Eight months after a Miami New Times investigation revealed that Coral Gables anti-aging clinic Biogenesis was slinging performance-enhancing drugs to pro athletes, the fallout keeps growing.
Fourteen baseball players were suspended by August. Hometown superstar Alex Rodriguez's career hangs in the balance as he appeals his historic 211-game ban.
One central figure, though, has so far eluded punishment: clinic founder Tony Bosch. That might change soon. In addition to an ongoing federal grand jury investigation of the faux doctor, Miami-Dade prosecutors have begun their own probe.
An attorney for one athlete mentioned in Bosch's records tells New Times his client recently received a subpoena from the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.
Ed Griffith, a spokesman for the state attorney, confirms prosecutors are looking at Bosch. "We believe there may be issues of state concern in this case, and we are investigating them," he says.
The federal investigation was disclosed in August, after a Miami grand jury issued a subpoena to Porter Fischer, the former clinic employee who leaked documents to New Times showing A-Rod and others were buying performance-enhancing drugs from Bosch. Fischer is cooperating with the feds and has shared boxes of those documents with prosecutors; the feds reportedly might try to build a case that Bosch sold drugs to high school athletes. (A spokeswoman for Bosch and his attorney, Susy Ribero-Ayala, declined to comment for this story.)
The state and federal probes come after a first attempt to nail Bosch on criminal charges mysteriously dried up. The Florida Department of Health spent months interviewing witnesses to charge Bosch — who is not a licensed doctor in Florida — with practicing medicine without a license, a felony. But the DOH abruptly closed the case in April with only a cease-and-desist letter and a $5,000 fine.
Bosch, perhaps not coincidentally, then became Major League Baseball's star witness against his former clients. Faced with Bosch's evidence, 13 players accepted suspensions, including All-Star sluggers Ryan Braun and Nelson Cruz, who earned 65-game and 50-game bans, respectively.
Bosch is expected to testify this week in New York as Rodriguez appeals his longer suspension to an arbitration panel.
If Miami prosecutors have their way, it won't be the last time Bosch has to testify about Biogenesis.
