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Victor Conte, who engineered a system to supply hard-to-detect performance-enhancing drugs to top competitors including MLB legends Giambi and Bonds and Olympic track champion Marion Jones in the past, has died. He was 75.

Official Inquiry and Criminal Cases

A national inquiry regarding another company established by Conte, the Bay Area lab, resulted in the guilty verdicts of Marion Jones, top track cyclist Tammy Thomas, and retired NFL player Stubblefield, as well as various support personnel and professionals.

Public Statements and Sentencing

Conte, who served several months in federal prison for dealing steroids, spoke openly about his well-known clients. He appeared on television to state he had witnessed three-time Olympic medalist Jones inject herself with human growth hormones, but always refrained from implicating Barry Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

Baseball's Investigation

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

He revealed he provided steroids known as “the cream” and “the clear” and coached on their use to many elite athletes, like Giambi, a five-time major league All-Star, according to the report.

Employing performance-enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the fairness of the competition,” the findings emphasized. “Widespread use by athletes of such substances puts at a disadvantage the clean players who decline to take them and raises questions about the accuracy of baseball records.”

It was stated the challenges were not sudden. The report emphasized each participant in professional baseball in the prior two decades – encompassing commissioners, management, the players’ association and athletes themselves – bore partial blame for what he labeled the doping period.

How It Began

The federal investigation into Balco began with a IRS investigator searching the company’s trash. He ultimately admitted guilt to two of the 42 charges filed against him in that year before a trial. Six of the individuals found guilty were caught lying to the court.

Associated Convictions

Bonds’ personal trainer Anderson, admitted guilt to drug dealing counts arising from his Balco connections. Anderson was sentenced to three months in jail and the same duration of restricted movement.

His Court Proceedings

Bonds was indicted for deceiving a federal jury about receiving PEDs and stood trial in 2011. The case was dismissed the case four years later when the government decided not to contest an overturned obstruction of justice conviction to the supreme court.

A decorated player and 14-time All-Star outfielder, he retired after the 2007 campaign with 762 home runs, surpassing the record of that number that Aaron set from 1954-76. He claimed he did not knowingly using PEDs but has never been elected to the Hall of Fame.

Conte's Post-Prison Life

Conte stated in an interview in a 2010 discussion that “sportspeople break rules to triumph, but the government agents and prosecutors engage in misconduct as well.” He wondered whether the outcomes in such proceedings justified the effort.

After serving his sentence, Conte returned to work in the late 2000s by resuscitating a nutritional supplements business he had founded previously called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He located it in the very same place that once housed his former lab in the California city.

Unapologetic Views

The controversial figure stayed unrepentant about his central role in distributing custom PEDs to top sports stars. He claimed he simply helped “even the competition” in a sports environment full of doping athletes.

Expert Opinions

To an expert, a then-member of the global anti-doping body, he may as well have been distributing hard drugs. “You are talking about totally illegal drug trafficking. It's about substance use in defiance of legal codes,” Wadler said in the past. “It's not a good deed and not a benevolent act. It's illegal sales.”