Elite track coach Trevor Graham outside the Federal building yesterday in San Francisco. (Photo: AP)

SAN FRANCISCO, USA (AFP) - Athletics coach Jamaican Trevor Graham pleaded not guilty to lying to US investigators probing the BALCO steroid case here yesterday after appearing at a San Francisco court.

Graham, who has coached drug-tainted athletes such as Justin Gatlin and Tim Montgomery, denied three counts of making false statements to Internal Revenue Service investigators probing the scandal.

Each count carries a maximum sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of US$250,000. Graham was freed on $25,000 bail following the hearing at San Francisco's Richard Burton Central Court.

Graham's indictment alleges that on June 8, 2004, two IRS criminal investigation special agents interviewed Graham at his attorney's office in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Graham is charged with lying by saying he never set up any of his athletes with illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
Ironically, it was Graham who sparked the groundbreaking BALCO probe three years ago by anonymously sending the US Anti-Doping Agency a vial that contained the steroid which would later come to be known as "the clear".
That enabled the once-undetectable steroid to be traced and touched off a doping firestorm.

The US Olympic Committee banned Graham in August from its training centres because several of his athletes have been suspended for doping offences. Last week, the US Anti-Doping Agency notified Graham in a letter that he is accused of violating doping rules.

Following Graham's indictment, Olympic 200-metre gold medalist Shawn Crawford and former US 100-metre champion Me'Lisa Barber announced they no longer would train with him.

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