Convicted steroid cheat says he still supplies Bonds with ZMA. Fraud gets you a Bentley.
Victor Conte, the man who tampered with track world record holders/gold medalists Tim Montgomery and Marion Jones, the man who helped the fraudulent detour of the soon-to-be home run champ of all time Barry Bonds, the man who gave NFL players like bad boy Bill Romanowski the juice, and the man who spent a few months in jail convicted of one of the more notorious sports scandals in history, drives a Bentley. That's justice isn't it.
Story here in SF Gate about Conte's new enterprise, SNAC (Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning).
"Come look inside," Victor Conte Jr. urges while gesturing toward his new silver Bentley shimmering in the springtime sun.
When the architect of sport's worst drug scandal is determined, it's almost futile to resist him.
"Go ahead. Stick your head in."
The $170,000 luxury car is one indication of how much has changed for Conte in the year since his release from a federal work camp for his role in masterminding the BALCO steroids scandal. The flash has returned, and the San Mateo man once called an evil scientist, a charlatan, and worse, has regained his footing in the nutritional supplement industry.
Sales are up 20 percent this year, he said, looking tan and fit while darting around the nondescript Burlingame building that once housed the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative.
Who would patronize the architect of a sports cheating conspiracy? How about the Texas Rangers and Oakland Raiders.
BALCO is gone, replaced by Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC). Conte said professional athletes still want ZMA, his signature zinc and magnesium dietary supplement that he says can help naturally stimulate muscle growth. (The $1 billion supplement industry is largely unregulated, making it difficult to verify product claims.)
Conte's primary business involves bodybuilders and combat sports fighters. But he also gets Web orders from Oakland Raiders and Texas Rangers personnel.
How can he be sure?
"The shipping address is right to their facilities," said Conte, who added that he indirectly supplies Barry Bonds with ZMA.
After all almost everyone cheats:
Conte guesses that half the 11,000 competitors at the Sydney Games in 2000 used some kind of illegal performance aid.
"They have linked 15 to me," he said. "Where are the others getting their stuff?"
As we say, it's a Steroid Nation. And it pays off.
I'm in the wrong business.
From the Nation: Isn't it ridiculous. If we teamed up we could make millions doing this!
Posted by: Scrap | 04/21/2007 at 15:20