Ex-Biogenesis employee discusses role in investigation
Porter Fischer, a former Biogenesis employee who exposed the anti-aging Miami clinic's association with numerous baseball players, said in an interview aired Thursday on ESPN's "Outside the Lines" that he has received little assistance from law enforcement after he turned over documents to a newspaper earlier this year.
Biogenesis and its founder, Anthony Bosch, are at the center of a Major League Baseball investigation into performance-enhancing drugs, with Ryan Braun's suspension for the remainder of the 2013 season reportedly the first of a number of Major League players who could be disciplined for their association with the clinic.
Fischer turned over boxes of documents to the Miami New Times newspaper, whose report in January put Biogenesis and players including Alex Rodriguez, Bartolo Colon and Nelson Cruz under investigation by MLB. Fischer said athletes from many other sports, including the NBA, college athletics and mixed-martial arts, were clients of the clinic, some on the books since 2009. MLB is the only sports entity that has been in contact with him, he said.
In his first television interview, Fischer, a marketing executive, said he had been a Biogenesis client and invested $4,000 in the company with a promise from Bosch that he'd receive $4,800 in return. Once payments stopped at $1,200 and Bosch refused to pay more, Fischer went public with the documents.
"When I would approach him for money, he'd be like, 'I don't have it. I don't have it.' And 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."
Fischer took the documents to the New Times hoping to start a federal investigation into Bosch calling himself a doctor when he was not, and professional athletes receiving banned substances.
"I was really, really counting on somebody from law enforcement to come up and take me under their wing and have me as a witness in a criminal investigation, but that never happened," he said.
Major League Baseball officials were in contact with Fischer once the article came out, and he said MLB eventually paid him $5,500 as a "down payment" for his help in the investigation. He said he turned down $125,000 from MLB, and ESPN confirmed that figure with an MLB source. When he turned down the money, MLB investigators instructed him to keep the documents, he said. He remains "amenable" to working with MLB, but says he needs more financial support because his employment opportunities are limited now that his "life has been turned upside down."
"I think baseball's doing the right thing, and I think it's admirable that they're taking a stand against PEDs in the sport," Fischer said.