Servis-Navarro Case Defendant Gets 18 Months in Prison

One year after the indictments of trainers Jason Servis, Jorge Navarro, and 25 other individuals for their alleged roles in a race doping conspiracy, the first domino in the case fell March 9 when defendant Scott Robinson was sentenced to 18 months in prison and required to forfeit $3,832,318.90 for his involvement in the scheme.

Robinson had previously pled guilty in September for, as described in a press release from United States Attorney's Office Southern District of New York, "years-long sale and distribution of adulterated and misbranded drugs, including performance-enhancing drugs marketed to racehorse trainers and others in the racehorse industry."

Robinson faced a maximum of five years in federal prison and his guilty plea and reduced sentencing has fueled speculation that he has cooperated with law enforcement officials and may have supplied information that will help to convict the other defendants or link new individuals to the case.

"We are pleased to see the government has been diligently prosecuting the case," said Jim Gagliano, president and COO of The Jockey Club.

According to his indictment, Robinson, who operated websites that sold medications to horsemen and veterinarians, "conspired with others to manufacture, sell, and ship millions of dollars' worth of adulterated and misbranded equine drugs, including performance-enhancing drugs intended to be administered to racehorses for the purpose of improving those horses' race performances in order to win races and obtain prize money."

Among the 46-year-old Robinson's websites is horseprerace.com.

"Scott Robinson created and profited from a system designed to exploit racehorses in the pursuit of speed and prize money, risking their safety and wellbeing," said Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. "Robinson sold unsanitary, misbranded, and adulterated drugs, and misled and deceived regulators and law enforcement in the process."  

Robinson's role in the conspiracy included: sourcing chemicals used to create custom PEDs that were advertised and sold; falsely labeling, packaging, and shipping those PEDs to customers across the country, including in the Southern District of New York; and collecting, reporting, and responding to employee and customer complaints regarding the misbranded and adulterated products advertised and sold online. 

He was charged with selling "blood builders," which are used by racehorse trainers and others to increase red blood cell counts and/or the oxygenation of muscle tissue of a racehorse in order to stimulate the horse's endurance, which enhances that horse's performance in, and recovery from, a race, as well as customized analgesics that are used by racehorse trainers and others to deaden a horse's nerves and block pain in order to improve a horse's race performance.  

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the drugs he distributed were manufactured in non-FDA registered facilities and carried significant risks to the animals affected through the administration of those illicit PEDs.  

Defendant Sarah Izhaki, who also pled guilty in September, has yet to be sentenced.

Izhaki, according to her indictment, conspired with others to transport, sell, and deliver, tens of thousands of dollars of erythropoietin, a "blood builder" drug intended to increase a horse's racing performance, which had been smuggled into the country from Mexico. The drug was covertly transported into the United States and sold by her in the belief it would be used by racehorse trainers to illicitly improve their horses' race performance. She also offered for sale amphetamines, and a substance she referred to as "the Devil," which she claimed would mask the presence of potent drugs in a human or animal's body.

As part of Tuesday's sentencing by Judge J. Paul Oetken, Robinson received three years of supervised release in addition to his prison term.