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Victor Conte, who masterminded a system to supply hard-to-detect performance-enhancing drugs to elite sports stars including baseball icons Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and track and field star Marion Jones years back, has died. His age was 75.

Federal Investigation and Criminal Cases

A national probe of an additional venture set up by him, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), resulted in the convictions of Jones, elite sprint cyclist Thomas, and retired NFL player Dana Stubblefield, in addition to coaches, distributors, a trainer, a chemist and a lawyer.

Open Discussions and Legal Consequences

Conte, who served a third of a year in a penitentiary for dealing steroids, talked publicly about his high-profile athletes. He appeared on TV to assert he had observed three-time Olympic medalist Jones self-administer with HGH, but consistently avoided implicating Bonds, the baseball star.

Sport's Official Review

The investigation inspired the book Game of Shadows. Shortly after the book's publication in that year, the sport's chief Bud Selig appointed ex-senator George Mitchell to look into PED use.

Conte stated he sold steroids referred to as “the cream” and “the clear” and coached on their application to dozens of elite athletes, like Giambi, a multiple-time All-Star, as per the investigation.

Using performance-enhancing substances is a significant danger to the fairness of the competition,” the report stated. “Broad usage by competitors of these drugs harms the clean players who decline to take them and leads to skepticism about the legitimacy of baseball records.”

Mitchell indicated the issues were not sudden. Mitchell claimed each participant in the sport in the previous twenty years – including commissioners, club officials, the union and players – were partly accountable for what he labeled “the steroids era”.

How It Began

The federal investigation into the laboratory was initiated by a tax agent examining the company’s trash. The defendant ultimately admitted guilt to two of the multiple accusations filed against him in the mid-2000s prior to court proceedings. Half a dozen of the defendants sentenced were caught misleading grand jurors.

Associated Convictions

The athlete's coach Anderson, pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges linked to his Balco connections. The court gave him to a quarter year in prison and an equal period of house arrest.

The Slugger's Case

The baseball legend was charged with deceiving a federal jury about using PEDs and faced a trial in that year. The case was dismissed his case four years later when the prosecutors opted not to contest an overturned ruling to the supreme court.

A multiple MVP winner and 14-time All-Star outfielder, he retired after the 2007 season with 762 homers, surpassing the record of 755 that Aaron achieved from his career. The athlete refuted consciously consuming PEDs but has not been voted to the Hall of Fame.

Conte's Post-Prison Life

The former convict told the Associated Press in a 2010 discussion that “competitors do cheat to succeed, but the government agents and prosecutors also bend the rules.” He wondered whether the results in such proceedings merited the work.

Post-incarceration, he got back in business in 2007 by rebooting a nutritional supplements business he had founded years before called his supplements brand. He operated in the same building that was home to the original company in Burlingame.

Continued Justification

He remained defiant about his major involvement in distributing custom PEDs to elite athletes. He claimed he simply helped “level the playing field” in a arena teeming with rule-breakers.

Critical Perspectives

To an expert, a then-member of the World Anti-Doping Agency, he was essentially pushing hard drugs. “This involves blatant drug dealing. This refers to drug consumption in violation of federal law,” the doctor remarked in that period. “This is not philanthropy and not a benevolent act. It's trafficking.”