Seth Fishman

Two current trainers testified Jan. 27 at Dr. Seth Fishman's horse doping trial that they raced horses on illegal performance-enhancing drugs that came from the accused veterinarian. The testimony from Adrienne Hall and Jamen Davidovich highlighted the seventh day of Fishman's trial on adulteration and misbranding conspiracy charges. Fishman was one of 27 individuals charged in the case and is the first on trial. Those charged include two prominent trainers--Jason Servis, who is awaiting trial, and Jorge Navarro, who pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to five years in prison....

It was nearly two years ago when former Standarbred trainer Ross Cohen was among 27 trainers, veterinarians and others snared in the largest horse doping prosecution in U.S. history. In a New York courtroom Jan. 26, Cohen surfaced on the stand as a key government witness against Dr. Seth Fishman--the first of those arrested in the case in Mar. 2020 to go to trial on charges of conspiring to violate adulteration and misbranding laws. As Fishman observed from the defense table, Cohen testified that when he was training horses at...

The jury in the federal horse-doping trial of Seth Fishman heard Jan. 25 a portion of a Federal Bureau of Investigation wiretap in which the veterinarian discusses whether the drugs he sold to horse trainers involved doping. "Any time you give something to a horse, that's doping," Fishman says in the conversation recorded by the FBI Apr. 5, 2019. "Whether or not they test for it is another story." On the call with Fishman was an unidentified individual who had wanted to know more about the drugs. "But it's not...

Covid-19 temporarily upended Jan. 24 the horse doping trial of Dr. Seth Fishman and Lisa Giannelli--who are among the 27 horse racing professionals, including prominent trainers, charged in the case. As the trial's second week began, testimony was delayed after it was revealed that Giannelli's trial attorney had tested positive for the disease before the trial was to resume Monday. Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil then declared a mistrial on Giannelli's behalf because her attorney Louis Fasulo wouldn't be able to return to court for at least 10 days. "I can't...

Indicted veterinarian Seth Fishman started to tell his story last week, both to a jury and to the Washington Post. Fishman, currently on trial in a federal courtroom in Manhattan for his role in a widespread scheme to dope racehorses, wants you to believe that he is an animal lover who was devoted to working for the benefit and health of the horses he treated. He wants you to believe that the drugs he dispersed were given to help and heal and not to improve performance. "It will be for...

Although the federal racehorse doping conspiracy trial for veterinarian Seth Fishman and his assistant, Lisa Giannelli, paused for the weekend, attorneys for both sides remained busy on Saturday and Sunday, filing requests with the court over the admissibility of evidence regarding an equine fatality and the way witnesses must testify while wearing masks as a pandemic precaution. On Sunday morning, the prosecution filed a motion in United States District Court (Southern District of New York) that asked for permission to present evidence related to Fishman being investigated in Delaware more than...

A New York federal jury heard opening statements Jan. 20 as the horse doping conspiracy trial of Dr. Seth Fishman and Lisa Giannelli got underway. Prosecutor Anden Chow began by telling jurors that the defendants had operated a black market drug conspiracy for two decades. He said Fishman and Giannelli created hundreds of drugs that were used to secretly dope race horses. The drugs they produced were undetectable in post-racing testing, Chow said, so that trainers who were their customers could increase their chances of winning races by committing fraud....

Breakage, the practice of rounding down bettors' payouts to the nearest 10 or even 20-cent number rather than paying the deserved amount to the penny, has long been a thorn in horseplayers' sides. Kentucky state representative Adam Koenig, an avid horseplayer himself, is trying to do something about it in his state. Wednesday morning, Koenig joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland as the Green Group Guest of the Week to discuss the bill he's sponsoring to eliminate breakage in Kentucky, as well as his proposed sports betting legislation,...

A request by defendants Seth Fishman and Lisa Giannelli to delay next week's start of their trial in the alleged nationwide horse doping conspiracy because of COVID-19 concerns was not granted on Thursday by the judge handling the case. Although no specific court order answering the motion had been filed prior to deadline for this story, a summary entry on the court docket describing what happened at a Jan. 13 pre-trial conference contained the notation, "Trial to begin January 19, 2022," which is the originally scheduled start date. In two...

Attorneys for Seth Fishman and Lisa Giannelli, the first two defendants scheduled to face trial on Jan. 19 in the years-long alleged international horse doping conspiracy, Wednesday asked the judge in the case to delay the trial over concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a highly-redacted document filed Jan. 12 in the United States District Court (Southern District of New York), Fishman's attorney, Maurice Sercarz, wrote that he and Giannelli's lawyer "respectfully submit that the present trial should be adjourned until there has been a substantial reduction in the...

An attorney who has been in the headlines for defending high-profile clients such as the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted NXIVM "sex cult" leader Keith Raniere, and the convicted Mexican drug lord and murderer Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera on Monday got added to the legal team for Seth Fishman, the indicted Florida veterinarian whose trial in the nationwide racehorse doping conspiracy case begins Jan. 19. The New York-based lawyer Marc Fernich, who has extensive experience defending clients in the United States District Court (Southern District of New York)...

After federal prosecutors alleged that indicted Florida veterinarian Seth Fishman is still selling purportedly performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) while awaiting trial in the international racehorse doping conspiracy case, the judge in the case Wednesday ordered new bail modification conditions after hearing both sides of the issue at a Monday hearing that could have--but didn't--result in Fishman's bail being revoked. Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of United States District Court (Southern District of New York) wrote in a Dec. 22 order that the following added terms shall apply to Fishman's pretrial release: "The...