TweetBodybuilder Key Informant in Steroid Probe
Thu Mar 11, 2004 06:19 PM ET
By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A bodybuilder and former steroid ****** with a criminal record and past financial troubles may have provided the government key clues in the global sports steroid scandal, people close to the case say.

The story of Ron Kramer, 40, provides insight on a U.S. government probe into the murky world of performance enhancement drugs that has prompted Congressional hearings and concern from President Bush.

According to court papers, Kramer has aided investigators as
an informant on steroids in the past. Although he has not been named in the latest steroid indictments, two people close to the case say he helped the government in its probe of BALCO, a San Francisco-area nutritional laboratory that officials say provided steroids to some top athletes.
Baseball stars Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi were among athletes who testified before a grand jury probing BALCO, although no athletes have been charged.

Kramer's relationship with drug investigators stems from his own troubles with the law.

The beefy New York native was a bodybuilder and gym owner living south of San Francisco in 1997 when he was arrested on charges related to steroids possession after mailing himself a package from Spain.

After initially claiming he was injecting testosterone to treat impotency, he pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of anabolic steroids for purpose of sale in 1997 and declared personal bankruptcy, court documents show.

Sentenced to six months in prison and three years probation, Kramer violated his probation conditions and was arrested again in 2000 on new steroid charges.

BODY-BUILDING CONTESTS

Court documents from that case show that Kramer, who had organized bodybuilding contests in San Francisco, had started working with the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force (NTF).

"Following his arrest on the new case and while both matters were pending, the defendant agreed to work with NTF in its efforts to infiltrate the local body-building community in regards to the manufacture, sale and/or use of anabolic steroids, growth hormones and other illegal substances," local district attorney James Fox wrote in an April 2001 filing
"Mr. Kramer commenced his work with NTF purely for reasons of self-preservation -- to avoid being sentenced to state prison."

According to filings by his attorneys, Kramer worked hard to provide the government with insider tips. "Defendant has cooperated not just minimally, but to a super-human extent with the NTF in assisting them to investigate and prosecute steroid related offenses of which they previously had almost no working understanding," attorney Geoffrey Carr wrote.
The court eventually dismissed the charges against Kramer and the following year investigators started a probe of BALCO, a nutritional lab in the same area south of San Francisco suspected of providing steroids to professional athletes.

In February 2004, after months of secret testimony from top athletes, a federal grand jury indicted the two top officials at BALCO, Bonds's personal trainer Greg Anderson and track and field coach Remi Korchemny.

According to a September 2003 affidavit, a confidential informant was key in building the case against Anderson, who lived a mile away from Kramer. The affidavit does not name the informant, but two people involved in the case told Reuters it was Kramer.

STEROIDS AND BASEBALL

The bodybuilder's history corresponds to the details given in the affidavit, including that he had pleaded guilty to state felony steroid distribution charges a few years previously and had since been providing information to the NTF.
The informant's tips prompted the government to monitor BALCO, examine its medical waste investigate it in other ways.

An affidavit in the case said a narcotics task force officer "had received information from a confidential informant that Greg Anderson is well known within the 'steroid community' as a steroid ****** and that his steroid clients included professional baseball players."

The San Francisco Chronicle reported last week that the government was told Bonds and other baseball stars such as Giambi and Gary Sheffield had received steroids.

The scandal has intensified questions about Bonds, who holds the single-season home run record and is poised as soon as next month to overtake Willie Mays for third place in all time American baseball home runs. He denies taking steroids.
Reached by telephone in Arizona where he runs a nutritional supplement business, Kramer would not say whether or not he was the informant named in the BALCO documents.
"Anything that I may or may have not told anybody is already been pretty much out there and more than what I have known has already come to surface," he said. "So it's really not going to do me any good to be involved in this anymore. There is nothing I can add that hasn't been exploited." He was however critical of the lawyers for indicted BALCO officials Victor Conte and James Valente.

TweetIve already taking the rap for keeping my mouth shut and done the time.So yes Ive had to make that choice.