DOPE FIX IS IN AT TRACK
By MURRAY WEISS, CARL CAMPANILE and ED FOUNTAINE
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January 14, 2005 -- The feds have launched a nationwide investigation into allegations of horse doping and illegal betting at major tracks in New York, Florida and California, The Post has learned.
Seventeen people were busted yesterday on charges of operating a mob-connected ring that doped horses at Aqueduct and Belmont and allowed high-rollers to make tax-protected bets of at least $100,000.
The ring raked in $1 million a week, and clients included doctors, lawyers, Wall Streeters and other professionals who placed their bets by telephone and on the Internet.
Some $2.5 million in cash was seized ? including $400,000 from the Hackensack, N.J., home of one of the five leaders of the ring, Marvin Mayerowitz, 62.
"There were piles of money there ? just like people leave their mail stacked up," said a cop.
Law-enforcement sources said the arrests were just the tip of the iceberg.
Prominent thoroughbred tracks in Florida and California also are under investigation, as are gambling operations in Nevada, they said.
Investigators are looking at specific trainers and stable hands who have agreed to dope horses so ring leaders could reap windfalls of cash.
Probers are also looking into whether the mob is taking a cut.
On wiretaps, participants in the scheme have referred to the doped horses by saying, "This horse is on high octane."
The sources said that in the next days and weeks, search warrants will be issued across the country.
"A lot more arrests will be going down," one source said.
The sources said Belmont was "riddled" with organized-crime operations that involve doping, gambling and loan-sharking.
Asian and Russian ? as well as Italian ? mobsters are buying horses, training them and then doping them up to win big bucks, they said.
Prosecutors said the 17 people arrested yesterday ran a ring that operated in five states ? New York, New Jersey, Florida, Nevada and New Hampshire. Thirteen of them were arrested in New York City and all were released on bail.
Authorities said the ring used betting parlors in the United Kingdom, the island of Curacao, Fargo, N.D., and the Tonkawa Indian Reservation in Tonkawa, Okla.
Under the elaborate scheme, the ring provided clients with special account numbers and PIN numbers that allowed them to bet anonymously by phone and on the Internet.
To satisfy IRS requirements, the leaders of the ring assigned Social Security numbers to each betting account ? their own, not their customers. This allowed bettors to avoid reporting winnings to the government, the indictment said.
And it allowed the ring leaders to claim gambling losses on their tax returns, resulting in "massive tax windfalls," said U.S. Attorney David Kelley. One of the five, Anthony Uvari, 40 received a tax re fund of $156,794 in 2003, the indictment said. Another, David Appelbaum, 55, of Ardsley, Westchester, received $65,000 in tax relief by reporting $1.1 million in gambling losses that year.
The other principals of the ring were identified as Uvari's father, Gerald, 67, of Coconut Creek, Fla., and uncle, Cesare, 63, of Marlborough, N.J.
NYPD Organized Crime Detective Sgt. John Hayes said the Uvaris were originally from Bensonhurst. "They are low-level Genovese crime-family members and have been for a long time," he said.
Appelbaum, trainer Gregory Martin, 38, and Rene Poulin, 54, a harness-racing driver, were charged with doping a 6-year-old gelding named A One Rocket in the first race at Aqueduct on Dec. 18, 2003.
The horse had been sidelined with an injury for 10 months when he returned to racing on Nov. 21, 2003.
He came in eighth ? 16 lengths behind the winner.
He immediately dropped down to race against lower-class horses ? the real bottom of the barrel ? and nosed out a win on Dec 13.
Five days later, he faced 9-5 odds and was one of two favorites to win the first race at Aqueduct.
But Appelbaum, a k a "Pebbles," wasn't taking any chances.
So he decided to have the horse doped, prosecutors said.
A tube was inserted down A One Rocket's throat to remove the gas in his stomach, and then he was injected with a performance-enhancing drug, said Assistant Manhattan U.S. Attorney Benjamin Gruenstein.
"This is something that was happening regularly with in horse races Mr. Appelbaum was involved with," Gruenstein said.
Appelbaum now faces 250 years behind bars if convicted of all 44 illegal gambling and wire-fraud counts against him.
Additional reporting by Joe McGurk and Andy Geller
By MURRAY WEISS, CARL CAMPANILE and ED FOUNTAINE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Email Archives
Print Reprint
January 14, 2005 -- The feds have launched a nationwide investigation into allegations of horse doping and illegal betting at major tracks in New York, Florida and California, The Post has learned.
Seventeen people were busted yesterday on charges of operating a mob-connected ring that doped horses at Aqueduct and Belmont and allowed high-rollers to make tax-protected bets of at least $100,000.
The ring raked in $1 million a week, and clients included doctors, lawyers, Wall Streeters and other professionals who placed their bets by telephone and on the Internet.
Some $2.5 million in cash was seized ? including $400,000 from the Hackensack, N.J., home of one of the five leaders of the ring, Marvin Mayerowitz, 62.
"There were piles of money there ? just like people leave their mail stacked up," said a cop.
Law-enforcement sources said the arrests were just the tip of the iceberg.
Prominent thoroughbred tracks in Florida and California also are under investigation, as are gambling operations in Nevada, they said.
Investigators are looking at specific trainers and stable hands who have agreed to dope horses so ring leaders could reap windfalls of cash.
Probers are also looking into whether the mob is taking a cut.
On wiretaps, participants in the scheme have referred to the doped horses by saying, "This horse is on high octane."
The sources said that in the next days and weeks, search warrants will be issued across the country.
"A lot more arrests will be going down," one source said.
The sources said Belmont was "riddled" with organized-crime operations that involve doping, gambling and loan-sharking.
Asian and Russian ? as well as Italian ? mobsters are buying horses, training them and then doping them up to win big bucks, they said.
Prosecutors said the 17 people arrested yesterday ran a ring that operated in five states ? New York, New Jersey, Florida, Nevada and New Hampshire. Thirteen of them were arrested in New York City and all were released on bail.
Authorities said the ring used betting parlors in the United Kingdom, the island of Curacao, Fargo, N.D., and the Tonkawa Indian Reservation in Tonkawa, Okla.
Under the elaborate scheme, the ring provided clients with special account numbers and PIN numbers that allowed them to bet anonymously by phone and on the Internet.
To satisfy IRS requirements, the leaders of the ring assigned Social Security numbers to each betting account ? their own, not their customers. This allowed bettors to avoid reporting winnings to the government, the indictment said.
And it allowed the ring leaders to claim gambling losses on their tax returns, resulting in "massive tax windfalls," said U.S. Attorney David Kelley. One of the five, Anthony Uvari, 40 received a tax re fund of $156,794 in 2003, the indictment said. Another, David Appelbaum, 55, of Ardsley, Westchester, received $65,000 in tax relief by reporting $1.1 million in gambling losses that year.
The other principals of the ring were identified as Uvari's father, Gerald, 67, of Coconut Creek, Fla., and uncle, Cesare, 63, of Marlborough, N.J.
NYPD Organized Crime Detective Sgt. John Hayes said the Uvaris were originally from Bensonhurst. "They are low-level Genovese crime-family members and have been for a long time," he said.
Appelbaum, trainer Gregory Martin, 38, and Rene Poulin, 54, a harness-racing driver, were charged with doping a 6-year-old gelding named A One Rocket in the first race at Aqueduct on Dec. 18, 2003.
The horse had been sidelined with an injury for 10 months when he returned to racing on Nov. 21, 2003.
He came in eighth ? 16 lengths behind the winner.
He immediately dropped down to race against lower-class horses ? the real bottom of the barrel ? and nosed out a win on Dec 13.
Five days later, he faced 9-5 odds and was one of two favorites to win the first race at Aqueduct.
But Appelbaum, a k a "Pebbles," wasn't taking any chances.
So he decided to have the horse doped, prosecutors said.
A tube was inserted down A One Rocket's throat to remove the gas in his stomach, and then he was injected with a performance-enhancing drug, said Assistant Manhattan U.S. Attorney Benjamin Gruenstein.
"This is something that was happening regularly with in horse races Mr. Appelbaum was involved with," Gruenstein said.
Appelbaum now faces 250 years behind bars if convicted of all 44 illegal gambling and wire-fraud counts against him.
Additional reporting by Joe McGurk and Andy Geller
