Jason Servis

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...

The barred trainer Jason Servis, the final--and most notoriously prominent--defendant awaiting a trial or sentencing in the 2020 racehorse doping conspiracy scandal, is negotiating with federal prosecutors for a plea bargain agreement to adjudicate the three felony drug misbranding and fraud conspiracy charges he is facing for allegedly drugging almost all the Thoroughbreds under his care in 2019. The disclosure was revealed late Friday afternoon in an otherwise routine court filing asking for an extension of time to file motions in Servis's upcoming trial, which has a Jan. 9 start...

Seven weeks before the start of the final remaining high-profile trial in the federal doping conspiracy case from 2020, the New York-based veterinarian Alexander Chan, whose client list included co-defendant trainer Jason Servis, has changed his mind about having a jury decide his fate on three felony charges for alleged participation in drug adulteration, misbranding, and wire fraud conspiracies. On Thursday, Chan asked for and was swiftly granted a Dec. 5 change-of-plea hearing in United States District Court (Southern District of New York), at which he will likely either plead...

Is the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) good for horsemen and, by extension, good for racing? Representing the National HBPA, lawyer Peter Ecabert doesn't think that it is, and he was invited to join the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland to explain why. Ecabert was one of two guests on this week's podcast as Len Green, the founder and chairman of the Green Group, came on to share some tax advice and to talk about his soon-to-be-named champion 2-year-old filly Wonder Wheel (Into Mischief). When asked...

The National HBPA and its affiliates got their wish Friday. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) is unconstitutional. As a result, HISA is on life support and very well could be finished. Within hours of the decision being announced, the National HBPA was taking a victory lap, declaring that this was a win for horsemen across the country. "Today's ruling shows the HISA regulations are not in the best interest of thoroughbred racing's participants and, as...

Former harness trainer Richard Allen "Rick" Dane Jr., was sentenced to 30 months in a federal prison Sept. 9. He had previously entered a guilty plea to one felony count related to the 2020 international racehorse doping conspiracy sting that has already netted two dozen related convictions or guilty pleas. Dane, 41, has additionally been ordered to pay a monetary judgement of $33,912. As part of a plea bargain, a second felony charge against Dane was dropped. Dane is to report to prison Jan. 9, 2023-the same day that the...

Lisa Giannelli was sentenced Sept. 8 to 3 1/2 years in prison as part of the federal government's sweeping investigation into horse doping at race tracks across the country. Giannelli, 56, was found guilty of peddling illegal performance-enhancing drugs to trainers to dope horses and faced a maximum of five years in prison. Her lawyers appealed for a no-jail sentence of probation. "This was not a one-time thing," Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil said in U.S. District Court in New York. "For 18 years, Ms. Giannelli marketed and sold what she...

Veterinarian Seth Fishman, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison July 11 after two felony drug-supplying convictions in a decades-long international racehorse doping conspiracy, has appealed his case to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Fishman's notice of appeal landed on the electronic court docket shortly after 6 p.m. Eastern time Friday. The filing noted that Fishman is appealing both the conviction and the sentence. Fishman's 11-year sentence was the longest meted out in the case that led to charges against 31 individuals, including prominent...

The barred trainer Michael Tannuzzo appears poised to join the parade of indicted defendants in the 2020 racehorse doping conspiracy case who have changed their pleas to guilty in order to keep felony charges against them from getting decided at trial. On Tuesday a federal judge granted Tannuzzo a swift July 7 hearing to explain his reasons for wanting to change his initial "not guilty" plea. Tannuzzo, 50, who had 11 horses under his care and had been racing at Aqueduct at the time of his March 9, 2020, arrest,...

A Jan. 23 trial date for the Jason Servis case was announced last week, which means in about eight months there will be some closure and Servis will learn his fate. The way he has handled things, it seems that he is at least somewhat optimistic that he will be found not guilty. If so, he is deluding himself. Everything about this case says that he has virtually no chance of being acquitted. Which raises a question: why is he fighting this when it makes far more sense to go...

A federal judge has established trial dates for the remaining Thoroughbred-related defendants in the alleged international doping conspiracy case that has already netted several convictions and a number of guilty pleadings. The most prominent name among the indicted individuals is the barred trainer Jason Servis, whose case will be tried alongside that of New York-based veterinarian Alexander Chan on Jan. 9, 2023. Servis amassed gaudily high win percentages during the 2010s decade prior to getting arrested on three felony drug misbranding and conspiracy to commit fraud charges in March 2020....

The federal government's crackdown on horse doping notched another courthouse win May 6 with a jury finding Lisa Giannelli guilty of conspiracy to misbrand and adulterate drugs after an eight-day trial. The jury of eight men and four women in U.S. District Court in New York returned the verdict after less than two hours of deliberations spanning two days. Giannelli, 55, of Felton, Del., faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison at her sentencing Sept. 8 before Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil. The jurors rejected Giannelli's testimony in which...