The act of inventing false information in order to deceive someone or the false information itself:
- Staffer 7 falsely claimed that the players were administered a possible harmful drug that was purchased in Mexico.
Hal Hunter interview with Staffer 7: Page 42, line 36:
Transcript
Staffer 7: “Now, this patient in terms of pursuing some experimental treatments attended Mexico, so he travelled to Mexico and he purchased a large quantity of amino acids from a chemist in Mexico over the counter.”
Hunter: “Okay.”
Staffer 7: “He has brought those amino acids back to Australia for use in injection into himself. He gave those amino acids to Mal Hooper because they wanted to show Stephen Dank. So, at the time that you were injected with amino acids, if we move on the assumption, it’s the same amino acids, you were injected with amino acid that belonged to a patient that was purchased in Mexico.”
Staffer 7 (Page 43, line 27): “But more importantly, as we have come to this investigation, we have realised there are some practices gone on that from our perspective has serious health concerns… but for me it’s alarming.”
My comment: It’s hard to imagine more reprehensible behaviour by a senior government executive. Staffer 7 was supposed to be collecting information, not distributing false information that scared the players by implying that they could suffer serious health problems as a result of being administered a substance from Mexico. The claim was factually incorrect. The substance was bought in El Paso USA and not Mexico. - Staffer 5 made an outrageous false claim that Stephen Dank broke into Alav’s premises late at night and forged Alav’s signature on a documentAlavi’s 29 November 2013 interview with Staffer 7 and Staffer 5 (page 258, line 47)
Transcript
Staffer 5: “Now, the only possible scenario for me from my perspective would be that Steve Dank has raced down to Como, got into your email system somehow, forged it, scanned it and sent it back.”
My comment: Staffer 5’s unsubstantiated claims were highly defamatory. Staffer 5 hadn’t a skerrick of evidence to support his claim that Stephen Dank was guilty of break and entering and forgery. This was not only an extraordinary unconscionable example of fabricating evidence but also an example of leading the witness. Staffer 5 was testifying in his own investigation with a number of lies.
ASADA subsequently acknowledged that Dank didn’t break in; he didn’t forge Alavi’s signature; and, he didn’t send it to himself.
In his 11 January 2015 affidavit(page 3 Clause 18), Staffer 7 said: “At 9:48 AM on 27 June 2012, Mr Alavi emailed the now signed Thymomodulin letter back to Mr Dank.” Staffer 7’s statement destroys his and Staffer 5’s claim that Dank broke into Alavi’s premises late at night and forged Alavi’s signature and emailed it back to himself. - Alavi accepted Staffer 5 and Staffer 7’s fabricated claims despite not having been offered any evidence.
Alavi’s 29 November 2013 interview with Staffer 7 & Staffer 5 (page 259)
Transcript
Alavi “So, he went in at night.”
Staffer 5: “Yeah, it’s been sent late at night to you.”
Alavi: “Yeah.”
Staffer 7: “So, that’s him sending it to himself.”
Alavi “So, [you, Staffer 5, are suggesting] he [Dank] went in [to Como] at night.”
Staffer 5: “Yeah, it’s [the backdated letter] been sent late at night [from Como] to you.”
Alavi: “Yeah.”
Staffer 7 (page 259, line 12): “So, that’s him sending it to himself.”
My comment: Alavi appears to accept Staffer 5 and Staffer 7’s allegation that Dank was a criminal. This proves Staffer 7 was part of the unconscionable charade initiated by Staffer 5.
Staffer 7 and Staffer 5 were clearly manipulating Alavi by putting words into his mouth. Staffer 7 had no evidence that Dank broke into Como, forged Alavi’s signature and sent the email to himself from Alavi’s PC. This was highly defamatory. - Staffer 5’s guess at what triggered Dank’s alleged action was false.
Alavi’s 29 November 2013 interview with Staffer 7 and Staffer 5 page 260, line 28:
Staffer 5:“And the other issue which we think triggered him, too, was that Amina Cowry sent him an email with an attachment where a cyclist over in, I think Belgium – I’m just relying on memory – but had just been banned for the use of TB-500, the very substance Charter’s brought in.”
Alavi: “Yep, yep.”
Staffer 5: “And within a week he was screaming trying to get you to sign this.”
Alavi: “Yeah, yeah.”
Staffer 5: “He was stressing because he knew that there was TB-500 that they’d actually supplied the players in the first instance.”
Alavi: “Yeah, yeah.”
Staffer 5 (page 261): “It’s not Thymosin.”
Alavi: “Yeah, not Thymomodulin. Yeah, so I reckon he’s come in and done this because he would come and use the fax. You know, he would use the computers. He was a pest.”
Staffer 7: “So, can I take it, then, at its highest your evidence is that you don’t recall signing it?”
Alavi: “Correct … I had never signed it.”
My comment: Staffer 5 was leading the witness by opining not only that Dank “knew that it was TB-500” but also what he thought triggered Dank. Staffer 5’s claim that “within a week [of the Wim Vans Evenant 29 June 2011 story breaking] he [Dank] was screaming trying to get you to sign this” was untrue. During his interview (page 259, line 40), Alavi said refuted Staffer 5’s claim about what triggered Dank. Alavi said: “Yeah. Well, he’s – he was asking me to sign this pretty much since February.”
Dank had asked him a number of times since 27 February 2012 to sign it. The Wim Vans Evenant story had nothing to do with Dank wanting the document signed.
As stated in clause 40, there was no need for Dank to use the term Thymosin (Thymomodulin) instead of Thymosin Beta-4 or TB-500 because no one in the world was aware of the allegation that they were banned substances by name before ASADA unlawfully changed their status on ‘Check your substances’ website after 10:34:17 AM on 4 February 2013.
The former Belgian cyclist Wim Vans Evenant was charged with importing TB-500 into Belgium but when the vials labelled TB-500 were analysed, they weren’t TB-500. Wim Vans Evenant was not banned for using TB-500. Additionally, there was never even a suggestion by anybody that Shane Charter and Alavi brought TB-500 into Australia - ASADA implied that Dank’s alleged involvement in Alavi’s Peptide Manual was because of his alleged interest in Thymosin Beta-4
Notes for ADRVP meeting
Transcript
“Mr Alavi also compiled a Peptide Manual. The section in the Peptide Manual about Thymosin is only about Thymosin Beta-4 (Document 23 of Document A).”
My comment: Alavi’s 29 November 2013 interview with Staffer 7 and Staffer 5 (page 205) proved that the manual had nothing to do with Dank:
Transcript
I said, “It’s not my peptide manual. I’ve just put some stuff together,”.
Staffer 7 (page 206): “In relation to the peptide that you compiled — not authored— which peptides are in there.”
Staffer 7: “And when was this conference that you had those freely available?”
Alavi: “It was in August 2012.”
Staffer 7: “And had you compiled this for that conference or had you had it on hand prior to or” –
Alavi: “The reason why I put it together was for that conference but I put it together a month or so before the conference, so, I was emailing it to doctors that were interested and I was handing it out to doctors that I would go and visit. So, it was — it was circulating people — and that’s just off — that’s just off the internet what you found … yeah.”
Staffer 7 (page 207). “Is Steve an author of any of those documents?”…
Alavi: “No.”
Staffer 7: “Are any of them documents that Steve sent to you?”
Alavi: “No.”
My comment: This was a disingenuous, dishonest attempt to imply that Alavi created the manual at Dank’s request. ASADA mislead the ADRVP at the 3 November 2014 meeting by implying that the manual was created for Dank/Essendon. Such a claim was reprehensible because Alavi had told Staffer 7 and Staffer 5 during their interview (page 205, line 22 that “I put together this peptide sort of manual so that doctors could read it because there’s just not enough information out there. I didn’t write any of it. I just compiled it. So, I went online and read some stuff that made sense and I put it together – yeah. This is it. This was supposed to go to doctors at the Anti-Aging Conference that wanted a bit of information about these peptides and dosages and frequencies and things like that.” - Alavi was being asked to include a comment in his statement that was untrue.
Alavi’s statement authored by Staffer 7 (page 16, clause 122):
[Alavi]: “Given the difficulties I had experienced trying to analyse the December 2011 delivery of peptides from China, I requested from Mr Anthony, at the time, that he obtain from the Chinese supplier certificates of analysis by which to verify the nature and quality of the peptides. Mr Anthony subsequently provided me with documentary copies of the respective certificates of analysis.”
My comment: During the CAS tribunal hearing WADA acknowledged that the certificates of analyses were forged.In his book, ‘The Straight Dope’, author Chip Le Grandsaid “Meanwhile, some documents obtained from a witness that were supposed to be “certificates of analysis” demonstrating that the substance was TB-4 were described as “forgeries” by the defence. ASADA’s Holmes duly acknowledged ‘significant difficulties with the document’ or words to that effect”. - The AFL, Essendon and ASADA conspired to claim that Essendon self-reported on 5 February in order to obtain a discount if guilty findings were made. Res ipsa loquitur, it was impossible for Essendon to self-report because ASADA and the AFL agreed on 1 February 2013 to conduct an investigation.
Alavi’s 26 November 2013 interview with Staffer 7 and Staffer 5 (page 118):
Transcript
Staffer 7: “I think it started on the — effectively. Essendon declared the sorry — Essendon declared on 5 February 2012.”
Alavi: “Yep.”
My comment: Claiming Essendon self-reported on 5 February 2013 is a lie perpetrated by ASADA, AFL and Essendon in order to receive a penalty discount. ASADA and the AFL agreed on Friday 1 February 2013 to conduct an investigation into drug taking at Essendon.
Essendon AFL Drug Saga 