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Assistants to Convicted Harness Trainers Avoid Prison in 2020 Doping Conspiracy Sentencings

Two assistants to a pair of already-convicted Standardbred trainers in the 2020 racehorse doping conspiracy scandal avoided prison terms beyond their time already served on Wednesday when a judge in United States District Court (Southern District of New York) sentenced them each to two years of supervised release and joint responsibility for monetary penalties. Both had cooperated with authorities in obtaining the convictions of others in the network, according to court documents.

Conor Flynn, who worked for the former trainer Richard Banca, pleaded guilty to one felony count of drug alteration and misbranding conspiracy, with two similar felony charges against him dropped, according to the court docket.

Brandon Simpson, who worked for the former trainer Renee Allard, pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. via drug alteration and misbranding conspiracy, the docket stated.

According to a pre-sentencing report filed by his counsel, Flynn “timely accepted full responsibility for his ill-advised actions in a horse doping scheme organized by his then-employer and direct supervisor, Richard Banca [and] Dr. Louis Grasso, a licensed veterinarian who treated horses trained by Banca.

“Although Conor participated in the scheme, he played a minor role. Conor did not devise the scheme. Conor did not profit from the scheme, did not expect to profit from the scheme, and did not receive a raise or bonus in exchange for his participation in the scheme,” Flynn's court filing continued. “Squarely put, Conor, an unsophisticated young man with only a high school diploma, who desperately wanted to move up into Banca and Dr. Grasso's prominent horse racing circle, simply got caught up in Banca and Dr. Grasso's culture of misdeeds, ill-gotten power, and greed.”

According to a pre-sentence report filed by his counsel, Simpson admitted that he “assisted Mr. Allard in administering performance-enhancing drugs on a day of a race to enhance a horses race performance. In addition, Mr. Simpson also assisted in obtaining prescription drugs that were obtained without valid prescriptions, and those drugs were administered to racehorses in violation of the applicable racing rules and regulations.

“Significantly, Mr. Simpson does not hide from his illegal conduct. In fact, it is quite the opposite,” Simpson's court filing continued. “Mr. Simpson, after being contacted by authorities, agreed to cooperate with federal agents and prosecutors in an attempt to assist them in their efforts against other individuals and he did so knowing that it was the right thing to do in order to help in some way to right his wrongful behavior.”

The judgment on the court docket stated that Flynn must pay $16,220,794 in restitution that is “joint and several” with Bianca and a $129,975 forfeiture that is “joint and several” with Grasso.

Simpson's judgment stated that he must pay $31,435,782 restitution that is “joint and several” with Grasso and a $628,553 forfeiture that is “joint and several” with Allard.

Grasso in 2022 got sentenced to 50 months in federal prison. Banca was sentenced to 30 months. Allard got 27 months.

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Veterinarian Grasso Sentenced to 50 Months

Louis Grasso, a veterinarian who worked in the harness racing industry and was one of more than two dozen individuals indicted in 2020 for their role in a horse doping ring, has been sentenced to 50 months in prison and two years of supervised release. The sentence was handed down Tuesday by U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel in a lower Manhattan courtroom.

Grasso was also ordered to pay a forfeiture totaling $412,442.62 and restitution in the amount of $47,656,576. He must surrender to authorities on January 24, 2023, at which time he will enter prison.

Grasso was charged with one count of drug adulteration and misbranding conspiracy, a felony. He faced a maximum sentence of five years. Several other defendants in the doping case that have pled guilty received sentences in the neighborhood of three years. That Castel gave Grasso more than four years seems to reflect the severity of the charges against him.

The prosecution had maintained that Grasso's doping led to corrupt trainers collecting over $47 million in ill-gotten purse winnings.

In May, when Grasso entered a guilty plea, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District Court issued a press release in which U.S. Attorney Damian Williams commented on the Grasso plea as well as the guilty plea entered by harness trainer Richard Banca. Banca was sentenced to 30 months.

“Grasso and Banca represent the corruption and greed of those in the racehorse industry looking to win at any cost,” Williams said. “In peddling illegal drugs and selling prescriptions to corrupt trainers, Louis Grasso abdicated his responsibilities as a medical professional to ensure the safety and health of the racehorses he 'treated.' By injecting horses with unnecessary and, at times, unknown drugs, Grasso risked the lives and welfare of the animals under his care, all in service of helping corrupt racehorse trainers like Banca line their pockets through fraud. These latest convictions demonstrate the commitment of this Office and of our partners at the FBI to hold accountable individuals seeking to profit from animal abuse and deceit.”

In the indictment of Grasso, the government portrayed him as a central figure in a scheme to manufacture, distribute and receive adulterated and misbranded PEDs which were administered to horses. The government charged that Grasso and others delivered and received “at least thousands” of units of PEDs issued by pharmacies pursuant to invalid prescriptions. Banca was among his customers.

According to the indictment, Grasso was also manufacturing and/or selling “epogen,” pain shots of joint blocks, bronchodilators and a substance called “red acid.” Red acid is believed to reduce inflammation in joints.

It appears that Grasso's doping may have been restricted to harness racing as the indictment does not mention any illegal activities that involved Thoroughbred racing.

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Harness Trainer Pleads Guilty in Doping Case

Harness trainer Richard Banca pled guilty to one felony count Apr. 19 in the ongoing federal racehorse doping conspiracy case.

According to court documents filed electronically in United States District Court (Southern District of New York), “From at least in or about 2015 through at least in or about January 2020…Richard Banca, the defendant, with the intent to defraud and mislead, in interstate commerce, adulterated and misbranded drugs, and caused the adulteration and misbranding of drugs in interstate commerce…

“Banca misled and deceived state and federal regulators with respect to the distribution, purchase, and receipt of various misbranded and adulterated performance enhancing drugs, and the use of such misbranded and adulterated drugs to improve the performance of racehorses under Banca's and others' custody and care.”

No sentencing date was listed in the court documents. A money judgment was assessed against Banca in the amount of $120,975, representing the value of the drugs in his case.

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Harness Trainer Allard Included In Superseding Indictment Against Grasso, Others In Federal Drug Case

Harness trainer Rene Allard has been included in a superseding indictment filed in federal court last week against Louis Grass, Donato Poliseno, Thomas Guido III, and Richard Banca. All defendants have entered not guilty pleas to one count each of drug adulteration and misbranding conspiracy for their role in what prosecutors say was a scheme to “manufacture, distribute, and receive adulterated ad misbranded PEDs and to secretly administer those PEDs to racehorses under scheme participants' control.”

The allegations in the Dec. 3 indictment are nearly identical to those in the indictment filed against Grasso, Poliseno, Guido and Banca in February and March of this year. The timing of the indictments and arrests earlier in the year coincides with a larger case also from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York into alleged doping schemes utilized by Thoroughbred trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis.

At that time, a complaint was filed against Allard but prosecutors requested several extensions of time in the case throughout the spring and summer. The complaint details Allard's involvement in the alleged scheme with his co-defendants, as recounted by FBI special agent Bruce Turpin.

Turpin stated that Grasso, who had a veterinary license, worked for Allard. Turpin also stated Grasso operated a company that manufactured adulterated and misbranded drugs. Last week's indictment explained that Grasso allowed his veterinary license number to be used by non-veterinarians calling in orders to pharmacies for a charge of $100 per prescription, despite not knowing what the non-vets were prescribing to themselves. The drugs involved in the scheme allegedly included bleeding medications, pain blockers, and EPO-like products, among others. Poliseno stands accused of purchasing and distributing the drugs made by Grasso. Guido and Banca are fellow harness trainers.

The drugs, according to the indictment, were designed to be undetectable in testing.

The substances appeared to carry significant risk to the horses, according to court paperwork. An intercepted conversation between Guido and Grasso about the death of an unidentified horse indicated Grasso thought the horse had been “over juiced” with a bleeding medication.

“I've seen that happen 20 times,” Grasso said.

The complaint filed earlier this year against Allard includes bits of a conversation intercepted by federal agents between Ross Cohen (named in the original indictment alongside Navarro and Servis but absent from a later indictment in that case) and Grasso about Allard's barn. According to the transcript of the phone call from fall 2019, Cohen referred to Allard's operation as “the Allard death camp,” referring to two or three horses that died after receiving what Grasso said was an amino acid supplement from Weatherford, Texas compounding pharmacy NexGen.

A search of an office at a Middletown, N.Y. training center where Allard kept horses revealed empty syringes, bottles of injectable products labeled “for research purposes only” and bottles with labels the agent suspected did not match the content.

The superseding indictment calls for the defendants to forfeit assets acquired as a result of the alleged criminal acts.

Allard was the winningest trainer in 2019 at Pocono Downs is one of the top trainers at Yonkers. Allard was also previously excluded from the Meadowlands by owner Jeff Gural, as was Banca, according to a report earlier this year from Thoroughbred Daily News.

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