this mess, so there's no reason why I should want to see them get punished for something everybody was doing.”

Robinson, who has owned and trained Standardbreds, said the government has not pressed him for a list of his clients.

His willingness to discuss his situation stems in part from the fact that he doesn't see himself as the dope-peddling fiend the government made him out to be. Rather, he says the substances he sold were not narcotics or performance-enhancing agents but products that were not harmful to the horse and contained vitamins, minerals and amino acids.

“The definition of a PED and a non-PED is a very fine line and not black and white,” Robinson said. “The government has their own definition of PEDs. I say for it to be a PED it must be a drug. I don't consider vitamins, supplements and amino acids PEDs.”

The government would beg to differ. It charged that between at least 2011 and February, 2020, Robinson sold millions of dollars' worth of PEDs to customers across the U.S. and abroad, customers whose intent was to use the drugs to improve the performances of their horses.

“Scott Robinson created and profited from a system designed to exploit racehorses in the pursuit of speed and prize money, risking their safety and well being. Robinson sold unsanitary, misbranded, and adulterated drugs, and misled and deceived regulators and law enforcement in the process,” U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said after Robinson was sentenced.

Robinson, 47, admits that he mislabeled some of his products and did not properly list their ingredients, which falls under the category of misbranding.

“If you mislabel a vitamin or supplement and not put the ingredients on it, does it classify as a PED? According to the government the answer is yes,” Robinson said. “Like I said before, it's a very complicated subject. I am remorseful for having this issue burden horse racing. I should have put a list of ingredients on all products I sold and although I would still technically be in the wrong, it would shed light on what was in it.”

So far as why his products had names like “red acid,” “Blast Off Red” and “Liquid Viagra” that implied they were PEDs, Robinson said the names were part of a marketing strategy.

“Those names just sounded sexier,” he said. “It was marketing. The names didn't accurately describe what the products were for.”

So far as how bad the problem of doping race horses is, Robinson wavers. In his initial interview with the TDN he said the situation is serious.

“More people should be indicted. Definitely,” he said, questioning why the indictments stopped after the original round in March, 2020. “I'd be lying if I said there weren't people out there who need to be stopped. There are some real bad apples out there that should be indicted. Will it happen? Only time will tell. It doesn't really affect me.”

In a follow up email, he wrote: “I personally don't think there is a lot of illegal drug use in the sport.”

Part of the problem was that Robinson's drugs proved to be undetectable, a common theme that plagues the sport. Rarely does a drug test result in a positive for anything other than overages of therapeutic medications. Robinson said that the sport needs to start using testing procedures currently in use by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) that involves the use of biomarkers. With biomarkers, scientists can retest stored urine and blood samples that were collected as much as 10 years earlier.

“It's a form of testing that is far more stringent than current testing,” Robinson said.

Robinson is scheduled to be released on Dec. 15, but is hoping he will be let out earlier and able to serve the remainder of his sentence under home confinement. So far as what's next he doesn't know.

“Everybody else in here [at the Coleman facility] can go back to doing what they did before when they get out,” he said. “When I get out, I don't have a job. This is what I did for the better part of 20 years. I've lost all of my racing licenses and I'll never again be able to own or train a horse.”

That's not likely to elicit any sympathy. Robinson knows that no matter how he spins his story he will always bear the burden of having been convicted of selling drugs that were used to dope race horses. Nor does it really matter how many others were involved and who.

“I did wrong,” he said. “I know that.”

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Trainer Who Testified Against Fishman Faces Lifetime Ban

Trainer Jamen Davidovich, who admitted Thursday during the trial of Seth Fishman that he bought and used performance-enhancing drugs supplied by the veterinarian, has been suspended by the Ohio Racing Commission, a first step in what could lead to a permanent revocation of his license.

Davidovich testified that Fishman, one of 27 individuals originally indicted in the doping probe that includes high-profile trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, began supplying him with drugs after the two met at a Ft. Lauderdale restaurant. Asked by prosecutor Anden Chow how the subject of PEDs came up, Davidovich responded, “We were talking about different things to make the horse run better.”

Davidovich, 31, races primarily in Ohio and the commission in that state wasted little time taking action Friday. According to Ohio State Racing Commission executive director Chris Dragone, Davidovich's license has been suspended pending a hearing. The news that the Ohio commission had taken action against Davidovich was first reported by the Blood-Horse.

“He's entitled to a hearing and we'll see what he has to say,” Dragone said.

Dragone said that if the evidence shows that Davidovich doped horses his license could be permanently suspended.

“We haven't seen the transcripts (from the Fishman trial) yet,” Dragone said. “But from everything I have heard and from what he said, this was blatant. This is very serious. This came out of the blue and we had no notice so far as what he was going to say in court. But when he said in court that he drugged horses we had to take action. And it's possible that he may have his license revoked and that he will be ruled off for life.”

Reached by the TDN, Davidovich said he had no comment.

After winning just five races in 2014, Davidovich's career took off in 2015 when he went 25-for-99 (25%). He was 21-for-81 in 2016 and 9-for-59 in 2017. He said during the trial that he stopped doping in 2018, which is when his fortunes changed. Since 2018, he has won just six races from 51 starters.

Thursday's court room proceedings also included testimony from harness trainer Adrienne Hall, who also admitted she used PEDs supplied by Fishman. She last started a horse in December at the Meadowlands. Meadowlands owner Jeff Gural said he has not yet decided if he will ban Hall from his tracks.

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Jury Selection Process Begins for Fishman Trial

The Jan. 19 selection of jurors for the federal horse-doping trial of Dr. Seth Fishman and Lisa Giannelli was extended into at least a second day when only 37 of 75 potential jurors were questioned inside a lower Manhattan courthouse.
U.S. District Court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil called for an end to the marathon nine-hour session at about 6 p.m. ET, ordering the jurors who had yet to be interviewed to return to the same Southern District of New York court by 9:30 a.m. Jan. 20.

The interview process consisted of 72 questions posed to the possible jurors, asking about a wide topic of subjects, including their knowledge of horse racing, ownership of pets, gambling, medications, feelings about veterinarians, and their background. These questions were asked to learn if any of them had personal conflicts that would prevent them from viewing the court case fairly and impartially.

Nine of the persons interviewed Wednesday were excused for a variety of reasons.

Of the 37 questioned, the only potential juror who said he follows horse racing closely at the present time was excused after he voiced concerns about judging the case without a bias.

Fishman and Giannelli are facing federal charges for allegedly working through a company called Equestology to sell adulterated and misbranded performance-enhancing drugs to clients in the horse racing industry.

Fishman and Giannelli are part of the March 9, 2020, indictments that also snared trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis. Fishman is charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit drug adulteration and misbranding while Giannelli is facing one count of misbranding conspiracy.

The Thoroughbred industry's leading publications are working together to cover this key trial.

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Drug Company Sales Director Michael Kegley Sentenced To 30 Months In Prison

Former MediVet sales director Michael Kegley, Jr. was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison Jan. 6 after he entered a plea of guilty to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding in the ongoing case around a series of racehorse doping rings, reports the Thoroughbred Daily News. Among the misbranded and adulterated performance-enhancing drugs marketed and sold by Kegley was “SGF-1000.”

During his plea hearing in July, Kegley stated: “Beginning in 2016, I was an independent contractor for a company, MediVet Equine. We sold a variety of products, including SGF-1000. I sold these products to veterinarians, horse trainers. When I did that I knew there was no medical prescription for those products. Also at the time, I knew that the product was not manufactured in an FDA approved facility, nor was it approved for sale by the FDA.”

Kegley's brother-in-law, Dr. Kristian Rhein, received a three-year prison sentence on Wednesday for his involvement in the same case. Trainer Jorge Navarro was last month sentenced to five years in prison.

The sentence requires Kegley to forfeit $3,310,490, equal to the amount of the illegal substances the government seized, but a court order states that if he makes the payment within two years of his prison release he will only need to pay $192,615.

According to the allegations contained in the Superseding Information, the prior Indictments[1], other filings in this case, and statements during court proceedings:

The charges in the Navarro case arise from an investigation of widespread schemes by racehorse trainers, veterinarians, performance-enhancing drug (“PED”) distributors, and others to manufacture, distribute, and receive adulterated and misbranded PEDs and to secretly administer those PEDs to racehorses competing at all levels of professional horseracing. By evading PED prohibitions and deceiving regulators and horse racing officials, participants in these schemes sought to improve race performance and obtain prize money from racetracks throughout the United States and other countries, including in New York, New Jersey, Florida, Ohio, Kentucky, and the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”), all to the detriment and risk of the health and well-being of the racehorses. Trainers who participated in the schemes stood to profit from the success of racehorses under their control by earning a share of their horses' winnings, and by improving their horses' racing records, thereby yielding higher trainer fees and increasing the number of racehorses under their control. Veterinarians and drug distributors, such as Kegley, who worked as the director of sales for an unregistered distributor of equine drugs, profited from the sale and administration of these medically unnecessary, misbranded, and adulterated substances.

Among the misbranded and adulterated PEDs marketed and sold by Kegley was the drug “SGF-1000,” which was compounded and manufactured in unregistered facilities. SGF-1000 was an intravenous drug promoted as, among other things, a vasodilator capable of promoting stamina, endurance, and lower heart rates in horses through the purported action of “growth factors” supposedly derived from sheep placenta. Despite marketing, selling, and administering SGF-1000, Kegley acknowledged in intercepted calls that he, along with a co-defendant involved in the sale of SGF-1000, did not know the actual contents of SGF-1000. Nevertheless, Kegley's sales of that drug persisted, aided by the claim that SGF-1000 would be untestable in horses by law enforcement.

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

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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