Charges Sought Against Lab Founder, Trainer

The federal government is preparing indictments against a nutritional supplements lab and its founder, as well as the personal trainer of baseball star Barry Bonds, Associated Press reported.

A grand jury in San Francisco will be presented with the indictments by prosecutors today, according to federal law enforcement sources, who spoke Wednesday night with AP on condition of anonymity.

Grand jurors have spent several months investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative and its founder, Victor Conte.

Another target of the grand jury has been personal trainer Greg Anderson.

The two federal law enforcement sources would not divulge what charges prosecutors were seeking from the grand jury, which has been investigating possible violations of tax laws and the allegedly improper distribution of steroids.

Conte has denied supplying athletes with banned substances.

The law enforcement sources said no indictments were being sought now against any athletes.

A parade of top athletes from at least five sports, ranging from Bonds to Olympic track star Marion Jones to boxer Shane Mosley, appeared before the grand jury investigating BALCO and Anderson from late October to mid-December.

Conte has been accused of providing the recently discovered steroid THG to athletes. Five track and field athletes face two-year suspensions for THG use, and four Oakland Raider players flunked tests for the steroid unmasked by anti-doping officials last summer.

The steroid was uncovered after a track coach gave the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency a syringe containing a substance that ultimately was identified as THG. That coach said he got the substance from Conte, who has denied the accusation.

BALCO, which operates out of a building in the shadow of San Francisco International Airport, claims it takes blood and urine samples from athletes and then prescribes a regimen of supplements to compensate for vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Bonds and other top athletes such as Raider linebacker Bill Romanowski have been boosters of Conte and BALCO. Bonds has been a client since before the 2001 season, when he set the single-season home run record of 73.

Bonds, 39, has been working for years with Anderson, a childhood friend.

“I visit BALCO every three to six months. They check my blood to make sure my levels are where they should be. Maybe I need to eat more broccoli than I normally do. Maybe my zinc and magnesium intakes need to increase,” Bonds said in June’s issue of Muscle & Fitness magazine.

“Victor will call me to make sure I’m taking my supplements, and my trainer, Greg, will sit near my locker and stare at me if I don’t begin working out right away. I have these guys pushing me.”

Conte is no stranger to the spotlight.

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