By Lem Satterfield, FanHouse
BALCO founder, Victor Conte, 59, has had a lot to say recently during the lead up to Saturday's HBO pay per view-televised clash between 38-year-old WBA welterweight (147 pounds) champion, Shane Mosley (46-5, 39 knockouts), and 33-year-old Floyd Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) that is scheduled for the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Mosley, in 2003, admitted that he injected the steroids, "the cream," and, "the clear," but says that he did so unknowingly after having been supplied the drugs by Conte through a relationship with his former strength trainer, Daryl Hudson.
Mosley's attorney, Judd Burstein, did not comment directly on his client's defamation or character and libel case against Conte during two recent interviews with FanHouse, but Burstein and Conte have engaged in a battle of YouTube video postings meant to illustrate their contradicting points of contention.
Conte spoke to FanHouse during this, the first of a two-part Q&A.
FanHouse: Do you have any responses, initially, to anything that has been addressed, publicly, concerning your case in relation to Shane Mosley vs. Floyd Mayweather or during the promotion leading up to their fight?
Victor Conte: One of the things that I wanted to focus on here is that it's my opinion that there were fraudulent representations made by Shane Mosley in his declaration that was filed together with his lawsuit against me, and that both Judd Burstein and Shane Mosley knew that the statements were not true.
Basically, what Shane has tried to claim is that 'I didn't know what the hell it was,' and all of this other stuff, and that he thought that it was vitamins, and that he was duped, and that he was mislead, and he was hood-winked, and all of this. That's what he's basically represented to the courts.
Where, you know, I know that Shane Mosley knew what he was taking, and we spent three and a half hours together that day, and he has tried, repeatedly, to throw Daryl Hudson under the bus. But I can tell you that 80 percent of the questions that day came from Shane Mosley and not Daryl Hudson.
Shane did the overwhelming majority of the talking that day.
Can you elaborate on what you mean by that?
Well, for Shane Mosley to act like, 'Well, I was just along for the ride,' and that Daryl's the one that wanted to do it, I don't believe that to be true at all.
What is your version of what happened?
So, here is what I say is what is happening. I don't think that Mosley and Burnstein believed that that the federal grand jury transcript of 2003 would ever see the light of day. So when they filed that lawsuit in 2008, and he made his new declaration, I believe that that was their position and their belief.
As it turns out, however, after he had made all of these statements in his declaration during the filing of the lawsuit -- which was not true in my opinion -- that once the government had released his grand jury transcript, there were contradictions between his declaration and what he had said when he testified to before the grand jury.
Therefore, Shane had a choice when he came to be deposed in New York in Judd Burstein's office, whether he would go and be congruent with what he said in the declaration, or whether he was going to go and be congruent with what he told the grand jury? And I can tell you that, initially, he tried to lie in his deposition.
But once my attorney took pages of his grand jury transcript and put them on the table in front of him, and entered them into the written case on the record, then he had to decide, well, was he going to be congruent with the declaration, or was he going to be congruent with what he had told the grand jury?
And then, he admitted that what he told the grand jury was, in fact true, and that he did, knowingly, use EPO, and that he was informed that day that he did so -- the day that he first injected the EPO and administered 'the clear,' and, 'the cream.' Shane admitted that he had asked a lot of questions.
He admitted that I had answered the questions, that he knew the benefits of what he was taking, that he knew that it was dangerous, he knew that if your blood got thick that it could possibly clot and that that could kill you, and that he had been told all of this.
So what exactly is your assertion about the difference between what Shane told the grand jury and what he said, initially, when he filed the lawsuit?
Well, in his declaration he said that he was told that everything was healthy to take, etc.
So you've got a huge contradiction. So here is the thing that has to be put into context: His declaration was made under oath by penalty of perjury. His grand jury testimony was under oath, so that's subject to penalty of perjury. His deposition was under oath.
So what is congruent is his grand jury testimony and his video testimony, and what is not congruent is his declaration that was filed together with the lawsuit. What that means is that this case is based upon fraud. In my opinion, it's an out-and-out abuse of the judicial system. The purpose was to put a muzzle on me as he lied to the court.
Is it true that Shane only met you once or twice prior to injecting the steroids?
Okay, he had only met me once, and that was the day that he took the EPO, and used 'the clear,' at my office. And he used it, that day, right in front of me. And here's another thing to keep in mind, and that is that there were two other eyewitness in the room.
The other two who were present were Daryl Hudson, Shane's own trainer, and James Valente, who was BALCO's vice president at the time. It wasn't just me and Shane. It was me, Shane, Daryl, and Jim all in the room.
What exactly happened to the time of the injection?
I told him what it was, I told him what the benefits were, and I told him what the dangers were. He said that he wanted to do it, so we plotted out a calendar and put together this whole program really that covered six weeks. That was done that day, right in front of me and the two witnesses.
And your assertion, at that point, is that Shane knew, unequivocally, that what he was taking was illegal?
That's right, that very day. Well, listen, let's talk about this issue of "Was it illegal?" Let me put that into context for you, so that you understand ...
Yes, please do.
In 1998, there was something called, 'The Festina Affair.' And what happened was that nine cyclists were busted at the border in Belgium. And they found EPO. They had EPO in their car, okay? In their cars. It was illegal, and they took them all to jail. They were all banned from competing in the Tour de France in 1998.
So when EPO hit the news, television, as well as all print media, as well as all news outlets fell in line. It was, 'EPO is illegal,' and is banned, 'Nine cyclists go to jail,' and are not allowed to compete at Tour de France. Okay? Later, that same year, in 1998, another cyclist died from using EPO.
So, from that day, from 1998 until 2010, every article that has appeared in public and every segment that has appeared on television or in video or on the internet has been that EPO is illegal, it is banned, prohibited, it is dangerous, and can kill you.
So for him to know full well that it is EPO, and to look at the bottle, and inject it, have the notation of 'E' on all of the calendars of his program, and to come back and to say, 'Well, I didn't know,' I'm sorry, but that just doesn't fly.
Concerning the YouTube video that you first posted of Shane Mosley's deposition, was that edited to favor your assertions or not?
Let me put it into context. I was deposed for two full days, so you've got probably 15 hours worth of video tape. Do you think that anybody is interested in watching 15 hours of video? And 80 percent of [Burstein's] questions were about Barry Bonds and had nothing to do with Shane Mosley.
Okay, 80 percent. Shane Mosley was deposed for one day, so maybe there is six or seven hours of Shane Mosley's video taped deposition. So, did I edit this where there were 'Yes,' and, 'No' answers where it would be very clear? That's what I did.
I took certain questions where Shane gave clear answers, and did I edit those and select those? Yes I did. I believe that those represent Shane Mosley making an admission of knowingly using EPO. Do I believe that the world deserves to hear the truth come out of the mouth of Shane Mosley? Yes I do.
In summary, what, in your opinion, Victor, is not being heard by the public about Shane's case?
Here is what I believe are the basics here, okay? Shane came to me to get performance enhancing drugs, I did not go to him. Okay? He claims that he thought that he was taking vitamins. Well, let me explain something to you: 'the clear,' and, 'the cream' are in clear, plastic containers.
There are no labels whatsoever on them. Didn't he find it strange that a guy would be giving you something that has no label? Vitamins that you buy in the store, they all have labels. Yet, what you're taking has no label? Then he tries to lie and to say, 'Well, I thought that it was flaxseed oil.'
But then, the prosecutor asked Shane, 'Well, listen, we've had, you know, 30 athletes come in here and testify that they were told that if anybody ever found this, that a cover story would be that it was flaxseed oil, but that they really knew that it was something else.'
So, the prosecutor asked, 'Shane, were you told that this as a cover story? Or were you really told that this was flaxseed oil?' Or did you know that this was something else. And he said, that 'I was told that I could use flaxseed oil, but I knew that it was something else.'
Well if you know that it's not flaxseed oil, and it has no label on it, you didn't question what it was before you took it? That just doesn't pass the smell test.
Source: boxing.fanhouse.com
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