According to a report in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Mick Ruis, best known in horse racing circles as the owner and trainer of multiple Grade I winner Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro), is among three scaffolding executives who have been indicted on charges that they conspired to defraud the U.S. Navy through a scheme that allegedly involved lies and trickery to secure construction-related contracts with the U.S. Navy.Ruis is the lead defendant in the case.Ruis left the sport in 2007 only to return in 2017. During his hiatus, he founded a company named American Scaffolding. He told the TDN that he sold the company and used the money from the sale to get back into racing. He had immediate success and went on to win the 2017 GI Del Mar Futurity and the GI FrontRunner Stakes with Bolt d'Oro as a two-year-old. He purchased the horse for $630,000 at the 2016 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale.According to the Union-Tribune, Ruis, Isaiah Levi Diehl and Shawn Peilun Huang allegedly conspired to use a scaffolding company owned by Huang that qualified as a small business to apply for and win contracts the Navy had specifically set aside for small businesses, but they allegedly planned all along to use larger companies to actually complete the work. Ruis was indicted alongside his two co-defendants on federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and major fraud against the United States. All three have entered not guilty pleas.According to the indictment, the three defendants engaged in two separate fraud schemes throughout parts of 2020 and 2021 involving contracts awarded by Navy Sea Systems Command, or NAVSEA,” the Union-Tribune has reported. The first scheme allegedly targeted NAVSEA's Southwest Regional Maintenance Center in San Diego and involved intermingling the names of two companies in order to confuse contracting personnel at the Southwest Regional Maintenance Center into awarding a contract to a company ineligible for that specific contract.The indictment does not name the companies, but government records indicated one was Vertical Horizon Scaffold, which was allegedly a small business based in Santee owned by Huang that was eligible for certain contracts the Navy set aside for small businesses. Government records indicated the other company was called Vertical Horizon Marine. The indictment alleged Ruis was the majority owner of that second company.The purported scheme, involving a contract with a ceiling of $17.6 million, was allegedly successful when government personnel in 2021 awarded the contract to Vertical Horizon Marine, which was not a small business eligible to win the contract, instead of Vertical Horizon Scaffold, the small business that initially bid on the contract.The second scheme allegedly targeted NAVSEA's Southeast Regional Maintenance Center in Florida. The indictment alleged the conspirators again applied in the name of Huang's Vertical Horizon Scaffold for a contract set aside for small business that was worth up to $7 million. But this time, the defendants allegedly intended to simply win the contract using the small business and then complete the work using two larger companies that were ineligible.Ruis did not respond to a text message from the TDN asking for a comment.His attorney, Jan Ronis, told the Union-Tribune the following: “My only response at this time is that Mr. Ruis has only been given a copy of the indictment and has made an appearance in court in which a plea of not guilty has been entered. Keeping in mind the American tradition that an indictment is not evidence, and a person charged is presumed to be innocent, it would be inappropriate to comment further in this very early stage of the proceedings.”Ruis was in the headlines when he fought a successful battle to have the results of the GI Santa Anita Derby overturned. Bolt d'Oro finished second behind Justify (Scat Daddy). Justify tested positive for scopolamine, but was not disqualified by the California Horse Racing Board. A Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled in favor of Ruis, and Bolt d'Oro. Justify was subsequently disqualified and placed last and Bolt d'Oro was officially declared the winner. In his next start, he finished 12th in the GI Kentucky Derby.Ruis last started a horse on Sept. 6 at Del Mar.According to the Union-Tribune, Ruis's son, Alvin McDonald Ruis III, recently went on trial for murder in San Diego Superior Court for allegedly killing his cellmate at the downtown San Diego Central Jail. Alvin Ruis III, who also goes by Mick, testified at trial that he tortured and killed Brandon Yates while in the throes of a psychotic break. The jury eventually deadlocked on the murder charge, and a judge declared a mistrial. The younger Ruis had a brief career as a jockey, winning 454 races from 2003 to 2008.The post Report: Owner-Trainer Mick Ruis Facing Federal Charges That He Defrauded The U.S. Navy appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.