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Victor Conte, who devised a operation to distribute stealthy performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes including baseball greats Giambi and Bonds and Olympic track champion Marion Jones decades ago, has died. He reached 75 years.

Official Inquiry and Criminal Cases

The federal government's probe of an additional venture Conte founded, Balco, culminated in the criminal findings of Marion Jones, elite sprint cyclist Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield, in addition to coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Open Discussions and Prison Time

He, who served a third of a year in a penitentiary for steroid distribution, talked publicly about his high-profile athletes. He appeared on TV to assert he had seen triple Olympic champion Jones inject herself with HGH, but always refrained from implicating Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger.

Baseball's Investigation

The federal case led to the publication titled Game of Shadows. A week after the release of the book in the mid-2000s, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig brought on former senate majority leader Mitchell to investigate steroids.

He admitted he sold steroids referred to as two specific substances and coached on their usage to dozens of elite athletes, like Jason Giambi, a five-time major league All-Star, the Mitchell report said.

Using banned drugs poses a serious threat to the fairness of the game,” the findings emphasized. “Prevalent consumption by players of such substances unfairly disadvantages the honest athletes who avoid them and leads to skepticism about the validity of sporting achievements.”

It was stated the problems were not sudden. The report emphasized everyone involved in professional baseball in the previous twenty years – encompassing 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. The defendant eventually confessed to a couple of the 42 charges he faced in 2005 ahead of a court case. Six of the 11 convicted people were caught misleading federal investigators.

Related Cases

Bonds’ personal trainer Anderson, pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges arising from his Balco connections. He received a sentence to three months in jail and an equal period of home confinement.

Bonds' Legal Battles

The home run king was indicted for deceiving a grand jury about obtaining PEDs and stood trial in that year. The government abandoned the charges four years later when the authorities chose not to challenge an reversed conviction to the highest court.

A seven-time National League MVP and frequent All-Star, he concluded his playing days after the 2007 campaign with 762 homers, surpassing the mark of Aaron's total that Aaron established from the 1950s to 1970s. Bonds denied intentionally taking banned substances but has never been elected to the sport's hall of honor.

Conte's Post-Prison Life

The former convict told the Associated Press in a past conversation that “sportspeople break rules to succeed, but the federal representatives cheat to win, too.” He doubted whether the conclusions in such legal cases were worth the resources.

Following his prison term, Conte returned to work in that year by rebooting a nutritional supplements business he had founded two decades earlier called his supplements brand. He set up shop in the same building that was home to Balco in Burlingame.

Defiant Stance

Conte remained defiant about his major involvement in distributing designer steroids to professional competitors. He argued he simply helped “balance the odds” in a world full of cheaters.

Expert Opinions

To an expert, a then-member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, he could be compared to distributing hard drugs. “It concerns blatant drug dealing. You are talking about using drugs in defiance of legal codes,” Wadler said in that period. “This is not philanthropy and this is not some do-gooding. This is drug dealing.”