Big boys subpoenaed over THG

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SAN FRANCISCO - Barry Bonds will testify in December before a federal grand jury probing a laboratory that supplies some of the nation's top athletes with nutritional supplements.

The San Francisco Giants slugger is one of several dozen athletes who have been subpoenaed by the panel. Others include New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi, sprint champion Kelli White and U.S. shot put champion Kevin Toth.

Bonds' attorney, Mike Rains, said Tuesday that his client received a subpoena about a month ago asking him to appear Dec. 4. Rains said he was told by the prosecutor leading the investigation that "Barry is a witness and not a target of the grand jury."

The company at the center of the investigation is the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO, which was raided by the Internal Revenue Service and drug agents in September. An attorney for BALCO founder Victor Conte confirmed Monday his client is the target of the grand jury probe.

The scope of the investigation is unclear, and federal officials have refused to comment.

Meanwhile, Conte has been accused by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency of supplying athletes with a new designer steroid that is rocking the world of track and field.

Bonds has been a BALCO client since 2000, and in the June issue of Muscle & Fitness magazine credited Conte for a personalized program that includes nutritional supplements.

The home of Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, was raided last month in conjunction with the raid on Conte's lab.

"When Barry gets a grand jury subpoena and his trainer's door gets kicked in by drug enforcement agents, that's when I get involved," Rains told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Tuesday. "All of that has certain ominous appearances to anybody."

Giambi confirmed his subpoena Monday while at a World Series workout in Miami.

Conte has said in e-mails that he was told by athletes that 40 Olympic and professional athletes have been subpoenaed. Being subpoenaed does not imply any of the athletes has done anything wrong.

IRS spokesman Mark Lessler wouldn't comment, referring reporters to his agency's Web site for a description of the responsibilities of the agency's criminal investigation unit.

"CI's top priority is the investigation of violations of the tax law," the site says. "However, CI special agents lend their financial investigative expertise to money laundering and narcotics investigations conducted in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies."

Robert Holley, an attorney for Conte, said the BALCO founder has not been subpoenaed.

"My client is innocent until proven guilty," Holley said Monday. "So far as I know, he is the target of the investigation."

Conte was named by an anonymous track coach as the source of a substance that turned out to be a previously undetectable steroid, tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG. Conte has denied he was the source.

The USADA said last week it retested hundreds of samples from track and field athletes after identifying THG, and that several tested positive during the U.S. track championships in June. They now face two-year suspensions.

On Tuesday, track and field's world governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations, said it will retest all urine samples — about 400 — from the World Championships. Any positive findings would lead to retroactive disqualifications, including stripping of any medals, and two-year bans.

On Monday, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the league might retest its samples for the presence of THG. Steroid use is banned by the NFL.

"It's a possibility," Aiello said. "We are not ruling it out."

Major league baseball said Saturday it will be unable to retest samples taken this year for THG, but plans to discuss with players whether to add it to the list of banned substances.

This is not the first time Conte has been at the center of a drug case.

When four separate tests before the 2000 Sydney Olympics showed U.S. shot putter C.J. Hunter had 1,000 times the allowable amount of the steroid nandrolone in his system, Conte took the blame, saying the positive tests were the result of contaminated iron supplements he gave Hunter.

Conte said Hunter, the former husband of Olympic sprint champion Marion Jones, took the same supplement used by sprinters Linford Christie and Merlene Ottey — both of whom were suspended by world track officials after testing positive for nandrolone.

And a doctor associated with BALCO was the one who supplied White with the stimulant modafinil, which White says she took for the sleep disorder narcolepsy.

White tested positive for modafinil this summer at the World Championships, putting her gold medals in the 100 and 200 meters at risk.

[buyb12]

interesting article too bad they found the way to test.....

[turboguy]

fuck the u.s. gov't and their bull shit laws

[6p6]

Originally posted by turboguy
fuck the u.s. gov't and their bull shit laws

that's a little overkill. Without laws no one would be safe and anarchy would be everywhere. BUT, there are stupid laws and AAS laws are some of them.....