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At the end of last week, prosecutors in the federal drug adulteration and mislabelling case filed their sentencing recommendations for veterinarian Dr Kristian Rhein, and the documents revealed some new details about the case. that they would have gone up against him.
Rhein has pleaded guilty to drug forgery and bad branding for his role in what the government says is a massive conspiracy between vets, drug makers and trainers to illegally dope racehorses. Rhein is specifically charged with giving clenbuterol to horses without a valid prescription and selling a substance called SGF-1000 to racetrack patrons, including co-accused Jason Servis.
It had already been established that Rhein had a stake in MediVet Equine, which sold SGF-1000, and that despite this, Rhein did not seem entirely clear on what was in the drug.
Prosecutors’ sentencing documents referred to snippets of previously undisclosed intercepted phone calls that captured Rhein pondering what SGF-1000 might or might not actually contain.
Read more about SGF-1000 in our previous reports here and here.
During a call with an unidentified third party, Rhein said he didn’t even believe the substance contained growth hormone, despite being advertised that way for several years. Prosecutors said he “had not confirmed” this. In addition, Rhein also seemed to have his own theories on regulatory testing.
“Just because they can test it doesn’t mean they will,” Rhein reportedly said. “Now if it has growth hormone in it, I mean, it costs them a lot of money to test. A lot of money. And the second thing is, how long is something in there. Now, if we give it five to seven days, then it’s all right. It’s not going to drag on. It’s – nothing drags on for long. EPO doesn’t drag that long.
Previous documents had revealed that Rhein had worried at one point that there might be a federal review of SGF-1000 because it was not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and that it was part of a brainstorming session on how to avoid detection. One of the things Rhein looked at was whether the drug should be renamed to something more harmless.
“What was the [expletive] name someone told me? It was a good name, â€he said. “It was a little cheesy, but damn it was good, that was a nickname, like… you know like… like Encore, something like that… Fix… FixRx.” As a restorative treatment.
In fact, Rhein seemed to know in August 2019 that there was more than a potential for law enforcement to take an interest in the SGF-1000. Rhein learned in mid-August that Servis had been approached and questioned by the police. He then called Servis’ assistant Henry Argueta, who was included in the first set of indictments in March 2020 but absent from a replacement indictment in November 2020. Rhein asked Argueta if the FBI or the “Manhattan DA office” approached Servis. It’s unclear how he knew which agencies might be involved, but he also appeared to anticipate his vehicle could be searched. He also seemed to believe that Servis’ phone could be tapped, asking Argueta how he could “get in touch with Jason” without arousing anyone’s suspicion.
Rhein appears to have panicked at this point, calling an unidentified representative from an anonymous drug testing lab and explaining the situation with SGF-1000.
“Either stop and quit, or you will go to jail,” the person told Rhein. “Either one. What do you wanna do?… I’m saying if you wanna stay out of jail, don’t use it.
According to prosecutors, Rhein has not stopped using the drug, which he has often touted as acupuncture to conceal its use from owners.
Rhein later told his veterinarian colleague and co-accused Dr Alexander Chan to “be careful” with his use of the drug and that “more than likely you are going to be watched.”
Prosecutors are arguing for a three-year federal prison sentence.
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