Swimmer Lied but Wins Lawsuit Anyway

[rrgg]

[font=Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif]Ultimate Nutrition Product Testing Finds Negative Steroid Results[/font][font=Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif]
2005-06-03 - Ultimate Nutrition [/font]
[font=Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif]

http://www.npicenter.com/anm/templates/newsATemp.aspx?articleid=12617&zoneid=18

(FARMINGTON, CT) June 2, 2005 – Independent, third-party laboratory testing at the University of Southern California (USC), found Super Complete, a multivitamin from Ultimate Nutrition® Inc., the manufacturer of quality sports nutrition products, to be free of anabolic steroids. The announcement was made by Brian Rubino, vice president of Ultimate Nutrition.
Ultimate Nutrition was recently engaged in a lawsuit filed by amateur swimmer Kicker Vencill claiming his Super Complete multivitamin caused him to test positive for 19-norandrosterone at 4 ng/mL. This amount was two times the United States Anti-Drug Agency and World Anti-Drug Agency limits.

Ultimate Nutrition hired the University of Southern California, the only university based USP certified laboratory in the country, to test Super Complete. Seven tests were conducted under the supervision of Dr. Roger Clemens, director of the School of Pharmacy and completed on lot numbers before and after and the one in question from bottles provided by Ultimate Nutrition, from bottles USC purchased in the marketplace and on product used and provided by Vencill. All lab tests showed negative results.

“Although to our disappointment the jury awarded in favor of the plaintiff despite the evidence, we feel vindicated by the USC product tests,� Rubino said. “At this time we are exploring our appeal options.�

According to Rubino, Super Complete and all other non-prohormone products from Ultimate Nutrition are manufactured at facilities that do not make prohormones, steroid precursors, or steroid metabolites. Also, the company sources ingredients from suppliers that do not manufacture prohormones, steroid precursors or steroid metabolites.

Rubino also noted that DHEA, the only prohormone currently produced by Ultimate Nutrition is manufactured at a separate facility to prevent cross-contamination.

Ultimate Nutrition, established in 1979, has made a powerful corporate commitment to manufacturing excellence. Located in Farmington, CT, the company offers a wide range of scientifically designed sports nutrition formulas including CreaPure®, ProStar® Whey, Whey Gainers®, and Ultra Ripped®. Available in 45 countries, Ultimate Nutrition products are the number one choice for athletes around the world.

# # # #

For more information contact:
Sheldon Baker or Karena Dillon, Baker Dillon Group
[email protected]
800.570.1262

[/font]

 

[BigSwede]

What a joke. Guy has the stones to blame it on a multi simply because the co's primary market is BBers.

 

[wastedwhiteboy2]

this is freaking scary what the media has done to this jury. yeah the jury are idiots but they were primed.

again someone trying to avoid responsibility.

 

[rrgg]

As you can see, he's completely roided up and freaky.

Check out the morons who believe the jury decision actually means steroids were in the vitamins:
http://www.collegeswimming.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=7567&

 

[BOHICA]

[font=Tahoma, Verdana, sans-serif]Seven tests were conducted under the supervision of Dr. Roger Clemens.
[/font]

Of course they are gonna come up negative, you let a baseball player of all people test them. :icon_lol: (I thought it was funny)

 

[asap nutrition]

Well I am glad that the company was vindicated even though I thought this will be picked up by many national news agencies.

 

[asap nutrition]

I still find this story interesting. So I wonder if any other athletes will now use this excuse. BUt I still believe that some companies either knowingly or unknowingly include anabolic steriods in their supplements.

 

[BOHICA]

Well I am glad that the company was vindicated even though I thought this will be picked up by many national news agencies.

It won't be picked up because the vitamin is proved to not have steroid properties in it. If it was, then it would be the hottest thing - hour special on ESPN!!

 

[rrgg]

I still find this story interesting. So I wonder if any other athletes will now use this excuse. BUt I still believe that some companies either knowingly or unknowingly include anabolic steriods in their supplements.

What makes you believe companies put steroids in their supps? It's not like this stuff is cheap, and the trace amounts this athlete is claiming would do absolutely nothing for customers. To top it off, the federal penalties are serious. Same as putting cocaine in their supps.

To answer your other comment, at least 2 other athletes already tried this excuse with MuscleTech. I've highlighted it in the article below.


http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/fitness/articles/2005/04/11/amid_drug_scandals_athletes_strike_back?mode=PF
Amid drug scandals, athletes strike back

By Ross Kerber, Globe Staff | April 11, 2005

When athletes flunk strict drug tests, it can cost them plenty -- missed competitions, lost salary, endorsement deals. Now, some athletes who say they were wrongly punished are seeking payback.

At least five athletes have filed lawsuits against companies who make nutritional supplements, alleging tainted pills and powders caused them to fail tests designed to spot cheaters using performance-enhancing substances.

In one case, a national-class swimmer says a Connecticut company sold him allegedly laced vitamin capsules that led to a two-year suspension. Two professional tennis players have brought similar actions against other producers. In football, NFL running back Mike Cloud, a Boston College graduate who played for the Patriots, says a tainted protein powder caused him to fail a steroid test and sit out four games -- even though the product's ingredient label wasn't complete.

That was an unfair hit to his reputation, said Cloud's attorney, Brian J. Molloy. ''He's branded a cheater," Molloy said. ''It's like the scarlet letter."

The companies generally deny wrongdoing and some hint that the players themselves are seeking to shift blame for their guilt. One, MuscleTech Research and Development Inc., has countersued, saying Cloud's allegations are false and amount to trade libel.

Whoever is right, the disputes indicate how strict rules and rigorous testing adopted in many sports to combat cheating have put heavy burdens of proof onto the athletes. Players and their attorneys say the disputes also indicate a reaction that will spread if officials don't loosen policies that make athletes liable for every molecule they ingest. Such policies are unfair, they say, when any violation can lead to stigma that cuts into product-endorsement opportunities.

Officials from sports leagues and testing agencies say there is no other way to preserve the integrity of sports. Setting lower standards or cutting athletes more slack would create a morass of excuses, said Don Catlin, director of a laboratory at the University of California at Los Angeles that runs many tests for the Olympics and affiliated sports such as cycling and track and field.

''Everybody has a story," Catlin said in an interview. '' 'It came in the food, it came in the drink, a Coke bottle or a Mars bar.' . . . There's no way to sort that out. So the court has to say, 'If they're going to test, they have to make everyone responsible.' "

Other specialists acknowledge poor manufacturing can lead to products tainted with substances that are not supposed to be there. Travis Tygart, a lawyer for the US Anti-Doping Agency, a standards organization in Colorado, said a possible scenario would be a facility that simply did a poor job of cleaning machines used to package several types of supplements. In that case, he said, ''there would be cross-contamination."

Exactly what goes into nutritional supplements has been a hot topic for years, with some specialists arguing the industry deserves more oversight from the Food and Drug Administration.

The debate has mostly turned on health issues and whether products described as ''herbal" might be dangerous. Since 1994, federal laws have left the nutritional supplements industry largely unregulated so long as firms don't claim their products will cure specific medical maladies.

Two developments have refocused attention, however. First, a law signed by President Bush in October puts new controls on substances such as the bodybuilding supplement androstenedione.

Second, most sports federations and leagues are moving to impose tougher drug-testing at the elite levels. Many have joined a Montreal group known as the World Anti-Doping Agency, charged with creating tough scientific tests and penalties such as two-year suspensions for a first offense. At hearings last month, several congressmen suggested that professional baseball should consider those rules as well, following allegations of widespread steroid use in the sport.

Adopting those rules would cause a huge change in the way baseball treats players who fail tests. Consider, for instance, the cases of San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds and Kicker Vencill, a swimmer from Arizona who qualified for the 2003 Pan American Games.

According to grand jury testimony reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, Bonds may have used steroids provided by a sports laboratory now under federal investigation. Bonds has said he used the substances unwittingly. At the time, Major League Baseball's collective bargaining agreement with its players did not provide for testing for these substances, and Bonds has not faced any sanction.

Similarly, Vencill also says he didn't know that vitamin capsules he was taking contained trace amounts of the steroid nandrolone. Vencill is just finishing a two-year suspension from competition, under Olympic testing rules. The sanction was upheld last year by sport's highest court of arbitration, in Switzerland, even though the court also ruled that Vencill didn't technically know he was taking the banned substance and acknowledged he carefully read product labels to avoid banned substances.

Vencill should have been more skeptical of company claims, however, the court ruled.

''In this day and age," the court wrote, trusting only product labels and friends' advice ''is tantamount to a type of willful blindness."

Vencill and Howard Jacobs, his attorney in Los Angeles, say that's unjust. Most high-level athletes take supplements to get the most benefit from training, Vencill said, and the ban only shows how sports authorities wanted to make an example of him.

''I feel like a sacrificial lamb," Vencill said in a recent telephone interview, in between pool sessions as he wastraining for a comeback. Beyond his attempt to stay clean, the tiny levels of a form of nandrolone detected wouldn't' have made a difference in his speed in the pool anyway.

In a civil suit now pending in California, Vencill seeks unspecified damages from the maker of the capsules he was taking, Ultimate Nutrition Inc. of Farmington, Conn. In a court filing, the firm denies wrongdoing and says, at one point, that its product ''was not being usedin the way it was intended to be used." The company also argues the product was ''modified or altered" after it left the company's control.

Messages to Ultimate Nutrition and its president, Elizabeth Rubino, were returned by the company's attorney, Todd Croutch, who said his client wouldn't talk about the case at least until it is resolved. But another company that faces similar claims, MuscleTech, has been much more aggressive in denying wrongdoing.

MuscleTech, of Canada, faces both Cloud's suit and a similar case brought by a bobsledder, Pavle Jovanovic of New Jersey. Both claim they tested positive after consuming the company's whey protein powder called Nitro-Tech. Both submitted test results showing the power contained precursors of the steroid nandrolone, not listed on its label.

MuscleTech denies wrongdoing, and filed countersuits against both athletes. In its counterclaim against Cloud, pending in US district court in Rhode Island, the company says that Nitro-Tech has passed purity tests and that Cloud's statements were false or reckless. Among other things, the company's manufacturing partner in Wisconsin has all sorts of certifications that its processes are pure, according to another court filing by MuscleTech.

Cloud's actions and public statements, MuscleTech argued, amount to ''a desperate attempt to redirect the accountability for his failed drug test and thereby increase his marketability and further his career in the NFL."

 

[BigSwede]

Wheatios! Now fortified with MDMA and 19-Norandrostenediol !!!

 

[BigVrunga]

What a fuckin' chode. If you were a professional athlete, why would you take a prohormone that converts to a compound that can be detectible in your system for up to a year or more? Ill tell you why!:

BECAUSE HE'S A FREAKIN' JACKASS.

We should have a 2 hour media expose on pro-athlete jackasses. Now that would get my attention. That could precede the 3-day mini-series on Lying Politician Bastards.

BV

 

[cable626]

so he filed a lawsuit against Ultimate Nutrition that the multi had steroids in it, they tested and concluded that there aren't any steroids in them, and then the swimmer still won the case?
am i missing something?

 

[UnicronSpawn]

What a fuckin' chode. If you were a professional athlete, why would you take a prohormone that converts to a compound that can be detectible in your system for up to a year or more? Ill tell you why!:

BECAUSE HE'S A FREAKIN' JACKASS.

We should have a 2 hour media expose on pro-athlete jackasses. Now that would get my attention. That could precede the 3-day mini-series on Lying Politician Bastards.

BV

LOL! yeah instead of "America's dumbest criminals", it could be "Sports dumbest drug test violators" Id have to by the 1st season box set of that one!

Seriously this is bad news though, for us I mean, any negative attention aimed at the supplement industry is bad. Personally I dont think ruling the athletes with an iron fist is neccessary, **** they could train in the harsh enviroment of planet mars and take whatever they feel like for all I care, if you got the resources more power to you.I dont buy that rant about the OTC supps containing AAS, the players are just trying to get themselves off the hook at the expense of the companies reputation. But I think the only way the "problem" will be rectified is when the entire society experiences the epiphany/paradigm shift that allowing drugs in sports albiet with medical supervision is the closest they will ever get to having a level playing field. Performance enhancing drugs/supps are representative of the basic human need for evolution/progression, in a way its the anti-thesis what the anti steroid zealots make it out to be, its not destroying the spirit of sporting competition, it IS the EPITOME of the spirit of sporting competition. You cant stop evolution, you can only delay it. ................Thats my 3 cents ..... peace

 

[guitarjunkie420]

The sad thing is that supp companies wont get a fair shake nomatter what as long as the govt and media are on a steroid witchhunt and this will open the door for more athletes to make similar claims because they know they can.

 

[rrgg]

Apparently the swimmer sent materials to be tested and came back with a positive result. Ultimate Nutrition had an independent test done and came back clean.

The jury gave the swimmer the benefit of the doubt, which is ridiculous. I don't see why the judge did not overturn the decision.

 

[BigVrunga]

It's because nither the jury or the judge has any freakin' clue what they're talking about. If any of them did exercise/strive for bettering themselves physically - they would have seen right through this bs. But, if you look at the general population how many of them have any willingness to further their education through research, or strive for self improvement?

We're a small minority, and because of that any case like this that goes to trial will not be rightfully judged by a jury of our peers. The fate of this case was decided by mindless sheep who have been brainwashed by the current steroid freakshow media circus.

BV

 

[Pushofabutton]

OMG this is sad.

 

[scherecwich]

Supplement companies

Hey all, I work for a supplement company, and we are, of course, very interested in this story and how it will eventually played out. I've been in the nutritional supplement industry as a buyer for about 11 years now, and I've looked over the list of ingredients that SuperComplete contains, and I can tell you there is nothing obvious in there...if there is something in there, it definately doesn't fit anything on the label claim.

That being said, why is it that we nutritional companies are getting all the heat? Do you have any idea how many steriods are given to the cows to make our hamburger? How contaminated our daily food is? Todays food has little to no nutritional value....Vencill has vowed to stay away from supplements, and I honestly believe he will be worse off for it.

 

[kwyckemynd00]

Wow...that article is ridiculous. And, the douche who argued against snakebytes point needs a good slapping.

In the article it states that USC is the only qualified lab in the country to do the test, and the moron rants about some other lab getting funny results.

Not only that, but to raise nandrolone levels 200% you'd need more than an oral dose at trace levels found in a multivitamin

 

[snakebyte05]

Thank you for bringing this back up. I couldn't help but post again. I hadn't even noticed anyone answered back, last i checked there was nothing else there. Hopefully this gets their attention, I think it would make a fun little debat.

 

[kwyckemynd00]

I registered bro Waiting for admin approval....hehehehe

 

[snakebyte05]

Im hoping Im not to late to spark a good debate. I should think this could get interesting, except the fact I am not sure how many of them know about steroids very well, so we may have an upper hand :twisted:
Either way, if someone replies, hopefully the dave guy (anyone know who that is, seems to be a big swimmer guy or something) we can have a good time.

EDIT: It should be only a few hours for confirmation. I checked up on the dave guy and he posted last week, so Im guessing he frequents to boards. To bad more people aren't htere. Its always fun to stir up a good debate.

 

[scherecwich]

Are these tennis players just good copy?

In one case, a national-class swimmer says a Connecticut company sold him allegedly laced vitamin capsules that led to a two-year suspension. Two professional tennis players have brought similar actions against other producers. In football, NFL running back Mike Cloud, a Boston College graduate who played for the Patriots, says a tainted protein powder caused him to fail a steroid test and sit out four games -- even though the product's ingredient label wasn't complete.

Does anyone know if these two tennis players really exist? The author went into great detail on Mike Cloud, but I've been searching google for 20 minutes and can't find anything about tennis players and lawsuits on supplements. I'm trying to cross reference these products to see if just maybe there is one common ingredient giving a false positive.

Any help appreciated. Thanks.

 

[kwyckemynd00]

Im hoping Im not to late to spark a good debate. I should think this could get interesting, except the fact I am not sure how many of them know about steroids very well, so we may have an upper hand :twisted:
Either way, if someone replies, hopefully the dave guy (anyone know who that is, seems to be a big swimmer guy or something) we can have a good time.

EDIT: It should be only a few hours for confirmation. I checked up on the dave guy and he posted last week, so Im guessing he frequents to boards. To bad more people aren't htere. Its always fun to stir up a good debate.

Bump

I'm going to join in now :twisted:

 

[kwyckemynd00]

Well, n/m...they still didn't activate my acct

 

[snakebyte05]

Well, n/m...they still didn't activate my acct

You sure they didn't activate it? Thats kind of weird. You try logging in at all?

 

[kwyckemynd00]

You sure they didn't activate it? Thats kind of weird. You try logging in at all?

I tried logging in assuming that it'd be active, and it wasn't. Then I checked my e-mail and I got my confirmation e-mail, but not the activation e-mail

 

[rrgg]

Follow-up: Lying Athlete Is Called Out




Court vacates contaminant judgment against Ultimate Nutrition

http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/news/printNewsBis.asp?id=61452

7/21/2005- Ultimate Nutrition’s request that California’s Superior Court vacate the judgment against it in its lawsuit against amateur swimmer Kicker Vencill, on the grounds that there was no evidence that its multivitamin product contained a banned substance, has been granted.

Vencill launched a lawsuit against the company in 2003 after his urine tested positive for 19-norandrosterone at 4 ng/mL, a substance that is restricted for high-level swimmers, resulting in a two-year ban from swimming competitions, including the Olympic trials. Vencill claimed that the substance originated from contamination of Ultimate Nutrition’s multivitamin product, Super Complete.

In May, a civil jury found in favor of Vencill, awarding him $578,000 in damages.

Independent testing reportedly showed that the multivitamin had been contaminated.

But the company says that multiple tests carried out at the University of Southern California on capsules from the same lot number as those purportedly taken by Vencill, from preceding and following lot numbers and, indeed, from the very same bottle from which Vencill allegedly consumed capsules all showed up negative for contaminants.

It has also said that all its non-prohormone products, including Super Complete, are manufactured at facilities that do not make prohormones, steroid precursors, or steroid metabolites. Nor does the company source ingredients from suppliers that manufacture these substances.

According to Ultimate Nutrition’s attorney Todd Croutch, a “mutually agreeable� resolution has been reached between Vencill and Ultimate Nutrition.

 

[BigVrunga]

I hope they didnt have to give that sissy whine ass too much money...

 

[foo.c]

I saw this story on TV last week. I think it was ESPN2, but I'm not sure.

Anyways, they painted Kicker as a martyr. Poor innocent kicker who had his life ruined by a multivitamin.

They interviewed the CEO of Ultimate Nutrition, and I kept wondering why the first thing out of his mouth wasn't about the testing results. (They aired him saying that it was impossible to test for every single kind of cross-contamination.)

And then at the very end of the story, there was one sentence about the company denying the results.

Total hatchet job ...

 

[BigVrunga]

I'd like to kick that dude's ass up around his ears. Ill bet you any amount of $$ he was a spoiled little bitch groing up too, who never was held accountable for anything he did.

Freakin' punk.