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Victor Conte, who masterminded a operation to distribute hard-to-detect performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes such as baseball greats Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and sprinting gold medalist Marion Jones decades ago, has died. He was 75.

Government Probe and Convictions

An official investigation into another company established by Conte, Balco, led to the criminal findings of Jones, top track cyclist Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield, in addition to trainers, suppliers, chemists, attorneys, and coaches.

Open Discussions and Prison Time

He, who spent several months in a federal facility for illegal drug sales, discussed frankly about his well-known clients. He appeared on television to claim he had witnessed triple Olympic champion Marion Jones self-administer with human growth hormones, but consistently avoided pointing the finger at Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger.

The Mitchell Report

The federal case led to the volume Game of Shadows. A week after the book's publication in the mid-2000s, MLB commissioner Bud Selig appointed political figure Mitchell to investigate steroids.

Conte stated he distributed steroids known as “the cream” and “the clear” and guided their application to dozens of professional sportspeople, including Giambi, a multiple-time All-Star, as per the investigation.

“The illegal use of PEDs is a significant danger to the fairness of the competition,” the report stated. “Broad usage by athletes of these compounds puts at a disadvantage the clean players who refuse to use them and raises questions about the validity of baseball records.”

The report noted the problems took time to emerge. He said all parties in professional baseball in the prior two decades – covering leaders, team executives, the union and athletes themselves – bore partial blame for what he labeled the PED epoch.

Case Inception

The federal investigation into the laboratory was initiated by a tax agent searching the company’s trash. The defendant ended up pleading guilty to a pair of the multiple accusations he faced in that year before a trial. Half a dozen of the individuals found guilty were convicted for deceiving the court.

Associated Convictions

The athlete's coach Greg Anderson, admitted guilt to illegal substance sales stemming from his ties to the lab. The court gave him to 90 days in prison and an equal period of restricted movement.

Bonds' Legal Battles

The home run king was indicted for deceiving a grand jury about obtaining performance-enhancing drugs and faced a trial in the early 2010s. Prosecutors dropped his case four years later when the government decided not to challenge an overturned obstruction of justice conviction to the highest court.

A decorated player and 14-time All-Star outfielder, he concluded his playing days after the that season with a record home run tally, exceeding the record of Aaron's total that Hank Aaron set from 1954-76. He claimed he did not consciously consuming performance-enhancing drugs but has never been elected to the sport's hall of honor.

Later Years

Conte stated in an interview in a past conversation that “sportspeople break rules to succeed, but the officials and lawyers engage in misconduct as well.” He also questioned whether the results in such legal cases justified the effort.

Following his prison term, Conte got back in business in that year by reviving a health products venture he had founded years before called his supplements brand. He operated in the same building that once housed Balco in Burlingame.

Continued Justification

Conte stayed unrepentant about his major involvement in distributing tailored drugs to professional competitors. He argued he simply helped “balance the odds” in a arena teeming with rule-breakers.

Critical Perspectives

To a WADA member, a at the time a member of the global anti-doping body, he was essentially selling hard drugs. “This involves blatant drug dealing. It's about substance use in defiance of legal codes,” the doctor remarked in 2007. “This is not philanthropy and it's not altruistic. This is drug dealing.”