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Victor Conte, who engineered a system to provide hard-to-detect performance-enhancing drugs to top competitors including baseball icons Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and sprinting gold medalist Jones in the past, has died. He was 75.

Official Inquiry and Convictions

A national probe of a separate firm established by Conte, Balco, resulted in the criminal findings of Marion Jones, competitive biker Tammy Thomas, and ex-pro football defender Dana Stubblefield, as well as various support personnel and professionals.

Open Discussions and Legal Consequences

He, who completed a third of a year in federal prison for illegal drug sales, discussed frankly about his well-known clients. He went on TV to state he had observed three-time Olympic medalist Marion Jones inject herself with growth hormones, but consistently avoided implicating Bonds, the Giants power hitter.

Baseball's Investigation

The federal case led to the book Game of Shadows. Shortly after the publication date in that year, the sport's chief Bud Selig brought on political figure Mitchell to investigate steroids.

Conte stated he provided steroids referred to as certain undetectable drugs and coached on their application to dozens of professional sportspeople, including Giambi, a star player, according to the report.

Using PEDs represents a major risk to the integrity of the game,” the findings emphasized. “Broad usage by players of these drugs unfairly disadvantages the clean players who avoid them and creates doubts about the validity of historical stats.”

The report noted the problems didn’t develop overnight. He said everyone involved in baseball in the previous twenty years – including commissioners, team executives, the representative body and athletes themselves – shared some responsibility for what he called the doping period.

Case Inception

The government's case into the company was initiated by a tax agent searching the company’s trash. He ended up pleading guilty to a pair of the numerous counts filed against him in the mid-2000s before a trial. Six of the 11 convicted people were convicted for lying to federal investigators.

Related Cases

Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson, pleaded guilty to illegal substance sales linked to his involvement with Balco. The court gave him to a quarter year in incarceration and three months of restricted movement.

The Slugger's Case

The home run king was charged with providing false statements to a investigative body about using PEDs and went on trial in that year. The government abandoned the charges after several years when the government decided not to contest an overturned ruling to the highest court.

A decorated player and star performer, Bonds retired after the 2007 campaign with 762 homers, breaking the record of Aaron's total that Hank Aaron set from the 1950s to 1970s. The athlete refuted intentionally taking performance-enhancing drugs but has failed to gain entry to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

After Incarceration

He told the Associated Press in a 2010 discussion that “competitors do cheat to triumph, but the government agents and prosecutors engage in misconduct as well.” He wondered whether the results in these trials were worth the resources.

Following his prison term, Conte resumed operations in 2007 by rebooting a nutritional supplements business he had started two decades earlier called Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning or SNAC System. He operated in the identical location that previously contained Balco in Burlingame, California.

Unapologetic Views

Conte stayed unrepentant about his major involvement in providing tailored drugs to top sports stars. He claimed he simply helped “balance the odds” in a world full of cheaters.

Outside Views

To Dr Gary Wadler, a former participant of the WADA, Conte was essentially pushing cocaine or heroin. “This involves unlawful substance distribution. It's about substance use in defiance of legal codes,” he stated in that period. “It's not a good deed and it's not altruistic. It's trafficking.”