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Victor Conte, who masterminded a plan to supply hard-to-detect PEDs to elite sports stars including baseball greats Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and Olympic track champion Jones in the past, has passed away. He reached 75 years.

Government Probe and Criminal Cases

An official inquiry regarding an additional venture Conte founded, Balco, culminated in the criminal findings of Jones, top track cyclist Tammy Thomas, and retired NFL player Dana Stubblefield, along with coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Public Statements and Sentencing

The Balco founder, who spent several months in a federal facility for steroid distribution, spoke openly about his famous former clients. He was featured on broadcast media to claim he had seen three-time Olympic medalist Marion Jones self-administer with growth hormones, but consistently avoided pointing the finger at Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

Baseball's Investigation

The investigation inspired the volume titled Game of Shadows. Just days following the book's publication in the mid-2000s, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig hired political figure Mitchell to investigate steroids.

Conte stated he provided steroids known as “the cream” and “the clear” and advised on their use to numerous professional sportspeople, like Giambi, a star player, as per the investigation.

Using performance-enhancing substances is a significant danger to the honesty of the sport,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Broad usage by competitors of these compounds harms the honest athletes who avoid them and raises questions about the accuracy of historical stats.”

Mitchell indicated the problems were not sudden. The report emphasized all parties in baseball in the prior two decades – including commissioners, management, the players’ association and players – were partly accountable for what he called the doping period.

How It Began

The official probe into the laboratory was initiated by a IRS investigator digging through the corporate garbage. The defendant eventually confessed to a pair of the 42 charges he faced in that year before a trial. Several of the individuals found guilty were caught deceiving the court.

Related Cases

His fitness instructor Anderson, pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges stemming from his involvement with Balco. He received a sentence to 90 days in prison and three months of restricted movement.

His Court Proceedings

The baseball legend was indicted for lying to a grand jury about receiving banned substances and stood trial in 2011. The government abandoned his case four years later when the authorities chose not to contest an reversed conviction to the federal apex court.

A multiple MVP winner and frequent All-Star, he retired after the 2007 season with 762 homers, breaking the mark of Aaron's total that Hank Aaron established from his career. Bonds denied intentionally taking PEDs but has not been voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Conte's Post-Prison Life

The former convict told the Associated Press in a 2010 interview that “sportspeople break rules to triumph, but the officials and lawyers cheat to win, too.” He doubted whether the outcomes in these trials merited the work.

Post-incarceration, he resumed operations in 2007 by reviving a health products venture he had founded years before called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He operated in the same building that once housed the original company in the California city.

Continued Justification

He stayed unrepentant about his major involvement in distributing custom PEDs to professional competitors. He maintained he simply helped “even the competition” in a sports environment already rife with cheaters.

Critical Perspectives

To a WADA member, a former participant of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Conte was essentially pushing cocaine or heroin. “It concerns totally illegal drug trafficking. This refers to drug consumption in violation of federal law,” the doctor remarked in the past. “It's not a good deed and it's not altruistic. It's trafficking.”