Guido the Latest Guilty Plea in Harness Doping Cases
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Thomas Guido III, a former harness trainer among a group of six persons named in the same indictment in New York for use of performance-enhancing drugs, entered a guilty plea May 25 to a single count of drug adulteration and misbranding, a felony.
Guido admitted that between at least 2015 to January 2020, he misled and deceived state and federal regulators with respect to the distribution, purchase, and receipt of PEDs in his harness racing operation.
As part of the sentence, Guido signed off on a forfeiture order amounting to $61,800.97 to be paid to the federal government. His final sentence is to be imposed by Judge P. Kevin Castel Sept. 29 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Guido was in court with attorney Joseph Corozzo. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Mortazavi appeared for the government.
Guido became the fourth of six defendants named in superseding indictments in 2020 to plead guilty. Richard Banca and Louis Grasso are scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 6, followed by Donato Poliseno the next day.
Dr. Seth Fishman, a veterinarian who created and sold PEDs illicitly used in Thoroughbred racing, faces sentencing June 30, and his former assistant Lisa Giannelli has a Sept. 8 court date for the same purpose. They both went to trial and lost in a different division of federal court in the Southern District of New York.