Just out of prison, former BALCO boss Victor Conte denies the claims in the book, Game of Shadows.

01:00 AM EST on Friday, March 31, 2006

SAN MATEO, Calif. -- BALCO founder Victor Conte insisted yesterday that he never gave performance-enhancing drugs to Barry Bonds and that a new book that makes those claims is "full of outright lies."

Conte spoke to The Associated Press outside his San Mateo home hours after his release from prison, where he spent four months after pleading guilty to orchestrating an illegal steroids distribution scheme that allegedly involved many high-profile athletes, including Bonds.

Asked whether he gave Bonds performance-enhancing drugs, Conte said: "No, I did not."

A new book, Game of Shadows, by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters, chronicles the founding of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative and details alleged extensive steroid use by Bonds and other baseball stars. Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announced yesterday that former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell will lead an investigation into the claims.

"I plan to provide evidence in the near future to prove that much of what is written in the book is untrue," Conte told the AP. He declined to list specific inaccuracies or what evidence he would provide, but said the book is "about the character assassination of Barry Bonds and myself."

"It's my opinion that the two writers of the book have a disease called fabrication-itis," Conte said, holding a copy of Game of Shadows as he stood on his front steps.

The book's authors, Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, were on an airplane yesterday and not available for comment.

Lisa Johnson, a spokeswoman for Gotham Books, which published Game of Shadows, did not immediately return a call from the AP.

"We stand by the reporting that Mark and Lance did throughout this story and in all the stories that were published in the paper," Chronicle executive vice president and editor Phil Bronstein said. "And if and when Mr. Conte speaks further about this, I'm sure we'll report about that as well."

Conte was picked up by his family after his 5:30 a.m. release from Taft Correctional Institution, about 40 miles southwest of Bakersfield, according to spokeswoman Mandy Ruff.

About five hours later, Conte arrived at his green two-story house in San Mateo, about 20 miles south of San Francisco, in a white sport-utility vehicle with darkened windows.