The federal horse doping scandal saw three more guilty parties get sentenced to prison terms this week, according to a press release from United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams.
Louis Grasso, Richard Banca, and Rene Allard all received their sentences on Nov. 15.
Grasso was sentenced to 50 months in prison, Banca 30 months, and Allard 27 months for their roles in distributing adulterated and misbranded drugs to racehorses.
“Illegally doping racehorses is animal abuse in the service of greed,” Williams stated in the release. “Such corruption threatens the health of racehorses and undermines the integrity of the sport. Today, three defendants have been sentenced for their roles in perpetuating, and profiting from, the mistreatment of animals. The sentences each defendant received appropriately reflects the seriousness of these offenses in the eyes of the law.”
Specifics of the guilty pleas
Grasso, 65, of Pine Bush, New York, pled guilty in May to a single count of distributing misbranded drugs.
Banca, 47, of Middletown, New York, pled guilty a month earlier to one charge of “misbranding and adulteration of drugs in interstate commerce.”
And Allard, 35, of Canada, pled guilty in June to similar charges.
The sentences in this case all stem from an investigation of schemes by, per the release, “racehorse trainers, veterinarians, distributors of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), and others to manufacture, distribute, and receive adulterated and misbranded PEDs and to secretly administer those PEDs to racehorses competing at all levels of professional horse racing.”
Photo: Shutterstock
