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Victor Conte, who masterminded a operation to provide hard-to-detect banned substances to professional athletes featuring baseball icons Giambi and Bonds and Olympic track champion Jones decades ago, is deceased. His age was 75.

Government Probe and Criminal Cases

An official investigation into another company Conte founded, the Bay Area lab, resulted in the criminal findings of Marion Jones, elite sprint cyclist Tammy Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Stubblefield, along with trainers, suppliers, chemists, attorneys, and coaches.

Conte's Admissions and Sentencing

The Balco founder, who served several months in a penitentiary for steroid distribution, discussed frankly about his famous former clients. He was featured on TV to assert he had observed three-time Olympic medalist Jones self-administer with growth hormones, but always refrained from pointing the finger at Bonds, the baseball star.

Sport's Official Review

The investigation resulted in the volume titled Game of Shadows. Shortly after the book's publication in the mid-2000s, MLB commissioner Selig appointed ex-senator Mitchell to look into PED use.

He revealed he provided steroids known as certain undetectable drugs and coached on their application to numerous elite athletes, like Jason Giambi, a star player, the Mitchell report said.

“The illegal use of performance-enhancing substances represents a major risk to the honesty of the competition,” the report stated. “Widespread use by players of these drugs harms the honest athletes who avoid them and raises questions about the accuracy of sporting achievements.”

Mitchell indicated the challenges took time to emerge. The report emphasized everyone involved in professional baseball in the preceding decades – covering leaders, team executives, the players’ association and players – were partly accountable for what he called the doping period.

Case Inception

The government's case into Balco began with a revenue officer digging through the corporate garbage. The defendant ultimately admitted guilt to a couple of the numerous counts filed against him in the mid-2000s before a trial. Six of the individuals found guilty were convicted for deceiving federal investigators.

Related Cases

His fitness instructor Greg Anderson, admitted guilt to steroid distribution charges stemming from his Balco connections. He received a sentence to a quarter year in incarceration and three months of restricted movement.

The Slugger's Case

The baseball legend was charged with deceiving a federal jury about using PEDs and went on trial in that year. Prosecutors dropped the charges down the line when the government decided not to contest an overturned obstruction of justice conviction to the federal apex court.

A multiple MVP winner and star performer, he concluded his playing days after the that season with 762 home runs, surpassing the milestone of that number that Hank Aaron set from his career. He claimed he did not knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs but has not been voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Later Years

The former convict told the Associated Press in a 2010 interview that “yes, athletes cheat to win, but the government agents and prosecutors cheat to win, too.” He wondered whether the conclusions in these trials were worth the resources.

Following his prison term, he returned to work in the late 2000s by resuscitating a health products venture he had launched previously called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He set up shop in the same building that once housed the original company in Burlingame, California.

Unapologetic Views

He remained defiant about his major involvement in providing custom PEDs to professional competitors. He maintained he simply helped “even the competition” in a sports environment already rife with rule-breakers.

Outside Views

To a WADA member, a at the time a member of the WADA, he may as well have been pushing illegal narcotics. “It concerns blatant drug dealing. This refers to drug consumption in breach of national statutes,” Wadler said in that period. “This is not philanthropy and it's not altruistic. It's trafficking.”