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Victor Conte, who devised a plan to provide stealthy performance-enhancing drugs to elite sports stars including baseball greats Giambi and Bonds and Olympic track champion Marion Jones decades ago, has died. He reached 75 years.

Government Probe and Criminal Cases

A national probe of a separate firm established by Conte, the Bay Area lab, led to the guilty verdicts of Marion Jones, top track cyclist Tammy Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Stubblefield, in addition to trainers, suppliers, chemists, attorneys, and coaches.

Open Discussions and Prison Time

The Balco founder, who served four months in a penitentiary for steroid distribution, spoke openly about his high-profile athletes. He appeared on broadcast media to assert he had witnessed decorated Olympian Jones inject herself with growth hormones, but consistently avoided implicating Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger.

The Mitchell Report

This probe led to the volume Game of Shadows. Just days following the book's publication in that year, MLB commissioner Bud Selig appointed ex-senator Mitchell to look into PED use.

He revealed he sold steroids called certain undetectable drugs and coached on their usage to dozens of top performers, such as Jason Giambi, a star player, according to the report.

Using banned drugs is a significant danger to the honesty of the sport,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Broad usage by competitors of these drugs unfairly disadvantages the those who refuse to cheat who decline to take them and creates doubts about the accuracy of baseball records.”

The report noted the issues took time to emerge. The report emphasized all parties in baseball in the preceding decades – covering commissioners, management, the players’ association and players – bore partial blame for what he called “the steroids era”.

How It Began

The federal investigation into Balco was initiated by a tax agent searching the company’s trash. Conte ended up pleading guilty to two of the multiple accusations against him in 2005 prior to court proceedings. Six of the 11 convicted people were convicted for deceiving the court.

Associated Convictions

Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson, admitted guilt to steroid distribution charges linked to his involvement with Balco. Anderson was sentenced to three months in incarceration and an equal period of house arrest.

Bonds' Legal Battles

Bonds was charged with providing false statements to a investigative body about obtaining banned substances and stood trial in 2011. Prosecutors dropped his case down the line when the prosecutors opted not to appeal an reversed conviction to the federal apex court.

A seven-time National League MVP and 14-time All-Star outfielder, he ended his career after the 2007 campaign with 762 homers, surpassing the milestone of Aaron's total that Hank Aaron set from 1954-76. Bonds denied knowingly using banned substances but has never been elected to the sport's hall of honor.

Conte's Post-Prison Life

He remarked to the press in a past conversation that “competitors do cheat to succeed, but the government agents and prosecutors engage in misconduct as well.” He doubted whether the results in such legal cases justified the effort.

Following his prison term, he returned to work in that year by reviving a supplements company he had started years before called his supplements brand. He set up shop in the very same place that was home to Balco in Burlingame.

Unapologetic Views

He continued to justify about his key part in distributing tailored drugs to top sports stars. He argued he simply helped “level the playing field” in a world teeming with cheaters.

Critical Perspectives

To a WADA member, a at the time a member of the global anti-doping body, he could be compared to distributing hard drugs. “This involves blatant drug dealing. This refers to using drugs in defiance of legal codes,” Wadler said in 2007. “It's not a good deed and not a benevolent act. It's trafficking.”