Dane Handed 30-Month Prison Sentence for Horse Doping

Rick Dane, Jr. was sentenced to 30 months of imprisonment Sept. 9 in federal court following a February guilty plea to a single count of drug adulteration and misbranding of performance-enhancing drugs used on race horses.

Details about the sentence were made public Sept. 12 by U. S District Court for the Southern District of New York. A money judgment of $33,912, representing the value of forfeitable property, was also entered against Dane, but he was not ordered to pay restitution. Upon his release, Dane will be on supervised release for a term of one year. Judge Mary Kan Vyskocil recommended Dane be housed in a facility near the Pine Bush, N.Y. area to facilitate family visitation.  

Dane was ordered to surrender for service of sentence at an institution to be designated by the Bureau of Prisons before 2:00 p.m. on Jan. 9, which is the date that former trainer Jason Servis and Alexander Chan are set to go to trial on related charges.

The guilty plea was in response to a superseding information, a charge that bypasses the grand jury process, describing conduct occurring between 2017 and 2020.

A letter filed under seal by Assistant U. S. Attorney Sarah Mortazavi Sept. 2, but unsealed when Dane was sentenced, describes Dane as a person who offered to give substantial assistance to the government's investigation but who failed to follow through as promised. Dane is one of 19 persons originally indicted in early 2020 for offenses related to performance-enhancing drugs in Thoroughbred racing. The list of defendants was pared in a superseding indictment.

According to Mortazavi's letter, Dane was arrested on Feb. 26, 2020, proffered evidence four months later predominantly about co-defendant Lisa Giannelli and Louis Grasso, a defendant in a separate indictment involving harness racing. "Dane scheduled, then did not join, a second telephonic proffer session on July 3, 2020. Dane made no further attempts to cooperate until after Seth Fishman was convicted at trial," according to Mortazavi.

The government said about a year after his arrest Dane proffered evidence a second time with the aim of testifying against Giannelli, who went to trial, and Grasso, who ultimately pleaded guilty. Before the re-trial of Giannelli commenced, "the Government determined that the defendant was not completely forthcoming, and thus was unable to provide 'substantial assistance.''' As a result, the government did not extend a cooperation agreement to Dane.

The government had connected Dane's criminal activities to that Fishman, a veterinarian ordered to serve a prison term of 11 years after a jury trial; Jordan Fishman, who's been sentenced to 15 months in prison; and Giannelli, a former employee of Seth Fishman recently sentenced to 42 months in prison. Among other activities, Seth Fishman designed PEDs that couldn't be detected in lab testing, and Jordan Fishman manufactured them.

Another prominent trainer was among those indicted in the New York cases in addition to Servis. Jorge Navarro is serving a five-year prison term after being sentenced in December 2021.

Calvin H. Scholar represented Dane.