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Victor Conte, who engineered a plan to distribute undetectable banned substances to professional athletes featuring baseball greats Giambi and Bonds and sprinting gold medalist Jones years back, has died. His age was 75.

Government Probe and Convictions

The federal government's inquiry regarding another company established by Conte, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), led to the convictions of Jones, elite sprint cyclist Thomas, and retired NFL player Dana Stubblefield, as well as various support personnel and professionals.

Open Discussions and Legal Consequences

He, who spent four months in federal prison for illegal drug sales, spoke openly about his famous former clients. He appeared on TV to assert he had observed three-time Olympic medalist Marion Jones inject herself with HGH, but never directly incriminating Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

Baseball's Investigation

The federal case resulted in the publication Game of Shadows. Just days following the release of the book in that year, the sport's chief Selig hired former senate majority leader George Mitchell to examine doping in baseball.

He admitted he distributed steroids called “the cream” and “the clear” and coached on their usage to numerous professional sportspeople, such as Giambi, a five-time major league All-Star, the Mitchell report said.

Employing banned drugs is a significant danger to the honesty of the game,” the findings emphasized. “Widespread use by competitors of such substances unfairly disadvantages the honest athletes who decline to take them and leads to skepticism about the accuracy of historical stats.”

Mitchell indicated the problems were not sudden. He said each participant in the sport in the prior two decades – covering leaders, team executives, the representative body and athletes themselves – shared some responsibility for what he labeled the doping period.

Case Inception

The federal investigation into Balco started when a revenue officer digging through the corporate garbage. Conte ended up pleading guilty to a couple of the numerous counts filed against him in that year ahead of a court case. Six of the defendants sentenced were ensnared for lying to the court.

Further Legal Actions

His fitness instructor Greg Anderson, admitted guilt to illegal substance sales stemming from his involvement with Balco. The court gave him to three months in prison and an equal period of restricted movement.

His Court Proceedings

The home run king was indicted for deceiving a investigative body about obtaining performance-enhancing drugs and stood trial in 2011. The case was dismissed the charges down the line when the government decided not to contest an overturned ruling to the federal apex court.

A seven-time National League MVP and frequent All-Star, he concluded his playing days after the that season with 762 homers, breaking the milestone of Aaron's total that Aaron established from the 1950s to 1970s. Bonds denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs but has never been elected to the Hall of Fame.

Conte's Post-Prison Life

The former convict remarked to the press in a 2010 interview that “competitors do cheat to succeed, but the federal representatives engage in misconduct as well.” He wondered whether the conclusions in such legal cases merited the work.

Following his prison term, Conte resumed operations in the late 2000s by rebooting a nutritional supplements business he had founded previously called SNAC System. He set up shop in the same building that once housed Balco in Burlingame, California.

Continued Justification

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

Critical Perspectives

To a WADA member, a former participant of the global anti-doping body, Conte could be compared to distributing illegal narcotics. “It concerns blatant drug dealing. You are talking about substance use in violation of federal law,” he stated in the past. “This is not philanthropy and this is not some do-gooding. It's trafficking.”