FBI searches home of BALCO founder

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 1/27/5 | Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada

[SmithL]

FBI agents raided the San Mateo home of accused steroid dealer Victor Conte Wednesday as part of a federal probe into how The Chronicle had obtained federal grand jury testimony for stories about the BALCO sports-doping scandal, informed sources said.

The sources, who asked not to be quoted by name because of the sensitivity of the investigation, said the agents arrived before 8 a.m. with a search warrant at the home of Conte, who is BALCO's founder and accused mastermind of an international steroid conspiracy.

Agents seized Conte's computer and other items, the sources said.

The sources said the FBI probe was prompted by Chronicle stories last month that reported on the 2003 grand jury testimony of San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds and New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi in the BALCO case.

Giambi admitted using banned drugs from BALCO, the newspaper reported, while Bonds acknowledged using substances from BALCO that he said were flax seed oil and arthritis balm.

The stories caused an uproar, and led Major League Baseball to adopt a toughened steroid-testing policy.

Grand jury testimony is taken in secret, and after the stories were published U.S. District Judge Susan Illston asked the Justice Department to investigate how the newspaper had learned what the athletes said.

In Wednesday's raid, the FBI was attempting to find evidence that would identify the Chronicle's sources of information, sources said.

[El Gran Salseron]

If Conte had that information on his computer and ignorantly thought that simply deleting the info would be ok he is sadly mistaken.

One can format a hard drive up to and including six times, using the standard MS format command and an electron microscope will still recover the info. :-)

[AlbertWang]

The way old Babs Boxer has been acting I wouldn't be shocked if she isn't on a BALCO roid binge.