performance-enhancing drugs

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...

An employee of Florida veterinarian Seth Fishman last week permitted Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents to search her workplace, and the inside tip has allegedly yielded evidence that Fishman is still selling purportedly performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) while awaiting an expected January start to his trail in the international racehorse doping conspiracy case. "Remarkably, despite having been arrested in October 2019 and indicted in 2020 in connection with his sale of misbranded and adulterated drugs designed to be 'untestable' by various antidoping authorities, Fishman apparently persists in touting the efficacy...

When former pharmacist Scott Mangini was sentenced to 18 months in prison last Friday for his admitted role in the federal doping case, it provided another piece to the puzzle in terms of how other offenders might later get sentenced for their roles in the same alleged conspiracy. Specifically, almost everyone in the Thoroughbred industry wants to know what will happen to the highest-profile defendants at the very end of the supply chain: The barred trainer Jorge Navarro, who has already pled guilty to one felony count in the conspiracy...

A new test developed by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (Penn Vet) can detect the presence of gene doping in equines. Partly supported by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association (PHBA) and the Pennsylvania State Horse Racing Commission, the findings, which systemically detect the local administration of illicit, gene doping therapies, are a significant breakthrough. Unlike other small molecule pharmaceuticals, gene doping agents trigger cells to produce performance-enhancing proteins, which often are virtually indistinguishable from naturally occurring proteins within the body, making it more difficult to...

The federal prosecutor leading the case against an alleged network of racehorse dopers underscored several times during a Nov. 17 court hearing that the government might not yet be done bringing new charges that could involve either existing or fresh defendants as it continues to investigate a purported years-long conspiracy to manufacture, mislabel, rebrand, distribute and administer performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) to Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds across America and in international races. "There may well be other crimes as to the particular defendants in this case," United States Attorney Andrew Adams said...

The banned trainer Jorge Navarro, one of the most prominent targets among 27 individuals facing federal charges in an alleged "widespread, corrupt scheme" to dope racehorses, has been granted court permission to leave the Southern District of New York jurisdiction and move his family to Ocala, Florida. But the endorsement signed Thursday by United States Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil that modified Navarro's bail conditions made it clear that the alleged doper "shall have no contact whatsoever with racehorses." Ocala, the heart of Florida's horse country, is part of the Middle...