Former owner of MLB steroid clinic sentenced to 4 years

MIAMI (AP) — The former owner of a Florida medical clinic who posed as a doctor and illegally supplied steroid injections and other performance-enhancing drugs to professional baseball players and even high school athletes was sentenced today to four years in federal prison.

Anthony Bosch — who choked back tears in court and said the clinic was a legitimate business gone awry — sought a more-lenient term because of his cooperation in the investigation, but U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles refused.

"This defendant was the most culpable in this conspiracy," the judge said.

Prosecutors said Bosch could still get his sentence reduced through further cooperation, including potential trial testimony.

Gayles said Bosch falsely held himself out as a licensed medical doctor at his Biogenesis of America clinic, where he accepted thousands of dollars a month to provide steroid injections to players such as New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers.

Most troubling, Judge Gayles said, was Bosch's injections of high-school players in the Miami area.

"He was the mastermind," Judge Gayles said. "He was the one who recruited others to assist him."