US Olympian Montgomery gets 46 months

by Rob Peters | May 16, 2008 at 05:42 pm | 157 views | add comment

An Olympic gold medalist was sentenced today for participating in a multi-million dollar fraud scheme. In case you needed convincing, it's further proof that fraud--as well as doping and cheating, actually--don't pay.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — Olympic gold medalist Tim Montgomery has been sentenced to 46 months in prison for his part in a fake-check scheme.

The sprinter hung his head as a judge imposed the sentence Friday in White Plains, N.Y.

The 33-year-old former track star pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy in a multimillion-dollar bank fraud and money laundering plot. Prosecutors say he had a hand in depositing bogus checks worth $1.7 million.

Montgomery retired in 2005 after he was banned from track and field for doping.

He has a child with Marion Jones, the track superstar serving prison time for lying about the check scam and about her use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Montgomery still faces drug-dealing charges in Virginia.

"I stood at the top of the mountain and heard the cheersfrom the people," the former gold medal winner told the judgein seeking leniency. "In jail, my status is gone. I am just ashuman as everyone else." Judge Kenneth Karas imposed the maximum sentence allowedunder federal guidelines, holding Montgomery responsible forgetting his coach, his agent and the disgraced superstar MarionJones involved in the scheme, leading to their downfalls. Jones, once Montgomery's girlfriend, was sentenced to sixmonths for misleading investigators about the check fraudscheme and for lying about her steroid use in another probe. She was stripped of her five 2000 Olympic track medals andis in jail. Montgomery came to Friday's sentencing hearing already infederal custody on suspicion of conspiracy to possess heroinwith intent to distribute in Virginia, a case for which he hasyet to be tried. In 2000, Montgomery won an Olympic gold medal as a memberof the United States 4x100-meter relay team in Sydney. Two years later, he set a 100-meter world record of 9.78seconds, but the time was erased from the record books afterthe U.S. antidoping agency determined he received steroids. Hewas barred from competition in 2005.

Montgomery's defense lawyer argued his client was just amiddle man. "Just as when he was using performance enhancing drugs,he's susceptible to bad influence," Timothy Heaphy told thejudge. "Mr. Montgomery, like Ms. Jones, will forever be tarredwith the branding of being a criminal." (Editing by Daniel Trotta and John O'Callaghan)