Yes, They Dope Racehorses

7/5/22

Fishman was at the helm of a sophisticated, years-long, cross-border scheme to profit from the creation, marketing, sale, and distribution of illegal PEDs that he shipped across the country and around the world to unscrupulous trainers and others in the racehorse industry that sought to gain a competitive edge. And he did it with the shared aim of misleading drug and racing regulators tasked with rooting out such corruption.”

“For almost two decades, including 2 years after his arrest in this matter, Seth Fishman cravenly pumped hundreds of thousands of illegal performance-enhancing drugs into the marketplace, and was dissuaded by no one—not state racing commissions, racetracks, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”), state drug regulators, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (the “FBI”), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (“SDNY”), nor this Court—to comply with the law. The defendant earned millions of dollars. He did so on the backs of racehorses that were doped by corrupt trainers.”

“As the Government has argued in prior submissions, many actors in the racehorse industry like the defendant have grown indifferent to, and dismissive of, the notion of obtaining illegal drugs to dope racehorses for profit. Many, like the defendant, believe that—if caught—they will have the wherewithal and the means to bully, intimidate, or pay off whomever threatens their corrupt activities.