FBI agent joins Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit

An FBI agent who played a role in the investigation that led to the criminal indictments of more than 30 people connected to Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing in 2020 has been hired as director of intelligence and strategy for the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit, which will administer the anti-doping and medication control program for the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority, the unit announced on Friday.

Naushaun Richards, who was most recently a supervisory special agent in the FBI’s Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force as part of a 23-year career with the FBI, will focus on “long-range investigations,” at HIWU, the unit said in the announcement. Those investigations will “rely heavily on real-time intelligence, strategy, sophisticated investigative techniques, and data analysis,” the release said.

Richards will be part of a number of new hires by HIWU as the unit ramps up to a launch, which could come as soon as the spring, according to HISA. However, the implementation of HISA’s anti-doping program is currently in limbo, and a launch date could be delayed or complicated by a number of legal issues surrounding the constitutionality of HISA’s enabling legislation, which is currently under consideration by several federal courts.

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Early this year, HISA submitted the rules for its anti-doping program to the FTC, which had declined to approve the rules last year due to the legal issues surrounding the authority. Federal legislators attached an amendment to a bill passed late in 2022 designed to clear up those legal issues, but it is still unclear if the amendment will resolve the matter to the satisfaction of some courts.

Already, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has said that it will not reconsider its own ruling holding HISA unconstitutional due to the amendment, and it has remanded the case back to a lower court, which had earlier dismissed the challenge. The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals is also considering a constitutional challenge to HISA.

The Anti-Doping and Medication Control program, which includes protocols for investigatory and enforcement powers, is being enforced by HIWU through HISA’s contract with Drug-Free Sport International, a contracted partner. The program is designed to create a national investigatory agency with broad powers to combat cheating in racing, using powers and techniques that go well beyond those in use at state racing commissions, which currently regulate drug use in the sport.

HIWU has also hired Shawn Loehr, a former investigator for the California Horse Racing Board, as its director of investigative operations, the unit said. Loehr and Richards will lead HIWU’s investigative unit.

Loehr will be responsible for the oversight of all investigators stationed as tracks regulated by HISA. Prior to his work at the CHRB, Loehr was a chief investigator for the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance, a district attorney investigator, and a police officer.

“HIWU understands that a strong investigations arm is essential for an ADMC program to be effective, and we could not be more excited to have Shawn and Shaun leading our efforts in this area,” said Ben Mosier, executive director of HIWU, in a release.

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