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Victor Conte, who devised a plan to provide undetectable banned substances to professional athletes featuring baseball greats Giambi and Bonds and track and field star Jones decades ago, has died. He reached 75 years.

Government Probe and Convictions

A national inquiry regarding a separate firm Conte founded, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), resulted in the criminal findings of Marion Jones, top track cyclist Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Dana Stubblefield, as well as coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Public Statements and Prison Time

Conte, who spent several months in a federal facility for dealing steroids, talked publicly about his well-known clients. He was featured on television to claim he had seen decorated Olympian Jones inject herself with HGH, but always refrained from implicating Barry Bonds, the baseball star.

Baseball's Investigation

This probe resulted in the book titled Game of Shadows. A week after the publication date in 2006, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig appointed political figure George Mitchell to look into PED use.

Conte stated he sold steroids called “the cream” and “the clear” and coached on their use to many professional sportspeople, including Jason Giambi, a five-time major league All-Star, the Mitchell report said.

“The illegal use of performance-enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the honesty of the competition,” the report stated. “Broad usage by players of these drugs unfairly disadvantages the those who refuse to cheat who decline to take them and leads to skepticism about the accuracy of historical stats.”

The report noted the problems took time to emerge. Mitchell claimed each participant in the sport in the previous twenty years – covering leaders, management, the representative body and players – were partly accountable for what he labeled “the steroids era”.

How It Began

The federal investigation into the laboratory was initiated by a IRS investigator digging through the corporate garbage. The defendant ultimately admitted guilt to two of the multiple accusations against him in 2005 before a trial. Several of the defendants sentenced were ensnared for lying to federal investigators.

Further Legal Actions

His fitness instructor Anderson, confessed to steroid distribution charges arising from his involvement with Balco. He received a sentence to three months in incarceration and three months of restricted movement.

Bonds' Legal Battles

The baseball legend was indicted for lying to a investigative body about obtaining banned substances and faced a trial in the early 2010s. The case was dismissed his case four years later when the government decided not to appeal an reversed conviction to the supreme court.

A multiple MVP winner and star performer, he concluded his playing days after the 2007 season with 762 home runs, exceeding the record of Aaron's total that Hank Aaron established from the 1950s to 1970s. He claimed he did not knowingly using PEDs but has not been voted to the sport's hall of honor.

Later Years

He stated in an interview in a past conversation that “sportspeople break rules to succeed, but the officials and lawyers cheat to win, too.” He wondered whether the outcomes in such legal cases were worth the resources.

After serving his sentence, Conte resumed operations in that year by rebooting a nutritional supplements business he had started two decades earlier called SNAC System. He set up shop in the very same place that was home to the original company in Burlingame, California.

Defiant Stance

Conte remained defiant about his major involvement in doling out custom PEDs to top sports stars. He claimed he simply helped “level the playing field” in a sports environment teeming with doping athletes.

Critical Perspectives

To a WADA member, a then-member of the WADA, he was essentially distributing hard drugs. “It concerns unlawful substance distribution. It's about substance use in defiance of legal codes,” Wadler said in the past. “This isn't charity and it's not altruistic. It's trafficking.”