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Victor Conte, who engineered a system to provide undetectable PEDs to top competitors including MLB legends Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and sprinting gold medalist Jones in the past, has died. He reached 75 years.

Government Probe and Convictions

The federal government's investigation into another company Conte founded, Balco, led to the convictions of Marion Jones, competitive biker Tammy Thomas, and retired NFL player Stubblefield, along with coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Conte's Admissions and Legal Consequences

Conte, who spent four months in federal prison for steroid distribution, discussed frankly about his high-profile athletes. He was featured on TV to assert he had observed triple Olympic champion Jones self-administer with HGH, but always refrained from implicating Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger.

The Mitchell Report

The investigation resulted in the book Game of Shadows. Shortly after the publication date in 2006, MLB commissioner Selig hired political figure George Mitchell to investigate steroids.

He admitted he provided steroids known as two specific substances and guided their usage to many professional sportspeople, such as Jason Giambi, a multiple-time All-Star, according to the report.

Using PEDs is a significant danger to the honesty of the competition,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Widespread use by players of these compounds puts at a disadvantage the those who refuse to cheat who decline to take them and creates doubts about the legitimacy of sporting achievements.”

Mitchell indicated the challenges didn’t develop overnight. The report emphasized all parties in baseball in the preceding decades – including leaders, management, the representative body and players – were partly accountable for what he termed the PED epoch.

Investigation Origins

The government's case into the laboratory began with a IRS investigator examining the business refuse. He ended up pleading guilty to two of the numerous counts he faced in 2005 ahead of a court case. Several of the defendants sentenced were caught deceiving grand jurors.

Related Cases

Bonds’ personal trainer Anderson, pleaded guilty to drug dealing counts arising from his involvement with Balco. The court gave him to a quarter year in jail and an equal period of home confinement.

His Court Proceedings

Bonds was charged with providing false statements to a grand jury about using performance-enhancing drugs and faced a trial in 2011. Prosecutors dropped his case four years later when the authorities chose not to appeal an reversed conviction to the supreme court.

A multiple MVP winner and frequent All-Star, Bonds ended his career after the 2007 season with 762 homers, exceeding the mark of that number that Hank Aaron established from his career. The athlete refuted intentionally taking PEDs but has never been elected to the sport's hall of honor.

Later Years

He stated in an interview in a past conversation that “yes, athletes cheat to win, but the government agents and prosecutors also bend the rules.” He also questioned whether the results in such legal cases were worth the resources.

After serving his sentence, Conte resumed operations in the late 2000s by resuscitating a health products venture he had launched two decades earlier called SNAC System. He operated in the very same place that previously contained Balco in Burlingame.

Defiant Stance

Conte stayed unrepentant about his major involvement in doling out designer steroids to professional competitors. He maintained he simply helped “even the competition” in a world teeming with rule-breakers.

Outside Views

To an expert, a then-member of the WADA, Conte could be compared to pushing hard drugs. “You are talking about blatant drug dealing. It's about drug consumption in breach of national statutes,” the doctor remarked in that period. “It's not a good deed and it's not altruistic. It's trafficking.”