Investigation Into Conte, Others Runs Deep

Victor Conte apparently didn’t realize he had a shadow.

The owner of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative had visited a Wells Fargo branch in Burlingame, Calif., on Sept. 23, 2002, to make a withdrawal. An Internal Revenue Service agent stood close enough to Conte to hear his conversation with the teller.

“100s?” the teller asked Conte.

“Yes,” he replied. The teller took paperwork from him, stamped it and counted out $2,000 in cash, in $100 bills.

“See you tomorrow,” Conte said after receiving the money.

The exchange is described in an affidavit released Thursday, along with an indictment charging Conte and three others in a far-reaching conspiracy to supply athletes with performance-enhancing steroids and other banned substances.

The affidavit, signed last Sept. 3, was filed by an IRS agent in support of search warrants executed in the Bay Area. Presented in abundant detail, the document details surveillance of Conte, his business, various elite athletes, bank records, medical waste and e-mails.

It names no athletes, but it makes clear that investigators and prosecutors know far more about the behind-the-scenes dealings of some of America’s leading athletes than they chose Thursday to disclose.

For instance, the affidavit details 40 separate checks -- from current NFL players, elite track and field athletes and at least one Olympic gold-medal winner -- paid to Conte and deposited into a personal account.

From January 2000 through September 2002, the affidavit said, Conte withdrew more than $480,000 from his personal and business accounts. It does not say what the money was used for.

Investigators rummaged through BALCO’s trash on a weekly basis beginning Sept. 3, 2002, according to the affidavit.

The trash allegedly yielded: a torn, empty box designed to hold multiple vials of human growth hormone; a torn, empty box that would typically hold a 200-milligram vial of testosterone; at least 84 empty, one-use syringe wrappers; three “torn versions” of a letter to sports authorities disclosing “allegations of steroid distribution by a renowned track and field coach;” and envelopes and letters from top American track and field athletes.

Two letters came from what the affidavit identified as the current U.S. champion in his event -- one retrieved on Dec. 16, 2002, saying, “Vic, here is a check for the next [cycle]. I need it by the end of next week.” Steroids are used in intermittent cycles so the body will continue its natural production of testosterone.

Two other notes came from what the affidavit called an “elite track athlete and world record holder.” One said, “Victor, Thank you for the help at nationals!” Another said, “All that I have accomplished this season would not have been possible without your support.”

The investigation into Conte and BALCO began in August 2002, based on information that numerous athletes were “illegally receiving steroids and other athletic performance-enhancing drugs” from persons associated with BALCO, says the affidavit, signed by IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky. It does not say how those facts came to the attention of law enforcement officials.

That month, Conte sent an email to an “international track and field coach” that mentions “several” athletes, including an Olympic gold-medal winner and “more than one world-record holder,” the affidavit says.

“I need for you to advise [redacted] to discontinue using the clear,” the e-mail says.

The clear, according to the indictment, is a designer steroid identified last summer as tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG; four U.S. athletes and British sprinter Dwain Chambers tested positive last year for the substance, according to U.S. anti-doping authorities.

“I recently found out that [redacted], [redacted] and [redacted] sent a sample of the clear to the IOC testers on an anonymous basis. This is very unfortunate,” the e-mail from Conte allegedly says.

In a comment with potential implications for Greece and the 2004 Olympics in Athens, which begin six months from today, the e-mail continues: “We might also want to somehow get this information to the coach for the Greek athletes [redacted] and [redacted] so that nobody tests positive.”

It concludes on this note: “The good news is that we got the heads-up in time to prevent any positive test results.”