Swiss Doctor Receives 14-Year Ban for Multiple Anti-Doping Violations

[admin]

Originally published at: Swiss Doctor Receives 14-Year Ban for Multiple Anti-Doping Violations - Slowtwitch News

A sports medicine doctor from Bern, Switzerland has been found guilty of multiple anti-doping violations by the Swiss Sports Tribunal and has received a ban from sport of 14 years and financial penalties of more than 40,000 Swiss francs.

The case stems from a January 2018 investigation performed by Swiss magazine Republik and the German TV network ARD. From our initial article on that investigation, the doctor was recorded on hidden camera recommending EPO and testosterone to a cross-country skier looking to get faster.

A brief transcript from that recording:

Doctor: Let us look at the blood. (…) It all looks good. Nothing suspicious. What we always discuss in sports medicine is hemoglobin and hematocrit. At 14.9 it is good. Highly normal. Hematocrit 44 is very good. One can see that nothing was manipulated. Many endurance athletes lift it to 50 and that one to 17.5. Because 17.5 is the limit. That would help.

Athlete: How can we raise it?

Doctor: Only EPO. EPO or testosterone. (…) That would surely add a performance boost.

This case was filed in December 2021 on behalf of Swiss Sport Integrity, the country’s anti-doping authority. After years of proceedings with no progress, both Swiss Sport Integrity and the World Anti-Doping Agency grew frustrated. It led to the creation of the Swiss Sports Tribunal, which heard this case in early December, 2024.

Swiss Sports Institute alleged that, beyond the above investigatory incident, the doctor had supplied testosterone, growth hormones, and tamoxifen to “sports friends.” The doctor had also attempted to administer or distribute EPO and testosterone to an “elite athlete.” And lastly, the doctor had taken testosterone, EPO, growth hormone, and more to enhance his own athletic performance as a triathlete.

The final report of the Tribunal found the doctor guilty of the following violations: Article 2.7 repeated distribution of prohibited substances; Article 2.8 attempted administration of prohibited substances; Article 2.6 possession of prohibited substances; and Article 2.2 use of prohibited substances. The doctor received his ban from sport was fined 14,000 Swiss francs. He was also ordered to cover the costs of the case, totaling an additional 29,000 Swiss francs.

A secondary criminal case was settled in December, 2022, with the doctor guilty of several violations of the Swiss Federal Act on the Promotion of Sport and Exercise.

[kajet]

@admin

And lastly, the doctor had taken testosterone, EPO, growth hormone, and more to enhance his own athletic performance as a triathlete.

Didn’t they know that the financial damage resulting from doing triathlons at elite AG level (I assume) can go into a multiple of CHF 14k, particularly if Kona is on your mind? Right @Michal_CH? Laughable. Do we know anything else about the doc? Any local color?

[Michal_CH]

There hasn’t been any Swiss doctor nor coach yet on the WADA Prohibited Association List. Once WADA updates the list, he’ll be the only Swiss on the list: Prohibited Association List | World Anti Doping Agency

Interestingly, he indeed took part in Kona, potentially around mid-2010s.

No local flavour, luckily

[Ajax_Bay]

From another report (translated):
A doctor from the capital Bern has become the first medical doctor to be sentenced with a record fine by the newly created Swiss Sports Court. The reason for the proceedings was an investigation by the ARD doping editorial team with the Swiss magazine “Republik” in January 2018.

For the film “Doping Secret: The Olympic Conspiracy II”, the doctor was filmed with a hidden camera bragging about the doping of a German professional cycling team and giving a decoy precise instructions on how to dope professionally.

In the film, emails were also shown indicating that the same doctor also carried out contract work for one of the leading Russian doping doctors - even though that doctor, the former chief physician of the Russian track and field athletes, Sergei Portugalov had been banned: as one of the leading minds of Russian state doping. In addition, ARD had a letter from the then president of the International Cycling Union UCI, Pat McQuaid, to the Swiss public prosecutor’s office. It shows that the UCI apparently gave indications of possible doping on cyclists by the subject Bernese doctor as early as 2009.

Nevertheless, the sports law proceedings against the doctor took seven years and a new sports court in Switzerland before finally being concluded this week. The doctor has been sentenced to a 14-year ban and a fine of 14,000 Swiss francs (just under 15,000 euros) for multiple violations of the doping statute. In addition, he must compensate the Swiss doping investigation team of Swiss Sports Integrity (SSI) with 29,000 Swiss francs (just under 31,000 euros). He was found guilty by the new Swiss court after a main hearing on 10 December 2024, for “repeated dispensing, attempted administration, possession and use of prohibited substances” before the sentence was announced. According to a statement from Swiss Sports Integrity, the court considered it proven that “the doctor had given testosterone, growth hormones and tamoxifen to so-called ‘sports friends’ and other persons”.

In addition, he had “tried several times to administer or dispense erythropoietin and testosterone to a top athlete” [sport not specified]. In addition, the doctor, himself an “active endurance athlete and triathlete, has repeatedly used testosterone, growth factors and erythropoietin to improve performance on himself”. However, the ban is not to be confused with a ban on practising medicine or a withdrawal of the licence to practise medicine. He is only no longer allowed to be active in organised sports during this time. Athletes who are treated by him are also threatened with penalties.

However, the “Luzerner Zeitung” rightly points to a serious problem of the case. Because Swiss Sports Integrity is not allowed to mention the name of the doctor, athletes cannot necessarily know which doctor is meant – until he appears on the official “Prohibited Association List” of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which includes 172 names so far, which includes banned support staff for athletes. But then he would be easy to identify: as the only Swiss.

And: Because the doctor himself started as a triathlete, Swiss Sports Integrity (SSI) lists him by name on its list of banned “athletes”. “We are very satisfied with this ruling. It is incomparably more difficult to prosecute a doctor than an athlete for doping,” SSI Director Ernst König is quoted in the “Luzerner Zeitung”: “Medical secrecy offers him (as a doctor) a certain protection.” In terms of criminal law, however, the Swiss were much faster. Almost three years ago, the doctor had already accepted a penalty order for a conditional fine of 123 daily rates of 170 francs each (a total of about 22,500 euros) from the public prosecutor’s office in Bern. According to the report, he had sold doping substances worth around 20,000 Swiss francs (just under 21,300 euros) to friends, colleagues and patients between 2015 and 2018, all of them allegedly amateur athletes. Doping support of professional athletes, on the other hand, could not be proven to the doctor despite the numerous indications.

[TulkasTri]

Now do the Mexican coach with the 3 or 4 banned athletes.

[waverider101]

Can they take any private patients moving forward? Wouldn’t mind booking a consult, got a local race coming up and I want to impress my mates

[chrisb12]

@Ajax_Bay

Doping support of professional athletes, on the other hand, could not be proven to the doctor despite the numerous indications.

So numerous indications he has doped professional athletes, just can’t be proven. Well that is a let down. There are at least a couple of athetes that I have thought “wow! where did these new level performances come from”
Sounds like he has closer ties with cycling though.

[Lurker4]

@waverider101

Can they take any private patients moving forward? Wouldn’t mind booking a consult, got a local race coming up and I want to impress my mates

Can you imagine how stupid they’d have to be to even contemplate crossing this line again? I’m surprised most doctors aren’t worried about a planned test from authorities trying to catch illegal administrations of these drugs. Or is there no problem with recreational use and it’s all on the athlete to be in compliance?

[adgatri]

Might be location dependent, but it seems pretty laissez faire. Look at Bryan Johnson aka Blueprint guy. Gets testosterone, HGH, metformin, etc. from his longevity doctor and he clearly doesn’t suffer from muscle wasting or diabetes.

[redcloud]

I’m not sure if I’d call him stupid. He’s lost a total of maybe about $75,000, at the most? He could still “consult” with clients for a fee, since he didn’t lose his medical license, and then just give inquisitive minds a protocol where they could go black market for the actual prescriptions/illegal meds. No big deal, at all, for someone who already wants to dope. The only thing he’d need is a really solid vetting process to make sure he’s not recommending to some narc. Otherwise, this seems pretty dang lucrative to me.

He can still work as a doctor… and there is only the slimmest of chances that he didn’t earn more than the cumulative penalties from clients. It seems like barely even a slap on the wrist to me. Hell, he could probably charge MORE now, because he has to do it all under the table. We may not hear from this guy again, but I’d bet we’ll unknowingly appreciate his work for years to come.

[ecce-homo]

Plus he got some free publicity that might attract more customers.