|
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
1 5 - 0 7 - 2 0 0 5 Lab founder Conte cuts deal, faces jail
PLEA ARRANGEMENT MEANS TRIAL WOULD BE AVOIDED
By Elliott Almond and Sean Webby
Balco Laboratories founder Victor Conte Jr. struck a deal with federal prosecutors late Thursday that includes a four-month prison term and four months of house arrest in a case that sparked the biggest sports drug scandal in history, the Mercury News has learned. The case against Conte -- the centerpiece of the government's internationally publicized criminal investigation into steroids -- looks to be resolved with a plea deal to two felonies, a short stay in a minimum-security prison, two years of probation and a fine. Conte, 55, plans to sign an agreement today, but it must be approved by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston before the settlement is official. A hearing is scheduled today in San Francisco before her. ``Mr. Conte has always accepted responsibility for the conduct reflected in this plea agreement and is looking forward to putting the case behind him,'' said Conte's attorney, Mary McNamara, in a prepared statement. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in San Francisco did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. The other defendants in the case are also believed to be close to settling with the government. Balco vice president James Valente is expected to accept probation, and Greg Anderson, Barry Bonds' personal trainer, could get probation or up to six months in prison. Attorneys for East Bay track coach Remi Korchemny also are working to secure a deal that could be in place by today. None of the attorneys for the co-defendants immediately returned calls Thursday night. Conte's plea bargain, reached after months of private negotiations, means the San Mateo man charged with giving elite athletes such as the Giants' Bonds and the New York Yankees' Jason Giambi performance-enhancing drugs will not face a potentially explosive trial. It was scheduled to begin Sept. 6. The deal does not require Conte to cooperate with federal agents in their ongoing investigation, his attorneys said. ``We are pleased with the terms of the agreement and believe it represents a fair result in this case,'' said Ed Swanson, co-counsel for Conte. A trial posed major risks for potential witnesses such as Bonds and Olympic sprinter Marion Jones, who could have faced embarrassing and possibly career-threatening questions. Defense lawyers, in an attempt to get a better deal, forged a strategy of sticking together even against what seemed, at times, like incontrovertible evidence. For example, Jeff Novitzky, the lead IRS investigator who instigated the case, wrote in a memorandum that Conte confessed to giving the designer steroid THG and a testosterone cream to 27 athletes, including Gary Sheffield, Bonds and Giambi. Conte and two defense lawyers no longer involved in the case had repeatedly said Conte never confessed. But the lawyers couldn't refute what he told ABC's ``20/20'' and ESPN the Magazine in December. In the television interview, Conte said he created an illegal drug program for Jones weeks before she won an unprecedented five track and field medals at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. He said he watched Jones inject human growth hormone (hGH) after he taught her how. Jones filed a $25 million defamation suit against Conte for making those statements. The case is scheduled to begin after the criminal proceedings end. According to court records, Anderson admitted to Novitzky that he gave some former Giants players steroids but denied he gave drugs to Bonds, his childhood friend. In another memorandum, Valente allegedly told the agent Bonds received THG and testosterone cream from Balco. Valente's former attorney denied his client made that statement. Although the original case is nearing an end, ``Balco'' -- which began as an acronym for an obscure and now defunct Burlingame laboratory -- lives as a symbol of the international steroids scandal. 1 6 - 0 7 - 2 0 0 5 40 of 42 BALCO charges dropped
Steroid lab owner, Bonds' trainer guilty in plea deal
Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams
An international sports doping scandal that rocked the worlds of baseball, football and track and field seemed to end with a whimper Friday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Two years after the Burlingame laboratory operation known as BALCO was thrust into the public consciousness as the face of performance-enhancing drug use at the highest levels of sport, federal prosecutors announced they had dropped 40 counts of a 42-count indictment against three men accused of providing the drugs to elite athletes. In exchange, the men pleaded guilty to felony charges that will leave them with relatively brief prison terms, or no jail time at all. More than a year ago, then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced the indictments during a nationally televised press conference in which he said, "Illegal steroid use calls into question not only the integrity of the athletes who use them but also the integrity of the sports that those athletes play." But the plea bargains announced Friday averted a trial scheduled for September that would have shined a light on sports. The plea deals also seemed to end the prospect that any of the superstar athletes would be named in open court or have to testify about possible steroid use. It was unknown whether the plea agreements would affect Giants superstar Barry Bonds, who has close ties to two of the BALCO defendants who pleaded guilty to distributing steroids. Bonds testified before the BALCO grand jury in October 2003, and a separate grand jury recently appeared to be investigating him for possible perjury and tax evasion. In court Friday, the BALCO defendants all said they offered no cooperation with the government in exchange for their deals. Victor Conte Jr., 55, the owner of Burlingame's Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) and the alleged mastermind of the conspiracy, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and one count of money laundering. If U.S. District Judge Susan Illston agrees with the U.S. attorney's sentencing recommendation, Conte would spend four months in prison and four months on house arrest. Greg Anderson, 39, Bonds' personal weight trainer, pleaded guilty to the same two charges as Conte. Prosecutor Jeff Nedrow told Illston that Anderson had conspired to distribute a long list of banned drugs: previously undetectable steroids known as "the cream" and "the clear," human growth hormone, testosterone pills called "Beans" and the female fertility drug Clomid, which is used to counteract side-effects of steroid use. Anderson was not required to tell the court who got the drugs he distributed. The maximum penalty for conviction on those charges was 30 years in prison, but his attorney, Anna Ling, said government sentencing guidelines indicated Anderson would spend no more than six months in prison for the crimes. Sentencing of the men is scheduled for Oct. 18. U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan told The Chronicle in a phone interview that even had Conte and Anderson been found guilty of all the charges they initially faced, sentencing guidelines would have limited their prison exposure to no more than one year in prison. The plea agreements were announced Friday at the Phillip Burton Federal Building, the same courthouse that in autumn 2003 played host to dozens of top-level athletes who were called to testify before a secret grand jury. In February 2004, that grand jury handed up the indictments against Conte, Anderson, BALCO Vice President James Valente and track coach Remi Korchemny. Valente, 54, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute steroids and is expected to be sentenced to straight probation. Korchemny, 73, was on the verge of a deal in which he would plea to a single misdemeanor count, but his attorney, George Walker, asked for a two-week continuance, telling judge Illston, "We are substantially there." Absent from Friday's hearing was any sense that some of the biggest names in sports had allegedly obtained an array of performance-enhancing drugs from BALCO. No athletes were named in the documents filed with the plea agreements, and neither the judge nor the prosecutors asked the defendants to name the people to whom they provided banned drugs. Although Judge Illston asked Anderson to provide the name of the person who aided him in money laundering -- it turned out to be a 72 year-old San Mateo woman who cashed a check for him -- the judge didn't press Anderson to name any athletes. Instead, she asked him, "Did you distribute steroids to athletes?" "Yes," he replied. When the judge asked him whether he had distributed steroids to athletes, Valente said, "Yes," but he wasn't asked for names, either. In interviews with Internal Revenue Service criminal investigators in September 2003, both Conte and Valente allegedly admitted steroids were provided to big-league baseball players, including Bonds and Yankee sluggers Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield, according to court documents. Conte and Valente subsequently denied making such statements. "The entire BALCO affair represents one of the greatest stains in the history of American sports," said noted steroid expert Dr. Gary Wadler, who is on the board of the World Anti-Doping Agency. "So I'm pleased to see justice meted out. However, I'm disappointed that the details of this entire affair will not see the light of day in the courtroom." Asked why the government had not put the names of athletes in the public record, Ryan said it was common practice in his office not to name individuals possessing steroids or other controlled substances in such cases. In virtually all government documents connected to the case, the names of athletes either have been omitted or redacted. Wadler said the plea deals and the absence of athletes' names being identified would "fuel international cynicism and sarcasm" concerning whether the United States had a genuine interest in cleaning up doping. "For the public, the question is, 'What was the bargain that let you walk away almost scot free from such egregious behavior?' " said Wadler. According to grand jury testimony reviewed by The Chronicle, six baseball players acknowledged receiving an array of banned drugs from Anderson: Giambi; his brother Jeremy Giambi, the former A's outfielder; and former Giants Benito Santiago, Armando Rios and Bobby Estalella. Two other stars -- Bonds and Sheffield -- also testified that they had received cream and a clear substance from Anderson, but both said they thought the substances were legal; Bonds testified he thought he was using arthritis balm and flax seed oil. Outside court, Anderson's lawyer said his client would "never" cooperate with the government by naming athletes. "It's not in his character," she said. When asked if Anderson had provided drugs to Bonds, she declined to answer. Peter Keane, law professor at Golden Gate University, said he was puzzled that the government hadn't forced the defendants to name names. "This case from the outset has been more than these four guys," he said. "It's had to do with the integrity of sports and the health of young people and matters related to national policy questions. "The idea that the government would not insist on getting every ounce of information that these defendants had relating to the manner in which they did these things is surprising." 2 9 - 0 7 - 2 0 0 5 Korchemny in plea bargain
Balco scandal will never come to court
Duncan Mackay The chances of Marion Jones ever having to testify in court over accusations that she took banned performance-enhancing drugs all but disappeared last night after the final defendant in sport's biggest doping scandal cut a deal with the prosecuting authorities.
Dwain Chambers' former coach Remi Korchemny, a 72-year-old Ukrainian, will avoid a custodial sentence after he agreed with the United States Anti-Doping Agency to plead guilty to a very minor charge. He is the final defendant in the case linked with the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative to strike an agreement designed to ensure the scandal never comes to court. Korchemny will be given a short ban by Usada after a guilty plea on a misdemeanour count of misbranding the sleep-disorder medication modafinil. Under US federal law misbranding - essentially failing to label correctly a drug being sold - is a violation of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act. Victor Conte, owner of Balco, vice-president James Valente, and Greg Anderson, personal trainer for the baseball record-breaker Barry Bonds, struck plea deals two weeks ago for their roles in distributing performance-enhancing drugs. Conte had claimed he supplied Jones, winner of a record five Olympic medals at the 2000 Sydney games, including three gold, with a cocktail of banned performance-enhancing drugs. She denies the allegations and is suing him for $25m (£15m). Korchemny had backed out of a planned agreement at the last moment, fearing a plea to a charge would end his coaching career. The US District Court judge Susan Illston must still approve his plea deal, which does not require him to give names of athletes who might have used drugs. He will appear before Illston tomorrow. Korchemny, who is the first coach facing Usada charges, handled Chambers, the 2002 European 100m champion, and Kelli White, American winner of the 100m and 200m at the 2003 world championships. White has testified to Usada that Korchemny provided her with the blood booster EPO, modafinil and the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), for which Chambers tested positive in 2003. Chambers, whose two-year ban ends in September but who is suspended from representing Britain in the Olympics, was warned last night he can never receive lottery funding. "When you commit a serious doping offence you are not eligible for lottery funding," said John Scott of UK Sport. 0 5 - 1 0 - 2 0 0 5 Lab founder facing jail for role in Balco doping scandal
By David Powell VICTOR CONTE, the central figure in the Balco steroids scandal in California, has been scheduled for sentencing on October 18 after prosecutors in the United States urged a federal judge to accept a plea bargain for him to be given an eight-month term. Under the deal, Conte would serve four months in prison and four months confined to home. In the latest development in San Francisco on Monday, prosecutors told Susan Illston, the district judge, that Conte, the founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco) in Burlingame, should serve eight months for his lead role in supplying drugs to international sportsmen and women. The proposed punishment period was agreed between the prosecution and Conte in July. Dwain Chambers, Great Britain’s European 100 metres champion, was among several leading competitors from a number of sports who were implicated in the scandal, which came to light in 2003. Chambers has begun training for a comeback after his two-year ban ends next month. The Balco case developed into one of the most widely publicised sporting drugs scandals in history. In filing to the court, Matthew A. Parrella, one of the prosecutors, wrote that “sentencing a first-time offender, such as the defendant, to actual prison time . . . sends a significant and important message of deterrence”. The prosecutors told Illston that steroid sentencing laws in the US were weak and that some of the substances that Conte and his co-defendants were distributing became illegal only after the case was brought last year. Among the co-defendants is Remi Korchemny, a Ukrainian who was Chambers’s coach at the time. Korchemny, along with James Valente, the Balco vice-president, and Greg Anderson, the trainer to Barry Bonds, the baseball player, have pleaded guilty to lesser charges. They are expected to receive lighter sentences, short of a jail term, at the same hearing as Conte. Bonds has been under a cloud of suspicion since being implicated in the scandal, as has Marion Jones, the triple Olympic sprint gold medalwinner at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, although neither has admitted steroid use. Jones’s form has nosedived in the past two years and she failed to qualify for the World Championships in the summer. 1 4 - 1 0 - 2 0 0 5 Prosecutors Recommend Six Months For BALCO Trainer
Oct. 12 Federal prosecutors in San Francisco have recommended that personal trainer Greg Anderson be given a sentence of three months in prison plus three months of home detention for his role in a sports steroids scandal. Anderson, whose clients include San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, is one of four men who pleaded guilty in July to various charges in steroids scheme centered on the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO. Anderson, BALCO president Victor Conte and Vice President James Valente are due to be sentenced on Oct. 18 by U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco. They each pleaded guilty on July 15 to one count of conspiring to distribute anabolic steroids to professional athletes. Conte, 55, of San Mateo, and Anderson, 39, of Burlingame, also pleaded guilty to a second count of laundering money received in payment for the steroids. Prosecutors argue in a sentencing memorandum submitted to Illston on Tuesday that some jail time for Anderson is appropriate because, according to the memorandum, he "abused his access to professional baseball players and cultivated a role as a personal steroid dealer to these elite athletes." The memorandum contends, "He should be imprisoned for his conduct." Anderson was not required to name his alleged steroid clients during his guilty plea before Illston. No athletes have been charged in the case. Anderson's defense attorneys, meanwhile, asked in a memorandum filed Tuesday for a sentence of probation and either no confinement or confinement in the form of home detention. The defense memorandum says Anderson is "genuinely remorseful," is "a non-violent and kind-hearted man" and could lose his livelihood and his ability to support his young son if he is imprisoned. "If Mr. Anderson were sentenced to prison, it would effectively destroy his business and his livelihood," the defense brief argues. The federal court's probation office has recommended a sentence of three years' probation for Anderson with four months in a community confinement center followed by two months of home confinement with electronic monitoring. Earlier this month, prosecutors submitted a memorandum asking for an eight-month sentence for Conte, including four months in prison and four months of home detention with electronic monitoring. That sentence recommendation was agreed to in Conte's plea agreement with the U.S. attorney's office in July. Also on Tuesday, prosecution and defense attorneys submitted briefs asking for three years probation and no confinement for Valente, 50, of Redwood City. The fourth defendant in the case, track coach Remi Korchemny, 73, of Castro Valley, pleaded guilty on July 29 to a misdemeanor charge of misbranding a prescription drug. Prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of probation. U.S. attorney's office spokesman Luke Macaulay said Korchemny will be sentenced at a later date and sentencing briefs have not yet been filed. 1 9 - 1 0 - 2 0 0 5 BALCO's Conte, Barry Bonds' trainer sentenced
Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams SAN FRANCISCO -- Three men guilty of distributing steroids to professional athletes were sentenced in federal court today to several months in prison in what has become the biggest doping scandal in sports history. U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston sentenced Victor Conte, 55, president of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, known as BALCO, to four months in prison and four months of home detention. Trainer Greg Anderson, 39, who counted among his clients Giants slugger Barry Bonds, was sentenced to three months in prison and three more on home confinement. BALCO vice president James Valente, 54, was put on probation. Conte and Anderson are scheduled to begin their sentences Dec. 1 in the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater. In pronouncing sentence, Illston chided the government for its handling of the BALCO case. The federal government's initial 42-count indictment -- which was whittled down to two counts in exchange for the men's guilty pleas -- could lead only to light sentences under the law, she said. "Attention to realistic probabilities ought to be paid at the beginning and not at the end of the case," she said. The judge also was critical of the defendants. "They were cheating and you helped them do that," she told Conte, referring to the athletes who used the performance-enhancing drugs he provided. She called his conduct "disturbing to this court and to many of the people who care about the athletes and athletics." Conte and Anderson each pleaded guilty in July to one felony count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and one felony count of money laundering. Valente had pleaded guilty to one count of steroid distribution. The sentencing hearing for a fourth defendant, track coach Remi Korchemny of Castro Valley, has been rescheduled. Korchemny, 73, pleaded guilty to dispensing a prescription drug to a consumer without the valid prescription of a licensed practitioner. Korchemny admitted that during a three-year span starting in September 2000, he knowingly distributed illegal performance-enhancing drugs to some of the Olympic-caliber track-and-field athletes he coached. In a statement distributed outside of court, Conte said, "I've decided not to talk about the athletes and their involvement in the BALCO scandal. In most cases these athletes are good people, who came from good families and they've already suffered greatly." No athletes were indicted. "I plan to share what I learned about the rampant use of drugs at the elite level of sport and more specifically to explain exactly how elite athletes routinely beat the existing anti-doping programs," he said. By entering the pleas, the men averted a trial that could have required elite athletes to testify publicly. 3 0 - 1 1 - 2 0 0 5 Headed for prison, Conte wants to talk to Congress
By Dick Patrick Victor Conte, the man at the center of the BALCO scandal, begins a four-month prison sentence Thursday, disappointed Congress never used him as a resource during its sports doping inquiries.
"You can't get the right answers if you don't ask the right questions," says Conte, who founded the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative and designed and supplied drug programs for world-class athletes in a variety of sports. "No one in Congress has done that yet. I would like to make a contribution." After years of beating the system, Conte says he knows its flaws and how to plug loopholes. Regarding NFL and MLB management, Conte says: "They're either completely uninformed about effective drug testing or are simply enabling the athletes to use drugs. Either way, it's bad." Joined by an ABC Nightline crew, he will make the drive today to a minimum-security facility in Taft, Calif., where he will surrender Thursday with strong opinions about drug-testing issues that surfaced during the Washington hearings: • The NFL. "What amazes me is how the NFL pulled the wool over Congress' eyes and portrayed themselves as the model professional sport regarding anti-doping." In August 2003, Conte talked by phone with NFL drug program adviser John Lombardo while in Paris for the World Track & Field Championships shortly before BALCO, located in Burlingame, Calif., was raided. Conte wanted to make sure an appetite suppressant he knew some NFL clients were using as a stimulant would be permissible. The substance was not on the NFL list of eight banned drugs, though it was on the World Anti-Doping Agency list of 42 prohibited stimulants. Lombardo confirmed the NFL tested only for the listed eight stimulants. "That meant it was open season for those 34 other stimulants, and the players had a green light," Conte says. "My opinion is stimulants have much greater adverse health effects than steroids." NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the NFL list is adequate because it's tailored to football whereas WADA's list is necessarily more comprehensive because it's responsible for athletes in a variety of sports. • MLB. The emphasis on the increased penalties for positive tests is misplaced, Conte says. "If the overwhelming majority of players using drugs are not caught, what difference do penalties make?" Conte contends it's easy for players to "duck and dodge" testers by using human growth hormone, for which there is no test; undetectable designer steroids; and oral-based testosterone, which clears the system in four days. All sports, including the Olympics, need increased out-of-competition testing, says Conte, adding too many athletes evade offseason testing without penalty. "If you don't have mandated, out-of-competition testing with penalties, it's not going to work," he says. "The offseason is when players use anabolic steroids in conjunction with effective weight training to build their explosive strength base for the season. It's all about offseason testing." While in prison, Conte, who also must serve four months' house arrest, plans to write. He will have typewriter and document copying privileges, but he says he won't have Internet access. Considering his affiliations with high profile Olympic, football and baseball athletes, he could write a fascinating book. "What comes of my writing is anyone's guess," he says. 2 5 - 0 2 - 2 0 0 6 BALCO drug case ended up as track coach given probation
Xinhuanet WASHINGTON -- The BALCO steroid scandal has been put to an end as the fourth and final defendant Remi Korchemny was given a year's probation on Friday. The Soviet-born track coach had been sued for his role in a conspiracy to distribute illegal drugs to athletes, but District Court Judge of the United States Susan Illston deemed him "a unique defendant" with "modest to minimal involvement with BALCO (the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative)". Illston also ordered that Korchemny undergo random drug testing, but refused to impose a recommended 250 US dollars fine, calling it trivial, and added that "a huge fine was not appropriate either". Korchemny last year admitted to a misdemeanor offense of wrongly dispensing a prescription drug, modafinil. The BALCO case, the biggest doping scandal revealed in 2004, has shocked the whole world with involving big names and raised questions about achievements such as baseball home run records and other sports records. BALCO founder Victor Conte was sentenced by Illston in October to four months in prison and four months of home confinement, while Greg Anderson, baseball star Barry Bonds' trainer, was sentenced to three months in prison and three months of home confinement. James Valente, Conte's deputy, got three years of probation and a 3,000 dollars fine. All four defendants were charged February, 2004 with conspiracy, money laundering and distribution of steroids. |
|
|
[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
