Biogenesis Whistleblower Says Other Sports Have Athletes Who Took PEDs
The man who started the investigation that took down Major League Baseball's Ryan Braun (and possibly Alex Rodriguez) has come forward to explain why blew the whistle on an infamous Miami clinic, and says that there are plenty of other athletes we still don't know about.
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Porter Fischer is a former employee of the Biogenesis clinic and the source that opened the door to a January Miami New Times investigation tying Biogenesis and its owner, Tony Bosch, to several MLB players who are accused of using performance enhancing drugs. Bosch, who sometimes presented himself as a doctor though he is not, offered "medical" treatments to numerous athletes and allegedly sold several of them banned steroids and others doping drugs. The New Times story identified several MLB players by name, including Braun and Rodriguez.
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In first interview since coming forward, Fischer tells ESPN's Outside The Lines there are many more professional athletes who were "treated" by Bosch, and they are not just baseball players. He's says the athletes — who he chose not to identify by name — came from the NBA, pro boxing, tennis, MMA, and college sports. He says he does not know of any NFL or NHL players who used the clinic.
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Fischer was a former client of Bosch's who was later hired to do marketing work for the Biogenesis clinic. He took several boxes of documents from the clinic and turned them over to the New Times, who used them to connect shipments of banned substances directly to several athletes. The same evidence was later used by Major League Baseball to suspend Milwaukee Brewer Ryan Braun for 65 games, and there are reports that more punishments will soon be handed down by the league to other players.
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Although Fischer says MLB investigators paid him for access to the documents (and offered much more than he took), he admits that it was not money or good citizenship that motivated him. It was revenge. He said that Bosch owed him a few thousands dollar for work that he had done, and when Bosch refused to pay him, he went to the paper, hoping to get the clinic investigated. (Miami New Times did not pay him for his story.)
I was like, 'I want my money.' He was like, 'I'm Dr. Tony Bosch. What are you going to do about it?'" Fischer said. "So this is what I did about it."
Despite the story bringing national attention to Biogenesis, no criminal investigation was ever filed, and no other sports leagues ever contacted Fischer about the clinic's clients. But Fischer does say he received death threats, had some of the documents stolen from his car, was chased by other vehicles, and "someone tried to poison one of his dogs and that several times he found feces on his car." He says he now carries a concealed weapon for protection.
