By T. D. Thornton
The New York-based veterinarian Alexander Chan, facing three felony charges related to drug adulteration, misbranding, and wire fraud conspiracies for allegedly injecting purported performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) into racehorses trained by co-defendant Jason Servis and then hiding the billing for his services, cut a plea bargain with the government Monday.
Chan's deal involved waiving indictment and pleading guilty to a single superseding information charge of drug adulteration and misbranding in exchange for the other charges against him being dropped, a format that is similar in substance to deals that other convicted defendants in the wide-ranging doping conspiracy case have agreed to with government prosecutors rather than face a trial by jury.
Chan had signaled his intention to plead guilty last Thursday, when he asked for and was swiftly granted a Dec. 5 change-of-plea hearing in United States District Court (Southern District of New York).
That decision seemingly left Servis as the lone remaining high-profile defendant in the case to go to trial as scheduled Jan. 9. But news broke Friday that Servis, too, is seeking a plea deal to adjudicate his own trio of felony drug misbranding and conspiracy to commit fraud charges. There was no update on the court docket with regard to Servis's case status as of early Monday evening.
As part of his plea deal, Chan will also have to pay the feds a forfeiture of $311,760. The money judgment represents the value of “any and all drugs that were adulterated or misbranded when introduced into or while in interstate commerce or while held for sale…” according to court documents filed Dec. 5.
Chan's sentencing will be Apr. 13.
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