Sports Nutrition Guru Trailed by Allegations

SAN FRANCISCO — With a background in music and no formal science training, Victor Conte Jr. struggled for nearly two decades to build a successful sports nutrition company that now counts baseball superstar Barry Bonds, Olympic gold medalists and middle-age weekend warriors among its disciples.

But along with endorsements from top athletes and skyrocketing sales of its most famous product, Conte's Bay Area Co-Operative Laboratories left a trail of discontented shareholders, vendors and former employees.

Critics accuse Conte, 53, of failing to honor agreements, refusing to pay debts and misleading small investors who provided start-up funds, according to a review of numerous lawsuits and other court documents.

"It seems everything he did was always on the sly," said Carl Minerva Jr., who together with his father invested in Conte's business in the early 1990s.

Now, Conte and Burlingame-based BALCO are at the center of a sports drug scandal that has attracted worldwide attention. U.S. Anti-Doping Agency officials allege that Conte's company supplied athletes with a new designer steroid, tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG, that was undetectable under standard testing methods.

Federal and local law enforcement agents searched the offices of BALCO on Sept. 3, and at least 40 athletes have been subpoenaed to testify before a federal grand jury in San Francisco, including Bonds, New York Yankee first baseman Jason Giambi, world-class sprinter Kelli White and welterweight boxing champion Sugar Shane Mosley.

Little is known about the grand jury, which was believed to have started hearing testimony in secret last week in the federal building here.

Internal Revenue Service agents were among those who searched BALCO's offices. And the grand jury probe comes several months after the federal government sued BALCO and another company, alleging they were paid up to $1.8 million for unnecessary tests by the Medicare program in the mid-1990s.

Conte has said the claims in the civil suit are untrue. He also has denied providing athletes with any illegal substances. His friends, family and associates said in interviews that Conte for years has condemned the use of steroids and cautioned athletes about health hazards. Conte and his attorney, Robert Holley of Sacramento, declined to be interviewed for this article and did not respond to questions submitted in writing.