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Victor Conte, who masterminded a system to distribute hard-to-detect banned substances to top competitors featuring baseball greats Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and sprinting gold medalist Jones in the past, has died. His age was 75.

Official Inquiry and Criminal Cases

An official probe of another company Conte founded, Balco, culminated in the guilty verdicts of Marion Jones, elite sprint cyclist Thomas, and retired NFL player Dana Stubblefield, along with trainers, suppliers, chemists, attorneys, and coaches.

Open Discussions and Legal Consequences

The Balco founder, who completed four months in federal prison for dealing steroids, spoke openly about his well-known clients. He appeared on broadcast media to claim he had witnessed triple Olympic champion Marion Jones inject herself with growth hormones, but consistently avoided pointing the finger at Barry Bonds, the baseball star.

The Mitchell Report

The federal case inspired the volume Game of Shadows. Just days following the book's publication in the mid-2000s, baseball Commissioner Selig appointed former senate majority leader Mitchell to investigate steroids.

Conte stated he sold steroids known as two specific substances and guided their use to numerous top performers, such as Jason Giambi, a five-time major league All-Star, as per the investigation.

Employing banned drugs poses a serious threat to the fairness of the game,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Widespread use by players of such substances unfairly disadvantages the honest athletes who decline to take them and creates doubts about the accuracy of baseball records.”

It was stated the issues were not sudden. The report emphasized everyone involved in professional baseball in the prior two decades – encompassing leaders, team executives, the players’ association and athletes themselves – were partly accountable for what he called “the steroids era”.

How It Began

The official probe into the company started when a tax agent searching the corporate garbage. He ended up pleading guilty to a pair of the numerous counts filed against him in 2005 before a trial. Several of the individuals found guilty were caught misleading federal investigators.

Related Cases

Bonds’ personal trainer Anderson, pleaded guilty to illegal substance sales arising from his involvement with Balco. Anderson was sentenced to three months in incarceration and the same duration of house arrest.

The Slugger's Case

The home run king was indicted for deceiving a grand jury about using banned substances and stood trial in 2011. Prosecutors dropped the charges after several years when the government decided not to appeal an reversed conviction to the highest court.

A seven-time National League MVP 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 Hank Aaron achieved from the 1950s to 1970s. Bonds denied consciously consuming PEDs but has never been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

After Incarceration

The former convict stated in an interview in a 2010 interview that “yes, athletes cheat to triumph, but the government agents and prosecutors engage in misconduct as well.” He doubted whether the results in such proceedings were worth the resources.

After serving his sentence, Conte resumed operations in the late 2000s by resuscitating a nutritional supplements business he had started years before called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He located it in the identical location that previously contained Balco in Burlingame.

Continued Justification

He continued to justify about his key part in doling out tailored drugs to professional competitors. He argued he simply helped “level the playing field” in a world full of cheaters.

Expert Opinions

To a WADA member, a former participant of the global anti-doping body, he may as well have been distributing hard drugs. “It concerns totally illegal drug trafficking. This refers to using drugs in breach of national statutes,” he stated in that period. “It's not a good deed and not a benevolent act. It's illegal sales.”