You, licensed standardbred trainer Stephen Andzel III, are hereby fined two thousand dollars ($2,000) because on November 16, 2019 and thereafter you have failed and refused repeatedly to cooperate in an official investigation of serious racing related matters when you had been directed, requested and ordered to do so by a Commission official, in violation of 9 NYCRR § 4119.7(d) and 4119.8(g), in that, after you had falsely recorded with the USTA the unauthorized transfers to yourself of the ownership of the horses Twomacsonemach and Justified, which were in your possession as their trainer, on or about November 12, 2019 by filing ownership transfer documents that were not authorized by the owner Britney Dillon and which falsely purported to be signed by her:
You repeatedly failed and refused to cooperate honestly with an investigation by Commission Investigator John DePlato as follows:
(a) you stated to Investigator DePlato that ownership of horse Twomacsonemach was transferred “accidentally” by a fax sent to USTA when transferring other horses for your father, while in fact the USTA had only one fax from you on November 12, 2019 and it contained only the false transfers of horses, Twomacsonemach and Justified, belonging to Britney Dillon and you failed to provide an explanation as to who falsely signed purporting to be owner Britney Dillon on the transfer form;
(b) you stated to Investigator DePlato that you had not transferred ownership of Justified, and while this is accurate, you failed to inform Investigator DePlato that you in fact had filed the transfer documentation with the USTA to accomplish the unauthorized transfer of Justified;
(c) you stated to Investigator DePlato that you were the one who noticed the change in ownership of Twomacsonemach and that you were the one who contacted Britney Dillon to advise her, while in fact you had not done so;
(d) you failed and refused to address in a written statement whether or not you informed Britney Dillon that the Judges at Batavia Downs would make a race time decision of owner change of Twomacsonemach back to Dillon;
(e) after you scratched Twomacsonemach as sick on November 16, 2019, you stated in both verbal and written statements that you had spoken with Peter Kanter, DVM about this veterinary matter, while in fact you had not spoken at any time about Twomacsonemach being sick with Dr. Kanter and he had no knowledge of this scratch; and
