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Victor Conte, who devised a system to distribute undetectable banned substances to elite sports stars featuring baseball icons Giambi and Bonds and sprinting gold medalist Marion Jones in the past, is deceased. His age was 75.

Official Inquiry and Convictions

A national investigation into another company established by Conte, Balco, resulted in the guilty verdicts of Jones, top track cyclist Tammy Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Stubblefield, as well as various support personnel and professionals.

Public Statements and Sentencing

Conte, who completed four months in federal prison for dealing steroids, discussed frankly about his high-profile athletes. He was featured on broadcast media to assert he had seen triple Olympic champion Jones self-administer with human growth hormones, but never directly pointing the finger at Barry Bonds, the San Francisco Giants slugger.

Baseball's Investigation

This probe resulted in the book titled Game of Shadows. Shortly after the release of the book in 2006, baseball Commissioner Bud Selig hired former senate majority leader George Mitchell to examine doping in baseball.

He revealed he distributed steroids called certain undetectable drugs and coached on their use to dozens of professional sportspeople, like Jason Giambi, a multiple-time All-Star, the Mitchell report said.

Employing PEDs is a significant danger to the fairness of the game,” the findings emphasized. “Prevalent consumption by competitors of these drugs harms the clean players who decline to take them and leads to skepticism about the accuracy of baseball records.”

It was stated the issues took time to emerge. The report emphasized all parties in the sport in the previous twenty years – covering leaders, club officials, the union and athletes themselves – bore partial blame for what he labeled the doping period.

How It Began

The official probe into Balco began with a tax agent digging through the corporate garbage. He ultimately admitted guilt to two of the multiple accusations against him in that year before a trial. Several of the individuals found guilty were ensnared for deceiving federal investigators.

Associated Convictions

The athlete's coach Anderson, pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges stemming from his involvement with Balco. Anderson was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three months of house arrest.

The Slugger's Case

The home run king was accused of providing false statements to a federal jury about using PEDs and faced a trial in that year. The government abandoned his case down the line when the authorities chose not to challenge an overturned obstruction of justice conviction to the highest court.

A multiple MVP winner and 14-time All-Star outfielder, he ended his career after the 2007 campaign with a record home run tally, exceeding the milestone of Aaron's total that Hank Aaron set from his career. The athlete refuted consciously consuming performance-enhancing drugs but has not been voted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

After Incarceration

He remarked to the press in a 2010 interview that “yes, athletes cheat to succeed, but the federal representatives cheat to win, too.” He wondered whether the outcomes in these trials were worth the resources.

After serving his sentence, he got back in business in that year by rebooting a supplements company he had founded previously called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He set up shop in the identical location that once housed his former lab in Burlingame.

Continued Justification

The controversial figure remained defiant about his major involvement in distributing custom PEDs to top sports stars. He claimed he simply helped “level the playing field” in a sports environment teeming with doping athletes.

Expert Opinions

To an expert, a at the time a member of the WADA, he could be compared to selling illegal narcotics. “You are talking about totally illegal drug trafficking. You are talking about substance use in breach of national statutes,” he stated in that period. “This isn't charity and this is not some do-gooding. This is drug dealing.”