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Victor Conte, who engineered a system to distribute stealthy PEDs to elite sports stars such as baseball greats Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and track and field star Jones in the past, has died. His age was 75.

Federal Investigation and Criminal Cases

An official probe of another company Conte founded, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), led to the convictions of Jones, top track cyclist Tammy Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield, in addition to coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Open Discussions and Prison Time

He, who served a third of a year in federal prison for dealing steroids, spoke openly about his high-profile athletes. He appeared on broadcast media to assert he had witnessed decorated Olympian Jones inject herself with HGH, but always refrained from implicating Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

The Mitchell Report

This probe led to the book Game of Shadows. A week after the release of the book in 2006, MLB commissioner Selig brought on ex-senator George Mitchell to look into PED use.

He admitted he distributed steroids referred to as “the cream” and “the clear” and guided their use to many elite athletes, such as Jason Giambi, a star player, the Mitchell report said.

Using performance-enhancing substances poses a serious threat to the honesty of the sport,” the Mitchell report concluded. “Broad usage by athletes of these compounds puts at a disadvantage the honest athletes who refuse to use them and raises questions about the validity of sporting achievements.”

The report noted the challenges didn’t develop overnight. The report emphasized everyone involved in baseball in the prior two decades – including commissioners, club officials, the players’ association and athletes themselves – bore partial blame for what he termed “the steroids era”.

How It Began

The government's case into the company began with a IRS investigator searching the company’s trash. He ended up pleading guilty to a pair of the multiple accusations against him in 2005 before a trial. Several of the 11 convicted people were ensnared for deceiving the court.

Further Legal Actions

Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson, pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges stemming from his Balco connections. The court gave him to 90 days in prison and three months of house arrest.

His Court Proceedings

The home run king was indicted for deceiving a investigative body about receiving PEDs and stood trial in the early 2010s. The case was dismissed the case four years later when the prosecutors opted not to appeal an overturned ruling to the supreme court.

A seven-time National League MVP and frequent All-Star, Bonds concluded his playing days after the that season with 762 home runs, exceeding the record of Aaron's total that Hank Aaron established from his career. He claimed he did not knowingly using banned substances but has failed to gain entry to the Hall of Fame.

After Incarceration

He stated in an interview in a 2010 interview that “sportspeople break rules to triumph, but the officials and lawyers also bend the rules.” He doubted whether the outcomes in such legal cases were worth the resources.

Following his prison term, he resumed operations in the late 2000s by reviving a nutritional supplements business he had started years before called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He located it in the very same place that once housed Balco in Burlingame.

Defiant Stance

Conte remained defiant about his key part in distributing designer steroids to top sports stars. He maintained he simply helped “even the competition” in a sports environment teeming with cheaters.

Critical Perspectives

To Dr Gary Wadler, a former participant of the global anti-doping body, he was essentially distributing cocaine or heroin. “You are talking about unlawful substance distribution. It's about drug consumption in violation of federal law,” the doctor remarked in 2007. “This isn't charity and it's not altruistic. This is drug dealing.”