Victor Conte Jr. (born 1950 in

Fresno, California Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, makin ...

) is a former bassist with

Tower of Power Tower of Power is an American R&B and funk based band and horn section, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing since 1968. There have been a number of lead vocalists, the best-known being Lenny Williams, who fronted the b ...

and the founder and president of

Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative The Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) (1984–2003) was an American company led by founder and owner Victor Conte. In 2003, journalists Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada investigated the company's role in a drug sports scandal later re ...

(BALCO), a sports nutrition center in California. He served time in prison in 2005 after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute

steroid A steroid is a biologically active organic compound with four rings arranged in a specific molecular configuration. Steroids have two principal biological functions: as important components of cell membranes that alter membrane fluidity; and a ...

s and money laundering. He currently operates Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC Nutrition).

Early life and music

Victor Conte Jr. was born in 1950 in

to Shirley and Victor Conte Sr. He was the oldest of three children in a

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

Italian family. After graduating from

McLane High School McLane High School is a 9-12 public high school in Fresno, California, United States. Located at the corner of Cedar and Clinton, it is part of the Fresno Unified School District. Programs and activities Advance Via Individual Determination (A ...

he attended

Fresno City College Fresno City College (FCC or "Fresno City") is a public community college in Fresno, California. It is part of the State Center Community College District within the California Community Colleges system. Fresno City College operates on a semester ...

but dropped out of college in 1969 after being convinced by his cousin, musician Bruce Conte, to join the band Common Ground as bass player. In 1970 he quit playing in Common Ground and joined the band

Pure Food and Drug Act The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, also known as Dr. Wiley's Law, was the first of a series of significant consumer protection laws which was enacted by Congress in the 20th century and led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration. ...

. At the time Conte's nickname was "

Walking Fish A walking fish, or ambulatory fish, is a fish that is able to travel over land for extended periods of time. Some other modes of non-standard fish locomotion include "walking" along the sea floor, for example, in handfish or frogfish. Types Mo ...

", due to his unusual way of moving across the stage when he was performing. He left Pure Food and Drug Act some time prior to 1977. Victor Conte was a member of Tower of Power from 1977 until 1979 playing bass guitar. He also collaborated during that period with pianist

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

and violinist Sugarcane Harris.

Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative

He founded in 1984 the

(BALCO), a sports nutrition center first located in Millbrae, California and later relocated to Burlingame,

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The

United States Anti-Doping Agency The United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA, ) is a non-profit, non-governmental 501(c)(3) organization and the national anti- doping organization (NADO) for the United States. To protect clean competition and the integrity of sport and prevent ...

(USADA) says he developed the banned steroid

tetrahydrogestrinone Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), known by the nickname The Clear, is a synthetic and orally active anabolic–androgenic steroid (AAS) which was never marketed for medical use. It was developed by Patrick Arnold and was used by a number of high-profile ...

(THG) with the help of bodybuilding chemist Patrick Arnold. Pursuant to a plea bargain struck with prosecutors, he entered guilty pleas in July 2005 to one count of conspiracy to distribute steroids and a second count of laundering a portion of a check. He was sentenced in October to spend four months in the federal

Taft Correctional Institution Taft Correctional Institution was a low-security federal prison for male inmates located in Taft, Kern County, California, owned by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) and operated by Management and Training Corporation under contract with the B ...

Taft, California Taft (formerly Moron, Moro, and Siding Number Two) is a city in the foothills at the extreme southwestern edge of the San Joaquin Valley, in Kern County, California. Taft is located west-southwest of Bakersfield, at an elevation of . The popula ...

, and another four on house arrest. In December 2004, he participated in an interview with

Martin Bashir Martin Henry Bashir (born 19 January 1963) is a British journalist. He was a presenter on British and American television and for the BBC's ''Panorama'' programme, for which he interviewed Diana, Princess of Wales in 1995. Although the intervie ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

's ''

20/20 Visual acuity (VA) commonly refers to the clarity of vision, but technically rates an examinee's ability to recognize small details with precision. Visual acuity is dependent on optical and neural factors, i.e. (1) the sharpness of the retinal ...

'' program, where he admitted to running doping programs, which have broken

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

records, as well as revealing that: "The whole history of the games is just full of corruption, cover-up, performance-enhancing drug use." In the interview he implicated, among others, five-time Olympic gold medalist

Marion Jones Marion Lois Jones (born October 12, 1975), also known as Marion Jones-Thompson, is an American former world champion track and field athlete and former professional basketball player. She won three gold medals and two bronze medals at the 200 ...

and her partner

Tim Montgomery Timothy Montgomery (born January 28, 1975) is an American former track sprinter who specialized in the 100-meter dash. In 2005, he was stripped of his records—including a now-void men's 100-meter world record of 9.78 seconds set in 2002—a ...

Kelli White Kelli White (born April 1, 1977, in Oakland, California) is an American former sprinter. She won two gold medals in the World Championships in Paris in 2003. However, on June 18, 2004, she was stripped of her medals, because she tested positive ...

(who later admitted using performance-enhancing drugs), British athlete

Dwain Chambers Dwain Anthony Chambers (born 5 April 1978) is a British track sprinter. He has won international medals at World and European levels and is one of the fastest European sprinters in the history of athletics. His primary event is the 100 me ...

, and NFL player

Bill Romanowski William Thomas Romanowski (born April 2, 1966) is a former American football linebacker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons. Nicknamed "Romo" and "RomoCop", he spent the majority of his career with the San Francisco 4 ...

. On December 21, 2006,

Yahoo Sports Yahoo! Sports is a sports news website launched by Yahoo! on December 8, 1997. It receives a majority of its information from STATS, Inc. It employs numerous writers, and has team pages for teams in almost every North American major sport. Bef ...

reported that one of Conte's initial defense lawyers, Troy Ellerman, had been targeted by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

as a possible source of leaks to the media during the

Barry Bonds Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964) is an American former professional baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Bonds was a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1986 to 1992 and the San Francisco Giants f ...

probe. On February 14, 2007, Ellerman pleaded guilty to leaking grand jury testimony. It was also reported that FBI agents were an additional source of leaks. In May 2007, Conte claimed to again be providing supplements for Dwayne Chambers, who left athletics to play in the NFL Europa league for the Hamburg Sea Devils before returning to athletics in 2008. According to Conte, these nutritional supplements, provided via his company Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning, are perfectly legal. On December 13, 2007 Conte appeared on

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

before '' The Mitchell Report'' was officially released.

Books

'' Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO, and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports'' was published in 2006 by two

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

investigative reporters, relating to the case. There were controversies about the informant and/or source of the information for these books and related court cases. In 2008, in the aftermath of the investigation, Conte produced a book ''BALCO: The Straight Dope on Barry Bonds, Marion and What We Can Do to Save Sports'' which was co-written with author Nathan Jendrick. There had been a legal battle of defamation litigation regarding the book's publication by boxer

Shane Mosley Shane Mosley (born September 7, 1971), often known by his nickname "Sugar" Shane Mosley, is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1993 to 2016. He held multiple world championships in three weight classes, including the IBF l ...

and it delayed the publication date. Mosley dropped the lawsuit, but not before

Skyhorse publishing Skyhorse Publishing, Inc. is an American independent book publishing company founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York City, with a satellite office in Brattleboro, Vermont. History The current president and publisher is founder Tony Lyo ...

had been scared away from publishing. The book is officially unpublished as of 2017, but the unpublished manuscript has been made available.

Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning

In 2011, Conte started a new company, Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning (SNAC Nutrition) based in

San Carlos, California San Carlos (Spanish for "St. Charles") is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. The population is 30,722 per the 2020 census. History Native Americans Prior to the Spanish arrival in 1769, the land of San Carlos was occupi ...

, which in addition to nutritional supplements also offers boxing and sports training. SNAC Nutrition is working with boxer

Zab Judah Zabdiel Judah (born October 27, 1977) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2019. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the IBF and WBO junior welterweight titles between 2000 and 2004 ...

, and Conte has previously worked with

Andre Berto Andre Michael Berto (born September 7, 1983) is a professional boxer who holds dual American and Haitian citizenship. He is a two-time former welterweight world champion, having held the WBC and IBF titles between 2008 and 2011, as well as the ...

Nonito Donaire Nonito Gonzales Donaire Jr. (; ; born November 16, 1982) is a Filipino American professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in four weight classes from flyweight to featherweight, and is the oldest boxer in history to win a ...

, and

Andre Ward Andre Michael Ward (born February 23, 1984) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2004 to 2017. He retired with an undefeated record and held multiple world titles in two weight classes, including the unified WBA (Super), ...

References

External links

Timeline of Scandal
by patch
ABC ''20/20'' interview with Victor Conte

2003 biography by BBC Sport

Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conte, Victor Living people 1950 births Sports controversies American jazz bass guitarists American male bass guitarists Tower of Power members American male jazz musicians American money launderers American people convicted of drug offenses