Government Says Servis Wiretaps Legit
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SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 2021 FORZA DI ORO GETS ACID TEST IN GOLD CUP GOVERNMENT SAYS SERVIS by Joe Bianca Don Alberto Stable's Forza Di Oro (Speightstown) has shown WIRETAPS LEGIT considerable talent in six starts dating back to his debut in September of 2019, and he'll finally get his chance at the highest level as a likely favorite in Saturday's 10-furlong GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, being run at Saratoga for the first time in the race's storied history. Running a huge race after a disastrous start to be second at 31-1 in his unveiling, the homebred graduated next out, but took a major step backward when finishing eighth, beaten 24 1/4 lengths making his stakes debut in the GII Remsen S. Shelved for over 10 months, he returned last October at Belmont with a game 10-1 first-level allowance score and announced himself as a horse to watch in 2021 when closing out his sophomore season with a powerful 3 3/4-length success in Aqueduct's GIII Discovery S. Cont. p4 Jason Servis | Sarah Andrew IN TDN EUROPE TODAY United States Attorneys have filed an opposing motion to deny STRONG MIDDLE MARKET AS FRANKEL COLT barred trainer Jason Servis and his fellow defendants' motions to suppress the wiretaps placed on their cell phones, along with HEADS BBAG the seized physical and electronic evidence from a search of A Frankel (GB) yearling half-brother to G3 winner Calyxa (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) took top honours at BBAG and Emma Berry has veterinarian Seth Fishman's belongings. The opposing motion the report. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. was filed Sept. 2nd in the Southern District of New York by U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, who writes, "the defendants' motions are entirely without merit and should be denied in full." On Aug. 3, lawyers representing Servis filed a motion to have evidence against him that was obtained through wiretaps thrown out. Attorneys Rita Glavin and Michael Considine charged that the government obtained authorization from a court to tap into Servis's phone based on a sworn affidavit from an FBI agent that, they contend, "contained deliberately or recklessly false statements and the material omission of statutorily and constitutionally required information." The Servis legal team argued that the wiretap evidence should be thrown out because using it represents a violation of Servis's Fourth Amendment rights. The Fourth Amendment reads, in part: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." But the government argues in its opposing motion that law enforcement was led to Servis through an earlier investigation of now-barred Standardbred trainer Nick Surick, of whom they say the ruled-off Thoroughbred trainer Jorge Navarro was his "doping mentor." 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Mabee S.-GII, DMR TJCIS PPs TVG Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN 9:37p Del Mar Derby-GII, DMR TJCIS PPs TVG [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 13 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • SEPTEMBER 4, 2021 Gov't gives green light for Wiretaps, cont. from p1 Navarro on Aug. 11 cut a deal with federal prosecutors in which he pled guilty to one count in the years-long Thoroughbred doping conspiracy in exchange for having a similar second count against him dismissed. "This case arose from an investigation into overlapping and widespread schemes by racehorse trainers, veterinarians, drug distributors, and others to obtain money through lies, deceit, and active concealment of sophisticated doping of racehorses through the use of purportedly `untestable' drugs," the filing states, adding that the investigation revealed ample evidence of Surick and Navarro's efforts to "obtain, share, distribute, discuss, use, and conceal various performance-enhancing drugs that they each intended to be, and believed to be, untestable by racing authorities." The facts uncovered in that investigation, the filing states, "informed the application for the initial wiretap of Navarro's cellphone and those of Navarro's co-conspirators," including Servis. "Initial and renewal interceptions over the Navarro Phone indicated that: (1) Servis was actively assisting Navarro to conceal Navarro's doping practices by 'tipping off' Navarro to the presence of racetrack officials; (2) Navarro was willing to confide in Servis regarding his own doping practices and about his own corrupt relationship with an unnamed racetrack security official; (3) Navarro believed that Servis had his own corrupt relationship with a racetrack security official; and (4) Servis further participated in Navarro's doping scheme as a recipient of an unspecified, "[ir]regular" version of Clenbuterol, which Servis wished to obtain after assuring himself that regulators were not scrutinizing the Servis operation too closely," the government filing argues. "The scheme being investigated was exceedingly complex," the filing states. "There were ample intercepted conversations indicating that the drugs distributed amongst a number of the Target Subjects by design would not be on drug tests." One such intercepted conversation allegedly occurred on Jan. 25, 2019, between Navarro and another defendant, the now-barred harness trainer Christopher Oakes. Oakes had allegedly created his own customized "drench" by which performance-enhancing drugs [PEDs] were forced directly into a horse's stomach through a tube inserted via the nostril. In that wiretapped call, Navarro allegedly discussed "this crazy [expletive] Seth [Fishman]" with Oakes, describing an injectable drug that Fishman had allegedly sent to Navarro in 2018: "He sent me something with amino acid right last year. And I [expletive] gave it to this horse. This [expletive] galloped. Galloped." 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Oakes "Indiscriminate drug testing of various racehorses at various purportedly offered up a different untestable PED that he had times in the hopes of yielding a positive test (ignoring for the developed, allegedly explaining that "this drench I got dude, moment that the drugs being administered were designed to be they can test you all day, night, before, after.