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Former Bonds Friend May Be Key To Possible Indictment
POSTED: 7:53 pm PDT July 11, 2006
UPDATED: 9:43 am PDT July 12, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO -- If Giants slugger Barry Bonds is indicted on perjury charges, KTVU Channel 2 News has learned that his defense will focus in part on a little-known figure in the case: a former friend and business partner of Bonds' named Steve Hoskins. The defense will charge that Hoskins turned informant against Bonds to save his own neck.
New York resident and baseball enthusiast Jeff Kranz is what you might call a rabid collector of all things related to Giants slugger Barry Bonds. Kranz says that he has spent a lot of money since 1993 on over 350 game-used items of Bonds'.
Kranz says that Barry Bonds stopped being his hero one day in 2003, when Bonds and FBI agents showed up at his house claiming that some of Kranz memorabilia were fake, forged, or stolen.
Eight months later, Kranz says, the FBI returned without Bonds and seized an additional 14 autographed items, leaving him with a nothing but a receipt. He thinks he has an idea what was behind the FBI's actions.
"My conclusion was something was going on; the IRS was after him," explains Kranz.
Bonds' attorney Michael Rains denies this. He says the Major League star discovered that Steve Hoskins -- Bonds' friend and partner in the memorabilia business who sold Kranz most of his items -- was ripping him off.
"He was Barry's best friend, He turned his back on his best friend and started forging things and started pocketing money," argues Rains. The attorney claims that in early 2003, a check mistakenly came to Bonds' accountant as part of a contract that Bonds supposedly knew nothing about. The check was for a picture of Bonds on a Christmas ornament.
"The check was to go to Kent Collectibles, and Steve managed Kent Collectibles," explains Rains. The attorney says that Bonds then discovered that Hoskins was signing his name to baseballs.
Rains says Bonds confronted Hoskins, then went with another attorney to the FBI to investigate Hoskins and recover any forged memorabilia.
A few months later, Bonds was called as a witness before a grand jury investigating BALCO and testified that he'd never knowingly taken performance enhancing drugs. Four months later, FBI agents seized the memorabilia from Jeff Kranz's New York home.
Soon after that, Rains says the FBI stopped treating Hoskins as a criminal suspect under investigation for doing Bonds wrong and started using him as an informant against Bonds.
Hoskins became an unnamed source, Rains says, for the book "Game Of Shadows" and for the government investigating whether Bonds lied to the grand jury about steroids.
"I hope the government took the time to explain to the grand jurors that they were putting a man up there who Barry had reported for criminal conduct and a man who had threatened to get even with Barry by accusing him of steroid use," says Rains.
Michael Cardoza, the attorney for Hoskins, disagrees.
"Absolutely not true. My client was investigated by the FBI because of the false allegations of Barry Bonds. He was cleared in that investigation," says Cardoza. "It was not a trade: 'Well, if you drop ... we'll testify against Barry.' That's absolutely untrue."
The U.S. attorney wouldn't comment and an FBI spokeswoman said that the case against Hoskins was closed.
Cardoza does agree that Steve Hoskins and Barry Bonds were friends since childhood. Their fathers -- both professional athletes -- were friends, too. Cardoza says that Steve Hoskins, a graphic artist and son of San Francisco 49er Bob Hoskins, worked with Bonds selling his memorabilia but he gives a different reason for the split:
"Barry demanded more and more of his time and couldn't understand why Stevie wanted to stay home with his children and his wife. Barry, in his own inimitable way, demanded that Steven come now … and it didn't happen that way. And that started the rift between the two," explains Cardoza.
Bonds' attorney says it's nonsense and claims that Hoskins forged memorabilia and embezzled money from Bonds.
So why is what may seem like an internal business split, now so important? Bonds' attorney says, "if" Bonds is indicted, the 'split' will be used as part of his defense.
"They don't want to tell the people who this guy, is because the minute they admit that their informant is in fact a liar and a cheat, then people have to wonder. People have to ask. So far, the federal government has worked around this guy," insists Rains.
Not surprisingly, Hoskins' attorney has a different viewpoint: "He will testify and he will testify truthfully. This is a game that Barry Bonds shouldn't have started; [he] shouldn't have accused my client falsely knowing that he was the one that was wrong," counters Cardoza.
As for Jeff Kranz, he says after two years, he finally got his Barry Bonds items back from the FBI; items he believes are authentic, but now is trying to sell.
POSTED: 7:53 pm PDT July 11, 2006
UPDATED: 9:43 am PDT July 12, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO -- If Giants slugger Barry Bonds is indicted on perjury charges, KTVU Channel 2 News has learned that his defense will focus in part on a little-known figure in the case: a former friend and business partner of Bonds' named Steve Hoskins. The defense will charge that Hoskins turned informant against Bonds to save his own neck.
New York resident and baseball enthusiast Jeff Kranz is what you might call a rabid collector of all things related to Giants slugger Barry Bonds. Kranz says that he has spent a lot of money since 1993 on over 350 game-used items of Bonds'.
Kranz says that Barry Bonds stopped being his hero one day in 2003, when Bonds and FBI agents showed up at his house claiming that some of Kranz memorabilia were fake, forged, or stolen.
Eight months later, Kranz says, the FBI returned without Bonds and seized an additional 14 autographed items, leaving him with a nothing but a receipt. He thinks he has an idea what was behind the FBI's actions.
"My conclusion was something was going on; the IRS was after him," explains Kranz.
Bonds' attorney Michael Rains denies this. He says the Major League star discovered that Steve Hoskins -- Bonds' friend and partner in the memorabilia business who sold Kranz most of his items -- was ripping him off.
"He was Barry's best friend, He turned his back on his best friend and started forging things and started pocketing money," argues Rains. The attorney claims that in early 2003, a check mistakenly came to Bonds' accountant as part of a contract that Bonds supposedly knew nothing about. The check was for a picture of Bonds on a Christmas ornament.
"The check was to go to Kent Collectibles, and Steve managed Kent Collectibles," explains Rains. The attorney says that Bonds then discovered that Hoskins was signing his name to baseballs.
Rains says Bonds confronted Hoskins, then went with another attorney to the FBI to investigate Hoskins and recover any forged memorabilia.
A few months later, Bonds was called as a witness before a grand jury investigating BALCO and testified that he'd never knowingly taken performance enhancing drugs. Four months later, FBI agents seized the memorabilia from Jeff Kranz's New York home.
Soon after that, Rains says the FBI stopped treating Hoskins as a criminal suspect under investigation for doing Bonds wrong and started using him as an informant against Bonds.
Hoskins became an unnamed source, Rains says, for the book "Game Of Shadows" and for the government investigating whether Bonds lied to the grand jury about steroids.
"I hope the government took the time to explain to the grand jurors that they were putting a man up there who Barry had reported for criminal conduct and a man who had threatened to get even with Barry by accusing him of steroid use," says Rains.
Michael Cardoza, the attorney for Hoskins, disagrees.
"Absolutely not true. My client was investigated by the FBI because of the false allegations of Barry Bonds. He was cleared in that investigation," says Cardoza. "It was not a trade: 'Well, if you drop ... we'll testify against Barry.' That's absolutely untrue."
The U.S. attorney wouldn't comment and an FBI spokeswoman said that the case against Hoskins was closed.
Cardoza does agree that Steve Hoskins and Barry Bonds were friends since childhood. Their fathers -- both professional athletes -- were friends, too. Cardoza says that Steve Hoskins, a graphic artist and son of San Francisco 49er Bob Hoskins, worked with Bonds selling his memorabilia but he gives a different reason for the split:
"Barry demanded more and more of his time and couldn't understand why Stevie wanted to stay home with his children and his wife. Barry, in his own inimitable way, demanded that Steven come now … and it didn't happen that way. And that started the rift between the two," explains Cardoza.
Bonds' attorney says it's nonsense and claims that Hoskins forged memorabilia and embezzled money from Bonds.
So why is what may seem like an internal business split, now so important? Bonds' attorney says, "if" Bonds is indicted, the 'split' will be used as part of his defense.
"They don't want to tell the people who this guy, is because the minute they admit that their informant is in fact a liar and a cheat, then people have to wonder. People have to ask. So far, the federal government has worked around this guy," insists Rains.
Not surprisingly, Hoskins' attorney has a different viewpoint: "He will testify and he will testify truthfully. This is a game that Barry Bonds shouldn't have started; [he] shouldn't have accused my client falsely knowing that he was the one that was wrong," counters Cardoza.
As for Jeff Kranz, he says after two years, he finally got his Barry Bonds items back from the FBI; items he believes are authentic, but now is trying to sell.
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