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Victor Conte, who devised a system to provide hard-to-detect performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes featuring baseball greats Giambi and Bonds and track and field star Marion Jones decades ago, is deceased. He reached 75 years.

Official Inquiry and Convictions

The federal government's inquiry regarding an additional venture Conte founded, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), resulted in the convictions of Jones, elite sprint cyclist Thomas, and retired NFL player Dana Stubblefield, along with coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Conte's Admissions and Prison Time

He, who completed several months in a federal facility for illegal drug sales, spoke openly about his famous former clients. He went on broadcast media to claim he had seen three-time Olympic medalist Jones use a syringe with growth hormones, but always refrained from implicating Barry Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

Sport's Official Review

The federal case resulted in the publication titled Game of Shadows. Shortly after the book's publication in that year, MLB commissioner Selig brought on political figure George Mitchell to look into PED use.

He revealed he distributed steroids referred to as two specific substances and advised on their use to many professional sportspeople, like Jason Giambi, a star player, according to the report.

“The illegal use of PEDs is a significant danger to the fairness of the competition,” the report stated. “Widespread use by players of these compounds unfairly disadvantages the honest athletes who decline to take them and creates doubts about the legitimacy of sporting achievements.”

Mitchell indicated the issues took time to emerge. Mitchell claimed all parties in the sport in the preceding decades – covering commissioners, club officials, the union and athletes themselves – shared some responsibility for what he termed the PED epoch.

Investigation Origins

The government's case into the laboratory started when a IRS investigator examining the company’s trash. The defendant eventually confessed to a pair of the 42 charges against him in 2005 ahead of a court case. Half a dozen of the defendants sentenced were caught deceiving federal investigators.

Associated Convictions

The athlete's coach Anderson, confessed to illegal substance sales stemming from his Balco connections. Anderson was sentenced to a quarter year in jail and three months of home confinement.

His Court Proceedings

Bonds was accused of providing false statements to a federal jury about obtaining performance-enhancing drugs and faced a trial in the early 2010s. The government abandoned his case down the line when the authorities chose not to appeal an overturned ruling to the federal apex court.

A seven-time National League MVP and 14-time All-Star outfielder, he concluded his playing days after the 2007 season with 762 homers, surpassing the mark of that number that Hank Aaron set from 1954-76. The athlete refuted intentionally taking PEDs but has failed to gain entry to the Hall of Fame.

Conte's Post-Prison Life

He remarked to the press in a 2010 discussion that “yes, athletes cheat to succeed, but the federal representatives cheat to win, too.” He doubted whether the conclusions in such proceedings justified the effort.

Following his prison term, he resumed operations in 2007 by reviving a health products venture he had founded years before called his supplements brand. He located it in the identical location that was home to his former lab in Burlingame, California.

Continued Justification

He continued to justify about his major involvement in distributing custom PEDs to elite athletes. He argued he simply helped “balance the odds” in a sports environment teeming with doping athletes.

Outside Views

To a WADA member, a at the time a member of the global anti-doping body, he may as well have been distributing cocaine or heroin. “It concerns totally illegal drug trafficking. It's about substance use in breach of national statutes,” he stated in 2007. “This is not philanthropy and this is not some do-gooding. It's illegal sales.”