Victor Conte: 'I Call This The Marion Jones Case With Boxing Gloves' -- FanHouse

By Lem Satterfield, FanHouse

BALCO ounder, Victor Conte, 59, is being sued for defamation of character and libel by 38-year-old WBA welterweight (147 pounds) champion, Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 knockouts), who will meet 33-year-old Floyd Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) in Saturday's HBO pay per view-televised clash at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Mosley claims that he unknowingly took the steroids, "the cream," and, "the clear," in 2003, having received them from Conte through a relationship with his former strength trainer, Daryl Hudson. Mosley and his attorney, Judd Burstein, have conflicting assertions to Conte concerning the truth about what transpired.

Conte spoke to FanHouse during this, the second of a two-part Q&A.

FanHouse: Can you name any other athletes whom you helped to obtain steroids in the past who have, since then, denied they knowingly took them?

Victor Conte: Of course. I call this the Marion Jones case with boxing gloves. I believe that Marion Jones also committed fraud when she filed her defamation case. I believe that the lie detector test that Judd Burstein claims that he has, I don't believe that those are valid results.

Let me put it into context for you. Marion Jones claims to have taken a lie detector test and to have passed it. She was convicted and sent to prison. Track coach, Trevor Graham, also in the BALCO case, claims to have taken a lie detector test and passed. He was convicted of lying and spent a year in an ankle bracelet under house arrest.

So this lie detector stuff, it carries no weight whatsoever. And it wouldn't surprise me if Shane Mosley's results are bogus.

What is the structure of your new company, and how does it differ from BALCO in the way that it services athletes?

You've got to understand that I've had this product line and this business, well, actually, two businesses -- BALCO, which provided drug-testing, and then, SNAC, which provided nutritional supplements. So SNAC has been in existence since 1988, and I founded BALCO in 1984.

The newer company is called SNAC, and that acronym stands for Scientific Nutrition For Advanced Conditioning, and our website is SNAC.com. And we supply perfectly legal sports nutritional products and nutritional supplements.

Based upon a huge, data base that we have for testing blood samples of many, many world class athletes, over 250 NFL players, lots of professional baseball players, many athletes from track and field, other sports, and based upon their depletions and defiencies that we've found in athletes, I've developed a system of these products.

Due to the negative attention from BALCO, did it take some convincing for you to gain the respect from some of the SNAC athletes with whom you are working?

Let me say this: I work with a lot of athletes, currently. Some of them are okay with that being public knowledge, and others are not because of the stigma what would be attached. So, if their comfort level is there, then I don't have issues talking about it.

But if there is some sort of a problem, or stigma there, and they choose to keep that between the two of us, then I'm certainly willing to honor that and to do that.

What is your relationship with heavyweight contender, Eddie Chambers, in relation to SNAC?

My relationship with Eddie Chambers is ongoing and it's still very good.

Wasn't there at least one other prominent boxer you worked with in regard to SNAC?

Well, there was Andre Ward, but I'm no longer working with Andre.

Do you remember what it was like and can you describe what happened when BALCO was raided?

That was on September 3, 2003. There was a 26-member SWAT Team that was armed with assault rifles, and there was also a helicopter. And all of them were wearing flak jackets, and it was a raid just like on television when there is a bank holdup.

And they came in there, and it was crazy. Unmarked cars pulled up. There were five or six of them, and there were some 26 agents who piled out and who came crashing through the front door. Then, this helicopter was just a matter of, you know, five or six feet right above the front door on the roof.

And it was rattling the glass above the front door so much that one of them broke. It was a very, scary experience and something that I would not wish upon anyone.

What can you tell the public is the difference between the Victor Conte who founded and operated BALCO and the Victor Conte who is speaking us now as, sort of, a crusader against what you once stood for?

I'm now a part of the anti-doping movement. I'm trying to help those at WADA [The World Anti-Doping Agency,] and, USADA [The United States Anti-Doping Agency] to develop more effective anti-doping policies and procedures. And that's what I'm doing now, and I'm very outspoken about it.

The difference is that here is what people fail to realize, and that's that from 1984, which is when I founded BALCO, and until the year 2000 -- so, for 16 years -- I did things the right way. The only thing that I did was to do comprehensive blood and urine testing of athletes, and to develop individualized nutrition programs for them.

And I worked with many, many elite athletes. There was the entire Super Bowl-winning team of the Denver Broncos, that won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1997, and, '98. The entire Miami Dolphin team, the Seattle Super Sonics for two seasons, in '92-'93, and, '93-94, and many, many world class athletes for 16 years.

So, for those 16 years, I did everything the right way. But it got to a point, for me -- and this doesn't make it right, because it was certainly wrong, and it was certainly a mistake -- but I had gotten to a point where I thought differently.

I had gotten to a point when I realized that Olympic officials and those that control major league football and baseball were enabling, harboring, and, promoting this culture of drug use in sport. And I made the bad decision to join that culture. It was a huge mistake, and I wish now that I had never done it.

That point was in 2000, and, of course, I did that for the years 2000, 2001, 2002, and, 2003. So, for four years, I was about helping athletes to circumvent these testing policies. Once BALCO was raided, I realized how I had been reckless, and that I had put many others at risk.

Who are these 'Others' you are referring to?

That includes my family members. They didn't cheat. They didn't break the rules. Yet, they were punished severely too. And not only did the athletes who were involved with me -- who were a part of this conspiracy to cheat -- not only did they get harmed, but, also, their families and friends were also harmed.

Even after Marion Jones had sued me for $25 million, and I saw her once she was convicted, and had gotten a six month prison sentence, I saw her out on the court's front steps.

There were many, many journalists who called me and asked me if I had felt vindicated because I had been telling the truth, and she had obviously been lying. But I didn't feel any sense of vindication whatsoever.

What I saw, and what I continue to often see, many years later, Marion Jones' mother standing there on those front steps, and her family. I now realize that, 'You know what? Marion Jones made a mistake, but every one of those around her are in great pain, and experiencing tremendous suffering.'

And that's what I have not thought through before I made the mistake of joining that culture back in 2000. I would never, ever do that again, because I didn't understand at the time. I thought, 'You know, I'm a big boy, I understand there are risks attached to what I'm doing, and if this takes a bad turn, then I will accept the consequences.'

Even if it meant going to prison?

I went to a minimum security prison camp in Taft, Calif., which is West of Bakersfield, which is about 100 miles North of Los Angeles. I was there for four months. And, well, you what I didnt' understand was that there are other people who didn't break the law who would be harmed.

And you don't understand what damage can really be done until you're in prison, and your family comes to visit you, and you look into their eyes, and you see them crying. You see the pain and the suffering and you know that you're the one who caused it.

That's the worst punishment that I think that you can experience. And that's when I began to realize how reckless it was for me to do the things that I did. And if I would have known that, I would have never made that decision to take that road down the slippery slope.

Source: boxing.fanhouse.com