Are they thinking that the horse was never identified to them correctly? Or that perhaps the horse was switched between the one they looked at and the one they actually bought?
I’m confused if they said there were two horses, one switched for the other, or just one horse with a false identity. It seems that a lesser-quality horse would have been identified as lesser-quality by the buyer when they tried it.
I think I found it, or an earlier filing at least
Unfortunately I can’t get the documents that were just linked (thanks @SlamDunk) to fully open. But multiple articles now indicate that when it comes to this horse in the Aziz lawsuit, they don’t think the actual horse matches the vet and competition records associated with it. And the Daily Beast article linked to a vet report used in court that discusses the multiple microchips. The horse apparently was purchased from Belgium over a decade ago. Apparently there are two other horses who were part of this lawsuit as well, and one eventually was resold for just $8,000 (I think) after demonstrating very very little aptitude for jumping.
It seems like there was some sort of switching scheme going on. Lamaze was definitely an agent in this transaction… not sure if he was acting as agent on both sides of the transaction and stacking commissions. He’s been accused of that in other cases. But it seems like the Aziz family (the buyers) relied upon his representations and paid him for his advice. I’m also not sure if they tried the horses prior to buying, or relied upon their show and vet records, and the advice of their agent. Some people do buy off video and competition records, especially if they have a high end trainer advising them.
I’m way behind but…would that type of scarring show up on ultrasound?
I just pulled back up the recent article on this issue, and am copying and pasting in the exact wording from the reporter, because it seems to me to imply that someone tipped off Karina Aziz to thoroughly investigate whether or not this horse had been nerved previously. Maybe it was one of the “enablers” …
Also, I think if you click on the bolded ‘veterinary report’ it will take you to the actual report including photographs and x rays. ETA, the vet examined the medial PD aspect of the pastern and identified thickening along the medial pd nerve which is suspicious for previous neuroma - common post neurectomy complication.
From the Daily Beast:
“In Aziz’s case, the most egregious alleged misrepresentation was with a horse named Peppercorn, which went lame less than a year after the $265,000 transaction, the lawsuit says. The complaint accuses Lamaze of concealing the horse’s true “identity, age, show record, physical condition and capabilities.”
After filing her lawsuit, Aziz says, she was told to investigate whether Peppercorn had undergone a “neurectomy,” a surgery that results in a horse losing feeling in its foot—thereby making it dangerous and unfit for show jumping.
She and her team shaved Peppercorn’s front legs and, “sure enough,” they found scars. A veterinary report prepared for Aziz says the marks are “strongly suspicious for surgical neurectomy.”
On the one hand it seems a bit curious that horse people took so long to determine that this horse was not the quality his paper records indicated that he was.
But it’s a red herring. What matters is that they relied on a prestigious rider/trainer who was in the role of expert advisor. Who was lying to them, cheating them. To enrich himself at their expense.
I’m sure EL was explaining away any questions that were, in fact, raised informally over the months.
It’s sort of like the art expert who negotiated your purchase of an authentic Picasso saying “Well you should have known that it was a forgery. I knew it was a forgery. It’s not my fault that you trusted me while I cheated you.”
Bottom line, it doesn’t matter that they did not realize that the horse was not as advertised. What matters is that EL lied to them about the horse for his endgame.
There’s a term for people who gain the confidence of others, in order to cheat them.
Reading those court documents linked above begs the question why did they keep buying horses from him? After the second misrepresented horse I would have tapped out.
Making the victim responsible makes the rest of us feel better that “it couldn’t happen to me”.
Yes. Apparently he routinely told clients who were having trouble riding horses he sources for them that the issue was that they sucked as riders.
If he was selling very rideable horses who simply couldn’t jump at higher levels (and thus were actually sourced by Lamaze for a lower price point, unbeknownst to the client) to naïve but ambitious amateurs… I can see how this sort of scam might work. Just keep telling the rider the reason their sweet new Dobbin keeps pulling rails is that their riding is awful.
Poor rider. Poor low level Dobbin who really should be just going around at the lower levels, and not pushed past their ability.
That’s a human question, not a legal one, though. The answer could be very useful to help us all stay out of the same situation in some area of life. People can be blind to the truth about someone who they trust and/or have affection for, for years.
Legally all that matters is that he is a career con artist who has cheated people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, again and again, over the course of many years.
We just don’t want to think that it could happen to us. We want to think that we would be so much more perceptive than the person who was cheated. Hopefully so. But under the right circumstances, anyone can fall for a con.
Thanks, I looked at the veterinary report but it doesn’t say anything about ultrasound. She did mention “thickening” but didn’t specify the method used, so I wonder if it was by palpation. I had a sports medicine vet for a while that was an absolute genius at detecting lower leg anomalies via ultrasound, so I was just curious as to whether an ultrasound would reveal evidence of neurectomy, to help determine if they need to take the next step of shaving the leg for visible inspection. I’m also curious about whether such an ultrasound would be more reliable or definitive than palpation - and if so, would it be a good idea to include U/S in a PPE, esp. for an older horse. 
This is so funny to me because I didn’t know Perry was a doctor commenting on this article so I asked him this same question two weeks ago and he was like “Nah, not possible.”
Ha! That’s funny. He must be wondering why multiple people are making these random inquiries about fictional artificial kidneys.
He just put it together that we were asking about the same thing. When I texted him this morning he asked “Do you know this guy?” and I had to explain that basically everyone knows of him and why he is so famous.
he purportedly received an unapproved alternative, an artificial kidney controlled by a computer chip.
“I kind of immediately started to feel better, to be honest. My body just started to clean itself a little bit,” he told the interviewer.
This kind of implant would have placed Lamaze at the vanguard of medical technology. Pressed for more details, he tells The Daily Beast he worked with a doctor in either Australia or New Zealand, though he declines to name them. As for procuring the organ, he says, “They have access to things on the internet that nobody else has access to… Depending how many people need it, it’s a bidding war.”
I wonder if he was told it was artificial when in fact the surgical team knew it was a black-market kidney sold by a willing donor, or stolen from an unwitting donor. (And if the former, who but a drug addict would be so desperate for money they would willingly sell one of their kidneys, and if so, who in their right mind would want an organ from a hard core addict?)
OTOH, he is such a liar and all around despicable person, he probably knew it was a black-market kidney and invented the story about it being artificial so he wouldn’t have to admit he had willingly gotten it via nefarious means. What a scumbag - and the fact that EC made him Chef makes me wonder who on that nominating committee might have been “in cahoots” with him regarding drug usage. Was everyone that voted for him also a cocaine user? 
It would appear that Mr. Lamaze is indeed suffering from a medical condition.
Cranial fecal impaction.
He’s full of crap.
I’m guessing the more accurate situation is that none of this happened and he is inventing details to explain events that are otherwise unexplainable to any person with actual knowledge.
Good point. He is apparently like a certain other someone in the dressage world in the ability to invent or spin stories to deliberately mislead others. “Reality” exists only in the minds of those folks.
See… you seem to be assuming that there is some sort of kidney problem.
I doubt that’s even true.
He has said the “oral chemo” he claims he took for his ALLEGED brain cancer caused some sort of kidney damage.
I call BS .
I took 5 types of chemo over a 10 month period during my active treatment for breast cancer. First I did a TAC (Taxotere, Adriamycin, and Cytoxan) regimen. That was brutal and my body reacted poorly and I was hospitalized at the end of it for several days with nonstop vomiting. But… my kidneys handled it fine according to my bloodwork. Then, a few months later following surgery and radiation I did multiple rounds of a Carboplatin and Gemzar regimen, which was intended to control suspected micro-metastases. And that was ALSO brutal, and I was hospitalized at the end of that as well. My bone marrow was not functioning well and I went both anemic and neutropenic and had to get multiple transfusions. But again… my kidneys handled it all ok… barely any budge in my bloodwork.
It took several months after the end of the second chemo regimen before I felt halfway normal… but by the following year I was running pretty regularly and did a 5k. And I was on a full course of oral hormone suppression therapy then and dealing with multiple continuing surgeries. My kidney function was completely fine though.
Anyways… according to my oncologists in my case they really pushed a LOT of chemo because it was the best course of action for my particular case. And it was nasty and I didn’t tolerate it well. But my liver and kidneys came through it all without issue. So I am of the opinion that Lamaze is completely fabricating the kidney stuff, unless his kidneys are failing for OTHER reasons, having nothing to do with any sort of chemotherapy or cancer.
That’s what ran through my mind.
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