This article is by Steve Eder, Lizette Alvarez and Michael S. Schmidt.
MIAMI — Revive Miami, an anti-aging clinic, was tucked at the end of a hallway on the fourth floor of an office building on a bustling street crowded with restaurants and stores.
The clinic's door was locked this week; the company had apparently shut down. But a business card was wedged against the door. An investigator for Major League Baseball had stopped by, seeking answers.
Baseball officials and law enforcement officers are trying to penetrate the often opaque world of anti-aging clinics, which have proliferated in the Miami area in recent years and have become linked to some of the sport's biggest stars. Anthony Bosch, a former partner of the Revive Miami founders, is at the center of the growing baseball doping scandal.
In this region's teeming medical industry, with businesses offering promises of weight loss, muscle gain and mood enhancement, the clinics can take on a glamorous sheen in their efforts to entice wealthy clients. But that was hardly the case behind the scenes at the clinic where Bosch, 49, treated patients in recent years, according to a business partner.
Bosch was a "disaster," disorganized and unreliable and at times "incoherent," said Xavier Romero, a former patient of Bosch's who later invested with Bosch.
A newspaper, Miami New Times, reported this week that it had obtained medical records from the clinic Biogenesis of America that linked six major leaguers, including Alex Rodriguez and Melky Cabrera, to the use of banned substances. Biogenesis was run by Bosch.
Bosch, through a lawyer, has denied the claims, and several of the players whose names appeared in the article have issued statements denying involvement.
The allegations have once again tied baseball to performance-enhancing drugs and left the sport's officials scrambling. Without more substantial evidence, they are limited in their actions.
Romero's connection to the anti-aging industry began in mid-2011, when a friend recommended he see Dr. Tony Bosch at a clinic called Biokem. Romero, 28, had always been skinny and was trying to bulk up. Soon after seeing Bosch, he began to put on weight, adding about 30 pounds.
"He was God to me," said Romero, who later learned that Bosch was not a licensed doctor. "No one could do that for me, no matter what I ate."
Romero said he was so impressed by the results that he decided to invest with Bosch and his partner Carlos Acevedo, who were interested in expanding. Using capital Romero provided, the three set out to launch Revive Miami L.L.C., which initially shared space with Biokem.
It was Bosch's job, Romero said, to use his contacts to get the prescriptions necessary to fuel the business, although it remains unclear how he obtained chemicals like human growth hormone. However, Romero said he quickly grew uncomfortable with Bosch and his work ethic, and in the spring of 2012, he and Acevedo decided to move Revive Miami to its own offices a few miles away, leaving Bosch behind to launch Biogenesis of America.
Romero said that when they parted, Bosch told him, "You are going to come back to me in six months because you failed — because I'm the king." The two have not spoken since, and both clinics appear to be out of business.
Bosch's lawyer, Susy Ribero-Ayala, declined to respond to Romero's comments.
Hernan Dominguez Jr., who said he was a longtime friend of Bosch's, said the portrayal of Bosch in the news media was unfair.
"Because a businessman fails in various ventures does not make him a failure," Dominguez said in an electronic message. "Because a man and a woman fail in a marriage doesn't make them failures. It makes them human. He has a fantastic relationship with his ex-wives and all his children. Public records may be accurate, but they do not reflect a person's relationship with his friends and family."
Choosing a Different Path
Bosch grew up in a wealthy Miami neighborhood filled with majestic banyan trees and graduated from one of Miami's best-known preparatory schools, Christopher Columbus High, an all-boys institution founded by the Marist Brothers, a Catholic organization.
Steve Eder and Lizette Alvarez reported from Miami, and Michael S. Schmidt from Washington. Alain Delaquérière contributed research from New York.
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