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Victor Conte, who masterminded a plan to distribute hard-to-detect banned substances to elite sports stars featuring baseball icons Giambi and Bonds and Olympic track champion Marion Jones in the past, has died. His age was 75.

Government Probe and Criminal Cases

The federal government's probe of another company set up by him, the Bay Area lab, resulted in the guilty verdicts of Marion Jones, elite sprint cyclist Tammy Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield, in addition to trainers, suppliers, chemists, attorneys, and coaches.

Conte's Admissions and Prison Time

Conte, who served several months in a penitentiary for dealing steroids, talked publicly about his high-profile athletes. He appeared on TV to claim he had witnessed triple Olympic champion Marion Jones inject herself with growth hormones, but always refrained from incriminating Barry Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

Sport's Official Review

The federal case led to the publication Game of Shadows. A week after the book's publication in 2006, MLB commissioner Selig hired ex-senator George Mitchell to investigate steroids.

He revealed he sold steroids referred to as certain undetectable drugs and guided their application to dozens of top performers, like Giambi, a multiple-time All-Star, the Mitchell report said.

“The illegal use of performance-enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the fairness of the game,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Widespread use by athletes of such substances harms the those who refuse to cheat who refuse to use them and leads to skepticism about the accuracy of baseball records.”

The report noted the issues took time to emerge. The report emphasized all parties in baseball in the previous twenty years – encompassing commissioners, management, the union and athletes themselves – were partly accountable for what he termed “the steroids era”.

How It Began

The government's case into Balco started when a revenue officer searching the corporate garbage. Conte ended up pleading guilty to a pair of the multiple accusations he faced in 2005 prior to court proceedings. Half a dozen of the individuals found guilty were caught deceiving federal investigators.

Further Legal Actions

His fitness instructor Anderson, pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges arising from his involvement with Balco. Anderson was sentenced to a quarter year in incarceration and an equal period of restricted movement.

The Slugger's Case

Bonds was accused of providing false statements to a grand jury about obtaining PEDs and faced a trial in that year. Prosecutors dropped his case four years later when the prosecutors opted not to challenge an overturned ruling to the supreme court.

A decorated player and 14-time All-Star outfielder, Bonds ended his career after the 2007 campaign with a record home run tally, surpassing the milestone of Aaron's total that Aaron established from his career. 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 remarked to the press in a 2010 discussion that “yes, athletes cheat to win, but the government agents and prosecutors cheat to win, too.” He wondered whether the conclusions in such proceedings were worth the resources.

Post-incarceration, he resumed operations in that year by reviving a health products venture he had started previously called SNAC System. He operated in the same building that was home to the original company in the California city.

Continued Justification

Conte remained defiant about his key part in doling out custom PEDs to professional competitors. He argued he simply helped “even the competition” in a world teeming with rule-breakers.

Expert Opinions

To an expert, a at the time a member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, Conte was essentially selling illegal narcotics. “It concerns totally illegal drug trafficking. It's about using drugs in breach of national statutes,” he stated in 2007. “This isn't charity and this is not some do-gooding. This is drug dealing.”