Founder of BALCO Offers Testimony for a Plea Deal

The man at the center of the BALCO scandal is willing to plead guilty to federal charges of distributing steroids and testify against his former clients -- some of them U.S. Olympic athletes -- in exchange for a plea bargain, according to a letter sent Tuesday by his attorney to President Bush.

BALCO founder Victor Conte can identify cheaters who might otherwise make the U.S. team at the Olympic Games in Athens, his lawyer, Robert Holley, wrote in the letter also sent to Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and others and obtained by The Times.

“Mr. Conte is willing to reveal everything he knows about officials, coaches and athletes in order to help to clean up the Olympics,” Holley wrote.

The letter touches on a complex relationship between parallel investigations. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, a quasi-independent watchdog organization, has been eager for Conte’s help as it investigates numerous track-and-field athletes.

But before Conte will cooperate with USADA, he wants a deal from federal prosecutors who have brought charges against him, including misbranding of drugs and money laundering.

The scandal began last summer when agents raided the BALCO offices.

Anti-doping authorities recently persuaded sprinter Kelli White to accept a two-year ban. They have notified four others, including sprinter Tim Montgomery, of potential doping violations. Lawyers for those athletes have said they will contest any action.

Conte’s letter does not refer to professional athletes with alleged connections to BALCO, such as San Francisco Giant slugger Barry Bonds.

Conte is one of four defendants, including BALCO vice president James Valente, facing federal charges. Prosecutors have told Conte that he faces “somewhere in the neighborhood of two years’ imprisonment,” the letter states.

In return for cooperating, Holley asks that his client not be forced to plead guilty to money laundering and that he and Valente receive probation.

The case “isn’t much when compared with the massive good these gentlemen could do,” the letter states. “If we fail to do so, and the information about our failure is later made public, after the Olympic medals are given out, the results could be disastrous.... There will be hearings and lawsuits and medals taken away.”