Feds hope Ramon Scruggs and New Hope Health Center lead them to MLB agents, players, and steroids
Ramon Scruggs and the New Hope Health Center: Sounds like a funky bluegrass band...or maybe a revival tent show coming to your town this summer. Federal agents hope that Scruggs and Band sing some harmony into indictments of conspiracy, steroid distribution, fraud, and money laundering for a legal circus due out this summer. (find last months preliminary look into this action involving MLB players like Glaus involved with Dr. Scruggs) (Scruggs Indictment here)
The New York Post appears to be first on the scene to note the following shocking lines in the Scruggs and Co indictment in California. Non-specified MLB agents are named in the conspiracy section, but not indicted.
The known MLB players who utilized Scruggs 'services' include The New York Met's Scott Schoeneweis and the St. Louis Cardinal's Troy Glaus. From the Daily News:
The indictment does not name Scruggs’ clients, but he was linked last year to prescribing steroids to Mets reliever Scott Schoeneweis and Troy Glaus of the St. Louis Cardinals in 2003 and 2004. Scruggs also appeared in the Mitchell Report on performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.
Schoeneweis’ agent is Scott Boras, while Glaus’ agent is Mike Nicotera.
“I have no knowledge of this medical practitioner or any relationship that he has with any of our clients,” Boras told the Associated Press. “We have never referred any of our clients to a wellness center.” The Mets declined comment.
The chain goes like this: [player's agent] > [player] > Dr. Scruggs and team at New Hope Health Center in Costa Mesa/Tustin CA > Signature Pharmacy in Orlando FL > shipping. Fill in the hypothetical [agent]/[player] blanks: Schoeneweis/Nicotera, and Glaus (to the right)/Boras (left below).
Drugs involved in the Scruggs/NHHC deals include androlone, testosterone and stanolozol, HGH and other prescription drugs. And remember, Schoenewies played dumb last year when investigators found his name among the Florida Internet users; wonder if he can continue to deny involvement in this issue when the proceedings get to court?
Other references: New York Times and Baseball's Steroid Era on good background. The Times says:
Documents filed by the state medical board in June 2004 and updated in June 2006 said Scruggs had “prescribed approximately 6,073 prescriptions of dangerous drugs or controlled substances over the Internet without a good faith examination of the patients” in and out of California since 2000. Scruggs settled the matter and accepted a $4,800 fine and 35 months of probation.
Scruggs was described as “an antiaging and performance specialist” in an interview in 2000 on the Web site anabolicextreme.com. He said at the time that he was concerned about how other doctors viewed him.
Bet all of the above become more concerned about their reputations as this affair unravels -- and concerned about their legal defenses.
Why should Dr. Scruggs help the "feds" when the indictment was completely written in lies ,half truths and plain ignorance.
Posted by:Christina Van Horik | 04/12/2008 at 18:50
This indictment is total IGNORANCE! My 76 year old mother went to Dr. Scruggs after almost passing away in a hospital under many different doctors care. If it wasn't for Dr. Scruggs, she wouldn't be here today!!! I myself along with my daughter and husband all have him as our doctor. He is the only docotor I have ever known to exhaust every mean to actually find out what the medical problems are, instead of just medicating the symptoms.
Posted by:Sharon Todd | 05/13/2008 at 17:44