Guilty pleas entered in illegal medication case

Two individuals who were indicted in March along with 25 other persons connected to Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing have entered a single guilty plea each on a charge related to manufacturing and distributing illegal substances to racehorses, according to prosecutors.

Scott Robinson, 46, of Florida, and Sarah Izhaki, 45, of New Jersey, will each face a maximum sentence of five years in prison on the charge of “conspiring to unlawfully introduce and receive with intent to distribute for pay or otherwise adulterated or misbranded drugs in interstate commerce, or to misbrand drugs in interstate commerce,” according to prosecutors for the Southern District of New York.

Robinson and Izhaki are the first two individuals in the far-reaching indictments to enter guilty pleas. Earlier this year, all 27 of the indicted individuals, including top trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, entered not-guilty pleas on charges of misbranding conspiracy, and, in some cases, additional charges of obstruction.

According to U.S. prosecutors, Robinson admitted in his plea deal to creating “custom” performance-enhancing drugs in non-FDA approved laboratories and selling the substances through a number of online websites, most of which have notorious reputations in racing for attempting to pass off innocuous substances as powerful drugs. The plea deal says that Robinson sold “blood builders” and “customized analgesics,” or painkillers, from 2011-20.

The prosecutors said that Izhaki admitted to smuggling erythropoietin, the blood-doping substance, into the United States from Mexico and selling “tens of thousands of dollars” of the drug from February 2018 to November 2019. Izhaki also admitted to selling products that were purported to mask the presence of other drugs in “a human or animal’s body,” as well as amphetamines.

Both Robinson and Izhaki were indicted in complaints that also named associates. Robinson was charged with a co-conspirator Scott Mangini, and Izhaki was charged with Ashley Liebowitz, who was said in the initial indictment to have conspired to have distributed drugs to trainers “in and around the New York City area.”

“Scott Robinson and Sarah Izhaki represent the supply side of a market of greed that continues to endanger racehorses through the sale of performance-enhancing drugs,” Audrey Strauss, the acting U.S. attorney in the case, said in a press release. “Each of these defendants provided the raw materials for fraud and animal abuse through the sale of unregulated and dangerous substances.”

In plea agreements filed with the courts, the prosecutors said that they expect Robinson to be jailed for the full five years because of aggravating factors in his case and that he will forfeit $3.8 million in fraudulent gains. The plea agreement with Izhaki states that prosecutors expect her to serve 12-18 months.

Izhaki is scheduled to be sentenced On Dec. 2, while Robinson is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 15, 2021, according to the U.S. attorney. The plea agreements filed with the court do not make any reference to Robinson or Izhaki cooperating with an ongoing investigation.