Pound says Conte got off easy

MONTREAL – World Anti-Doping Agency chairman Richard Pound criticized as “very light” a plea agreement that recommends BALCO founder Victor Conte spend four months in prison.

Conte headed off a potentially explosive trial last Friday when he pleaded guilty in San Francisco to conspiracy to distribute steroids and money laundering in a deal with federal prosecutors. Athletes such as baseball slugger Barry Bonds and Olympic star Marion Jones could have been called to testify in a trial.

Conte, who founded the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, was charged with conspiring to distribute performance-enhancing drugs to more than 30 athletes in baseball, football and track and field. The money laundering charges carried a maximum 20-year term and the conspiracy charge five years.

As part of the agreement, Conte admitted in court that he distributed steroids.

“It is a disappointing outcome as far as I’m concerned that somebody who systematically tried to destroy the whole basis of sport by helping athletes and coaches to cheat gets to walk away with a four-month sentence,” Pound said Monday at the World Swimming Championships.

“An athlete who got caught for doing the same sort of thing gets two years.”

In exchange for Conte’s guilty plea, prosecutors agreed to drop dozens of counts against him and two other men. If the plea agreement is followed by a judge at sentencing in October, Conte will spend four months in prison and four months on house arrest.

“It ends up with a kind of a whimper and a very light sentence that many people think is not commensurate with the gravity of the offenses,” Pound said.