http://www.abc.net.au/sport/content/s1044044.htm
Four charged over THG steroid scandal
A US grand jury has charged nutritional supplement manufacturer Victor Conte and three other men with forming an illegal steroid distribution network that has rocked the sports world.
A 42-count indictment revealed by US Attorney General John Ashcroft targeted Conte, president of BALCO Labs, BALCO vice-president James Valente, track coach Remi Korchemny and Greg Anderson - baseball star Barry Bonds'
personal trainer.
The four are charged with creating and distributing the "designer steroid" tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), a performance-enhancing drug found in British runner Dwain Chambers, four US track athletes and four American football players among other top stars.
No names of athletes involved were revealed in the indictments, which cover a period from December of 2001 to last September.
But such sport heroes as Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, Bonds and Amy Van Dyken have testified before the grand jury.
Bad for sport
"Illegal steroid use calls into question not only the integrity of the athletes who use them but also the integrity of the sports those athletes play," Attorney General Ashcroft said.
"Steroids are bad for sports, bad for players, bad for the young people who hold athletes up as role models."
The four indicted men all live in the San Francisco area where BALCO is located and face charges of running a racket that distributed once-untraceable doping substances, including human growth hormone and
anabolic steroids.
THG was not uncovered until an unidentified athletics coach gave the US Anti-Doping Agency a sample of the substance.
US anti-doping officials named Conte as the maker, a claim Conte has denied.
Anderson is charged with buying illegal steroids from Conte and distributing them to US professional athletes while Korchemny allegedly did the same for those in athletics.
Korchemny is the coach of Chambers and Kelli White, an American who won the 100 and 200 metres at the World Championships last year in Paris but tested positive for modafinil.
The revelation of THG and doping positives from retroactive tests led USA Track and Field to adopt lifetime bans for all future positive steroid tests in December.
The charges cite six separate instances in which illegal steroids and human-growth hormones were distributed to athletes, all of them in ways aimed at making them undetectable to Olympic or sports league's dope testing methods.
Mr Ashcroft said the defendants distributed a testosterone-based cream. The mixture aimed at concealing an athlete's elevated testosterone level from existing dope testing technology.
Also distributed by those involved was "The Clear", a liquid drug that Mr Ashcroft said produced "steroid-like effects without causing the athlete to test positive for steroids". That substance proved to be THG.
The indictment alleges the conspirators gave athletes phoney cover stories to provide authorities, citing an e-mail attributed to Conte in which he instructed a coach to refer to drugs only by initials.
Conte and the others allegedly laundered proceeds from illegal steroid sales by placing the money in personal bank accounts.
Citing US President George Bush's anti-steroid message in last month's State of the Union speech, Mr Ashcroft vowed to prosecute steroid makers and distributors to the fullest extent of US law.
"This is not just a call to action. It is a call to the values that make our nation and it's people strong and free," he said.
"Nothing does more to diminish our potential as individuals and a nation than drug abuse."
Mr Ashcroft joined Mr Bush's call for a coordinated effort to police steroids between league officials, club owners and players in team sports as well as individuals in individual sports.
The biggest American sports name linked to BALCO was Bonds, who hit a record 73 home runs in 2001 for the San Francisco Giants and was a supporter of Conte's nutritional supplement programs.
Major League Baseball will begin mandatory steroid testing this season after more than 5 per cent of players tested positive in a trial program last season.
Four members of the National Football League's Oakland Raiders failed steroid tests as well.
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