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The man behind the scheme, who engineered a system to distribute undetectable performance-enhancing drugs to professional athletes such as MLB legends Barry Bonds and Jason Giambi and track and field star Marion Jones in the past, has died. His age was 75.

Government Probe and Convictions

An official probe of an additional venture Conte founded, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), led to the criminal findings of Jones, top track cyclist Tammy Thomas, and former NFL defensive lineman Dana Stubblefield, in addition to various support personnel and professionals.

Conte's Admissions and Legal Consequences

He, who completed four months in a federal facility for illegal drug sales, spoke openly about his well-known clients. He was featured on TV to state he had observed decorated Olympian Jones self-administer with growth hormones, but never directly incriminating Barry Bonds, the baseball star.

Baseball's Investigation

The investigation inspired the publication titled Game of Shadows. A week after the book's publication in that year, the sport's chief Bud Selig appointed political figure George Mitchell to investigate steroids.

He admitted he provided steroids called certain undetectable drugs and coached on their use to numerous professional sportspeople, like Jason Giambi, a star player, the Mitchell report said.

“The illegal use of banned drugs is a significant danger to the honesty of the sport,” the report stated. “Prevalent consumption by athletes of such substances unfairly disadvantages 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 everyone involved in the sport in the previous twenty years – encompassing commissioners, management, the players’ association and athletes themselves – shared some responsibility for what he called the doping period.

How It Began

The government's case into the laboratory began with a IRS investigator searching the business refuse. Conte eventually confessed to a pair of the numerous counts filed against him in the mid-2000s prior to court proceedings. Several of the defendants sentenced were ensnared for lying to the court.

Related Cases

Bonds’ personal trainer Anderson, admitted guilt to illegal substance sales arising from his involvement with Balco. Anderson was sentenced to three months in prison and the same duration of restricted movement.

His Court Proceedings

The baseball legend was indicted for providing false statements to a grand jury about using performance-enhancing drugs and went on trial in that year. The government abandoned his case four years later when the prosecutors opted not to challenge an overturned ruling to the federal apex court.

A multiple MVP winner and 14-time All-Star outfielder, Bonds concluded his playing days after the that season with a record home run tally, exceeding the mark of Aaron's total that Aaron set from the 1950s to 1970s. The athlete refuted consciously consuming performance-enhancing drugs but has never been elected to the sport's hall of honor.

Later Years

Conte told the Associated Press in a 2010 discussion that “yes, athletes cheat to win, but the federal representatives cheat to win, too.” He also questioned whether the results in such legal cases merited the work.

Post-incarceration, he resumed operations in 2007 by rebooting a supplements company he had launched previously called SNAC System. He set up shop in the same building that was home to the original company in Burlingame.

Continued Justification

The controversial figure continued to justify about his major involvement in distributing designer steroids to elite athletes. He argued he simply helped “even the competition” in a sports environment full of doping athletes.

Critical Perspectives

To an expert, a former participant of the global anti-doping body, Conte could be compared to selling cocaine or heroin. “It concerns unlawful substance distribution. You are talking about drug consumption in defiance of legal codes,” he stated in 2007. “It's not a good deed and this is not some do-gooding. This is drug dealing.”