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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 burgeoning 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, the 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 the issue of performance-enhancing drugs and left the sport's officials scrambling. Without more substantial evidence, they are limited in how they can discipline the players.

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-boy institution founded by the Marist Brothers, a Catholic organization.

Bosch's father, Pedro Publio Bosch, has been a doctor for more than 36 years. In a statement issued through his lawyer to reporters, he denied involvement with the players mentioned in the Miami New Times article. He did not respond to phone messages seeking comment.

Pedro Bosch's success gave Anthony access to Miami's exclusive, well-connected Cuban-American social circle, which has produced many of the city's power brokers. But Anthony seemed to choose a different path, one that prized quick money and instant gratification, a decision that over the years led him into a spiral of divorces, broken partnerships, businesses gone bust and dishonesty, according to court records and business associates. The latest split came last year, apparently prompting him to launch Biogenesis.

Biogenesis is in Coral Gables, across U.S. 1 from the University of Miami, among a group of offices on property that used to be a motel. The swimming pool is still there, as well as old concrete picnic tables. A canal runs along the back.

Major League Baseball investigators believe that many of the players never met face to face with Bosch there, receiving substances instead through intermediaries, according to two baseball officials briefed on the matter. The investigators' suspicions have been stoked in recent days by several denials from players who said they never had direct contact with Bosch.

In recent months, the investigators have uncovered evidence that an employee for the player agents Sam and Seth Levinson was one of those intermediaries. Last summer, investigators discovered that the employee, Juan Carlos Nunez, had helped Cabrera hatch a cover-up scheme to avoid being suspended for testing positive for elevated testosterone. Cabrera received a 50-game suspension.

Baseball officials believe that the Levinsons knew about the plot, although the players union has cleared them of wrongdoing. After discovering the plot, Major League Baseball began to more closely scrutinize Nunez and the Levinsons. That led investigators to clinics in Florida.

Three of the players identified in the Miami New Times article — Cabrera, Gio Gonzalez and Nelson Cruz — were the Levinsons' clients.

The two baseball officials said Friday that many of their investigators were trying to learn more about the clinic. "It's all hands on deck," one official said.

The investigators have sought to talk to Romero and Acevedo, among others, the officials said.

When baseball's investigators began looking into Nunez, the Levinsons and the clinic last summer, they created an improvised war room in the commissioner's Park Avenue office in New York, where they mapped out a web of people tied to the clinic. Acevedo was among those people, according to one of the officials.

A Facebook page linked to Revive Miami said Acevedo was its founder, calling him an "avid health specialist and program director for the hormone therapy treatment." It continued, "His experience comes from years of research and experience at some of South Florida's most reputable health and rejuvenation clinics."

Acevedo could not be reached for comment, and the Facebook page is no longer visible to the public.

Romero, who said he cut ties with the anti-aging business last year and turned Revive Miami over to Acevedo, said he was surprised to learn of the allegations that Bosch had professional athletes spending thousands of dollars on treatment. He said that such money did not flow back to the business when he was affiliated with Bosch. There had been rumors that Bosch treated such people, he said, but he was not familiar with any baseball players who were patients.

"It was a side thing, I guess," Romero said, referring to Bosch.

A Challenging Industry

The Miami New Times article, which Romero said he read three times, explained that Bosch had notebooks full of patient notes. The newspaper said that it received records from an unnamed former employee of the clinic, and that the records included handwritten notations of drugs that were supposedly given to players. The newspaper displayed some of the records on its Web site, but the documents had not been independently authenticated.

Romero said that he was familiar with the notebooks and that the handwriting looked like Bosch's, adding that it looked almost like "hieroglyphics." He said he was not privy to the contents of the notes.

He said it was hard to believe that an athlete of Rodriguez's caliber would trust Bosch. "I don't know how the guy can tie his shoes, let alone have A-Rod as a client," Romero said.

For many reasons, Romero said, the anti-aging business amounted to a losing proposition. Despite the inherent challenges, plenty of people have tried it in recent years. Drive around or search the Web and their numbers are obvious, although statistics in Florida are elusive because the centers are not licensed or regulated by the state.

"The Florida Department of Health does not license a facility type known as anti-aging clinics, and does not recognize this type of facility in our state," said Ashley Carr, a spokeswoman with the department.

The state does regulate pain management clinics, massage establishments and electrolysis facilities, among other things. Many of the doctors are legitimate.

Bosch launched a number of failed medical businesses before returning from Belize in 2009 with a degree from the Central America Health Sciences University, according to the Miami New Times. He would wear a white lab coat with "Dr. Tony Bosch" embroidered on it, the article said, and a medical degree from the university hung on his wall.

Many believed he was a medical doctor, including Romero, and by looks alone, he played the part well. He was smart and sounded well-informed when he spoke about treatment, Romero said.

A growing number of physicians in South Florida are pursuing anti-aging practices full time or dabbling in them.

"Part of that is because people are tired of being sick and tired and are looking for something that can help them look better feel better and have great sex," said Dr. Mitchell Ghen, who has been practicing anti-aging, or integrative, medicine in South Florida for three decades. Ghen has written several textbooks on the subject for other doctors.

It can also be lucrative.

Sales of hormones and androgens around the country have jumped in the last five years. In 2011, 5.3 million hormone and androgen drugs were dispensed. In 2007, that number was 2.9 million, according to data from IMS Health, a company that provides market research to the pharmaceutical and health care industries.

Florida, which had rampant sales of prescription painkillers through so-called pill mills until a recent crackdown, has also seen a spread of clinics that dole out hormones for unnecessary reasons. In recent years, there have been several high-profile arrests of doctors, pharmacists and clinic operators. The practitioners and clinics were also selling painkillers like oxycodone, turning the establishments into one-stop shops.

In most cases, the doctors were complicit in allowing clinics to use their prescription pads to access the drugs. The pharmacists dispensed the drugs without question.