Veterinarian sentenced to 50 months in prison for supplying illegal substances to trainers

Louis Grasso, a veterinarian who was indicted in 2020 along with six other prominent harness-racing participants, was sentenced on Tuesday to 50 months in prison and ordered to forfeit $412,000 for his role in supplying illegal substances to trainers, according to court records.

Grasso, who was based in the New York City metro area, pleaded guilty in May to one felony count of drug adulteration or misbranding. He was indicted in the spring of 2020, at nearly the same time that the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of Manhattan unsealed a related indictment of 27 other racing individuals, many of which had ties to the Thoroughbred racing industry.

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In a sentencing document, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, urged U.S. District Court Judge P. Kevin Castel to impose the maximum sentence of five years in prison, citing Grasso’s sale of illegal substances to trainers indicted in the case, including the Standardbred trainer Richard Banca, who also entered a guilty plea.

“Grasso and Banca represent the corruption and greed of those in the racehorse industry looking to win at any cost,” Williams wrote. “In peddling illegal drugs and selling prescriptions to corrupt trainers, Louis Grasso abdicated his responsibilities as a medical professional to ensure the safety and health of the racehorses he ‘treated.’”

Grasso was ordered to surrender on Jan. 23. He also was sentenced to two years of mandatory supervised probation.

Prosecutors said that Grasso’s illegal activities resulted in “ill-gotten purse winnings” in excess of $47 million, and the court sentenced Grasso to that amount in restitution. As in other cases already adjudicated in the two 2020 indictments, it is unclear how the government could collect the full restitution amounts without clawing back money earned by owners.

No owners who were not also trainers have been indicted. The government has not announced any plans to recover the purse money that was earned in the races that were allegedly affected by the illegal activities.

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